Furniture World Articles

Home Hungry HENRYs  - 12/28/2016

These are the prospects that have the demographic profile to buy furniture and home accessories right now.

Don’t Get Peppered With Efficiency  - 12/28/2016

They say “time is money”, but that’s not always true at retail.

Point-Counterpoint: Celebrity Licensing  - 12/28/2016

Is all the licensing of celebrity furniture lines in the home furnishing’s category worth the cost?

Empower Your Sales Team  - 12/28/2016

Mobile analytics can prevent common causes of shopper anger & disappointment.

Retail Success: FFO Home  - 12/28/2016

Interview with top 100 retailer FFO Home, “Where great quality lives for less!”

Better Bedding & Mattress Sales: Selling Sleep  - 12/28/2016

Where does sleep deprivation fit into a sales narrative that emphasizes comfort and good, restful sleep?.

Kaizen Blitz  - 12/28/2016

A short-term Kaizen Blitz event will increase furniture store efficiency and effectiveness in 2017.

Take Your Retail Show On The Road  - 12/28/2016

A discussion of the kinds of show opportunities out there for retailers.

Five Steps To Build Your Retail Brand  - 12/28/2016

What can Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Kim Kardashian and Apple teach you about building your personal brand.

Clarifying & Confirming  - 12/28/2016

These two sales skills help to demonstrate that the salesperson has respect for the shopper’s thoughts and feelings.

EDITOR’S CORNER  - 12/28/2016

Customer Service & The Parable Of The “Horrible Dib Dib”

Planning For 2017 And The Poetry of Robert Burns  - 11/29/2016

As we flip from this year to the next, it’s a great time to get advice from Gordon Hecht for 2017’s Game Plan.

Why You Need In-Store Wi-Fi In 2017  - 11/29/2016

Offering your customers a Wi-Fi connection is no longer considered a luxury, it’s a necessity in 2017.

The Hiring Decision  - 11/29/2016

Should you hire employees or independent contractors for key positions in 2017.

Contractor Misclassification - Are You At Risk?  - 11/29/2016

As Macy’s learned the expensive way, contracting out the work to a third party does not insulate you from liability.

People Management Challenge 2017  - 11/29/2016

Traditional layers of management are focusing more on task-accomplishment rather than people-management.

Better Bedding & Mattress Sales: I Object Again!  - 11/29/2016

Here we will present a number of specific objections furniture and bedding customers can and will bring up.

Managing Your Reputation in 2017  - 11/29/2016

More than 1,400 consumers were asked if and how they use business reviews to decide where they’ll shop for furniture.

Retail Profile: Danto Furniture  - 11/29/2016

Detroit-based retailer Danto Furniture looks for smart ways to expand beyond it’s main location.

Editor's Corner: Make American Homes “Great Again”  - 11/29/2016

Before the recent election, my friend Ed Tashjian let me know about an article he wrote, “Five Lessons Marketers Can Learn from Trump.”

State of The Industry  - 9/30/2016

David and Wayne McMahon talk about furniture retailer profitability and ways they can do better.

Store Design Made Easy  - 9/30/2016

Solutions to the ten biggest retail display problems.

Under New Ownership  - 9/30/2016

How to grow your business by turning employee leaders Into owners.

Design & Designer Series: Gary Inman  - 9/30/2016

Furniture designer Gary Inman discusses design, consumer & retail trends and how to tell a story at retail.

Better Bedding & Mattress Sales: I Object!  - 9/30/2016

Responding correctly to customer objections is a powerful and productive sales skill. Here’s how to do it right.

Guerrilla Marketing - Part 2  - 9/30/2016

Here’s how furniture retailers can sell more, compete smarter, and save advertising dollars as well.

The 800 Pound Gorilla in Your Beds  - 9/30/2016

With 3500 stores and huge marketing power, developments at Mattress Firm present a challenge and an opportunity.

Sales Management: One on One  - 9/30/2016

Success at retail still comes down to what happens between one salesperson and one customer.

Offline-Online  - 9/30/2016

Advances in technology make it possible for medium-sized retailers to level the playing field with larger competitors.

Customer Loyalty Programs  - 9/30/2016

A loyalty program is one of several ways to bring shoppers and buyers back into stores faster, but is it for you?

