Furniture World Articles
All of the Furniture World Magazine Articles that have also been published
online can be found here. Select a year to begin browsing the articles.
Articles published in
2007
Markdown Strategies That Work!
- 11/9/2007
Part 4 of the Dynamic Inventory Management Series presents the Five Golden Markdown Steps. This efficient markdown system has a considerable impact on profitability and cash flow because it greatly increases turns, improves gross margin, sales and cash flow.
Turning Retail INSIDEOUT
- 11/9/2007
Retailer finds that having a small showroom isn’t a hindrance to sales success. INSIDEOUThomestore reaches out to customers using marketing and innovative programs to literally turn their store inside-out.
Tips For Moving Oddball Inventory
- 11/9/2007
If a piece is clearance, then technically, you are getting whatever you can for it, right? Well, why not consider other more profitable options?
Who’s Afraid Of The Big Blue & Yellow Box
- 11/8/2007
So IKEA just announced it’s coming to your town next Fall. Great, just enough time to plan your “Going Out of Business Sale”. Hey, with the soft economy and your shrinking margins, the opening of a 400,000 square-foot IKEA store should just about sound the death knell on your business future, right?
Decorating School Crash Course -Part 4, Focal Points
- 11/8/2007
Decorating seminars help customers to solve problems, and they position you as a home furnishings expert. Margarett DeGange presents a script you can use to put on a Decorating with Focal Points Seminar for your customers and prospects.
Upscale Retailing At Linley
- 9/14/2007
London based retailer creates and maintains a well deserved image through quality products, facilities and marketing.
Why 20% Inventory Is Too Much!
- 9/14/2007
You can escape the excess inventory trap before you become too entangled, or avoid it altogether if you understand the reasons why so many otherwise good companies get caught.
Delivery Survey 2007
- 9/13/2007
More than 400 readers participated in a FURNITURE WORLD Magazine/ furninfo.com survey on delivery problems and solutions.
Improve Your Hiring IQ
- 9/13/2007
Time spent recruiting, interviewing and hiring are critical to the continued health of any furniture business. Here are tips and tools you can use to find and hire better people.
Ask The LightingExpert: Halogen & Heat
- 9/13/2007
Contributing Editor & lighting expert Monte Lee tackles a tough lighting question posted to FURNITURE WORLD Magazine’s furninfo.com message board.
Dynamic Inventory Management - Part 3
- 7/27/2007
Buyers, who aren’t involved in the inventory management process, produce lower GMROI. It is, therefore, critical that they become expert inventory managers and that their duties don’t end with the filing of a purchase order.
Staying Alive During Tough Times - Part 3
- 7/27/2007
Joe Capillo explains how the most effective and productive salespeople can return 30% or more of monthly Ups as be-backs. Why is it important to have a system to encourage this? Because these customers are 40% more likely to buy.
Double Your Store Traffic - Part 3
- 7/27/2007
Here’s a technique that can help you to demand higher prices, become an expert in your marketplace, create a relationship with customers and make them feel guilty for shopping at the competition.
Sustainable Furniture Marketing - Part 3 Bedding
- 7/17/2007
The third in a series of articles that looks at sustainable furniture, ethics and organic furniture retailing. Three bedding retailers share their views on sustainable marketing. The new sustainable foams are discussed as is the problem of child labor in rug
production.
Decorating School Crash Course - Part 3 Style
- 7/9/2007
Decorating seminars help customers to solve problems, and they position you as a home furnishings expert. Margarett DeGange presents a script you can use to put on a Furniture Styles Seminar for your customers and prospects.
Staying Alive During Slow Times - Part 2
- 5/11/2007
Consumer research suggests that furniture retailers need to have a strategy to stay connected to customers throughout each of the five stages of the home furnishings purchasing process. Most stores fall down right at the beginning “planning” stage because that’s where consumers need more help than most furniture stores are set up to provide.
Big Boxes Of The Serengeti - Part 2
- 5/11/2007
Understanding the relationship between independent furniture retailers and the Big Box stores can help you to gain competitive advantage. It is one thing to intellectualize about the “survival” tension between predators and prey that helps stores remain quick, lean, and healthy. It is quite another to focus on increasing your agility and efficiency so that you can remain toward the front of your pack.
Sustainable Furniture - Part 2 - ABC Furniture
- 5/11/2007
The second in a series of articles that looks at sustainable furniture, ethical furniture and organic furniture retailing. ABC Furniture is unique in its comprehensive approach to ethical furniture retailing and savvy marketing.
The Code That Unlocks Customers’ Hearts & Wallets - Part 2
- 5/11/2007
Dr. Rapaille’s Culture Code ideas can be used to lift home furnishings advertising and point-of-purchase efforts to new levels of cost-effectiveness. This article will show you how to “Five Sense” your store, brainstorm ideas with your staff and sort out these ideas to come up with the best ways to appeal to your target customers.
Are You Inventory Rich and Cash Poor?
- 5/11/2007
Poor buying practices, supplier performance issues and insufficient attention to lean inventory practices are among the major causes of having too much inventory and too little cash.
Double Your Store Traffic - Part 4 Lead Capture
- 5/11/2007
How many people call your store? How many come in the store but don’t buy. How many visitors do you get on your website? Here are surefire ways to collect information on every potential customer that calls, visits your website or walks into your store.
Preparation & Response To Disasters
- 3/9/2007
One fire, local storm or water/ sprinkler pipe failure can cost you millions of dollars in property and lost business. Here are three “disaster” case studies and a checklist for preparedness and recovery.
I'm Here, Your "Sketchee!"
- 3/9/2007
Making and actually using rough sketches of your customer's rooms can improve the quality of the information you collect, as well as the effectiveness of your follow-up.
Big Boxes Of The Serengeti
- 3/7/2007
The relationship of the Big Box stores to independent furniture retailers can be compared to predator and prey. Neither can survive or remain strong without the other. Understanding this relationship can help you to gain competitive advantage and out maneuver the competition.
Double Your Store Traffic - Part 2
- 3/6/2007
Your customers want to know what is unique about your store and why they should buy from you... and it’s not cheap prices! That’s why it is time to develop and formalize Unique Selling Propositions you can use to attract your important target customer groups.