FurnitureDealer.Net Promotes Three Company Veterans as Part of Succession Plan

Furniture World News Desk on 4/24/2017

Emily Severson, Alex Kirsch & Kayla Wallace


FurnitureDealer.Net, a leading provider of websites and omnichannel marketing services for independent home furnishings retailers, has promoted three company veterans as part of a succession plan approved by the company’s founders and senior leadership team.

Kayla Wallace has been promoted to the new role of Vice President of Client Relationships, responsible for overseeing and directing the company’s premium client relationships and leading the client relations team.

Alex Kirsch has been promoted to the new role of Vice President of Client Solutions, focusing on defining, expanding and implementing new and existing internal and third party features, services and training for retailer clients.

Emily Severson has been promoted to the new role of Vice President of Merchandising Operations and Supplier Relations, focusing on publishing quality and improving processes and relationships with suppliers and industry partners.

Joe Craddock, FurnitureDealer.Net President and co-founder will continue to lead FurnitureDealer.Net’s technology and overall strategy.

As part of the succession plan, company founder Andy Bernstein will remain active within the company as owner, advisor and chairman. His role will continue to shift from working in the business with retailer website clients to working on the business through special projects and new initiatives and long term strategy. According to Bernstein, “My strengths are best suited to early stage initiatives and problem solving, rather than managing a business that runs as well as ours does now. The strengths and values of our leadership team are ideally suited to manage the stage our company is at today and into the future."

In their expanded roles Wallace and Kirsch will continue to lead the company’s retailer client-facing business segment. In her expanded role Severson will continue to lead the company’s publishing operations and supplier-facing business segment. According to Bernstein, “Kayla, Alex and Emily have been leading these areas of our business for over a year now, so this announcement is mostly a formality to communicate their new titles which reflect their key roles and authority. Their promotions are intended to formalize our commitment to them as proven leaders, and to recognize the tremendous impact they’ve each made on our organization, our clients and industry partners.”

The succession plan has been implemented in phases over several years, according to Bernstein. “For the past two years Joe and I have focused on people development and leadership. I am proud of what we have accomplished as a company and how much we have grown our culture and developed our team. I’m excited about the vision for continuous improvement, innovation and growth these leaders have charted for us and our clients. I’m confident in the leadership team’s ability to execute their vision. They have proven their ability to get others to want to follow and to execute, and they are surrounded by a talented, engaged team made up of future leaders. We remain committed to the success of local, full service retailing through building community, internet excellence and omnichannel innovation.”

About FurnitureDealer.Net: FurnitureDealer.Net helps independent home furnishings retailers develop and implement successful omnichannel growth strategies that convert online furniture shoppers into local customers. FurnitureDealer.Net provides a world-class responsive e-commerce website platform, publishes and maintains rich, up-to-date product catalogs for over 500 brands of furniture, mattresses, appliances and consumer electronics, and updates merchandise availability status and prices by integrating retailer websites with POS data. FurnitureDealer.Net helps clients succeed with business consulting, omnichannel marketing and merchandising support. Clients include many of the 150 largest and most successful home furnishings retailers, including five of the past six HFA Retailers of the Year. FurnitureDealer.Net also facilitates idea-sharing forums where a community of clients help each other solve problems and innovate. For more information visit www.furnituredealer.net.