Dead End Selling Techniques  - 9/30/2016

A list of 25 traits, attitudes and poor practices RSAs practice that will contribute to failure on the retail sales floor.

Editor's Corner: The Power of Coaching and Grit in Retail Sales  - 9/30/2016

“The most successful retailers have been able through nurturing, to obtain and develop exceptional employees throughout all areas of their businesses - whether it be sales, administration or distribution,” says Wayne McMahon in his “State-of-the-Industry” report.

Dear Furniture Godfather  - 7/7/2016

The Furniture Godfather once again answers your tough questions about life in the furniture industry.

Retail Experience: Imagine! Clive Daniel Home  - 7/7/2016

Design focused Florida-based retailer achieves strong growth with a design focus that covers all the bases.

A Recipe For Maximum Gross Margin  - 7/7/2016

Ten major ingredients in a tasty recipe that you can use to maximize your store’s gross margin.

Trending Outdoor & Casual  - 7/7/2016

Tips and techniques for buying, merchandising, displaying, marketing and selling outdoor furniture & accessories.

Consider The Furniture!  - 7/7/2016

Here’s how to calculate the real cost of buying, selling replacing and repairing poor quality furniture.

Retail Bedding & Mattress Sales: Closing The Sale  - 7/7/2016

The start of Closing is the Presentation Step. Here’s how to do it right.

Design & Designer Series: Jena Hall  - 7/7/2016

Legendary designer talks about home furnishings design, visual merchandising and store display.

Salesmanship in Print  - 7/7/2016

How to create advertorial marketing assets that really sell for you.

Going Hyper Local  - 7/7/2016

What’s Hyper Local Social Marketing, and Why Does It Matter?

Taking the e-Commerce Plunge  - 7/7/2016

Survey suggests if you don’t dive into e-commerce soon, you won’t be able to give your customers what they demand.

12 Quick Retail Tips  - 7/7/2016

Modern customers must be wooed - not sold, and not bought. So get wooing!

Should You Hire A VP of Trust?  - 7/7/2016

My suggestion is to look at how you and your company create trust at every touch point, and from every angle.

Pete Rose- Furniture Salesperson  - 6/2/2016

It takes more than talent/ drive to make it to the BIGS, plus luck, the right team, no injuries, and good coaching.

Before They Buy...  - 6/2/2016

Recent study looks at the costs and benefits of leaving product pricing off of retail furniture store websites.

Shop That POPS!  - 6/2/2016

A shop that POPs! is simply irresistible to customers. Tips from retailer Leon & Lulu on how to create one.

Retail Experience: Potato Barn  - 6/2/2016

Relaxed vibe and unconventional selection, hours and business model fuels growth for this Arizona-based retailer.

How Much Do RSAs Matter?  - 6/2/2016

What’s the solution to under-performing sales associates?

Price Right!  - 6/2/2016

Earning the right to sell more at higher prices is the way the best retailers generate sustained profits and cash flow.

Five Big Mattress Discoveries  - 6/2/2016

Many hardworking retailers struggle to earn the money and live the lifestyle they deserve. Here’s how to change all that.

Our Leather Future?  - 6/2/2016

Is lab-grown leather something furniture retailers might be selling in the very near future?

Your Retail Exit Strategy  - 6/2/2016

First part in a two-part series of articles concerned with the value of having an exit strategy in place before you need one.

Editor's Corner: The day after tomorrow?  - 6/2/2016

I’m thinking about disruptive change, the type that could make furniture factories and retail stores as we know them obsolete; the kind that could do to furniture manufacturers and retailers what the last 20 years of the 19th Century did to cabinet makers.

Guerrilla Marketing Revisited  - 3/25/2016

Jay Levinson’s marketing techniques are ideal and affordable for independent furniture stores.

Retail Brand Survey  - 3/25/2016

If you think that most of your prospective customers know your business, think again! This survey tells a different story.

Re-Integrate Print  - 3/25/2016

How smart use of print media makes your digital marketing more effective.

Retail Success: HOM Furniture  - 3/25/2016

Vision, mission and corporate philosophy are very much alive at HOM Furniture, Gabberts and DOCK68.

Your Furniture Future: The HENRYs  - 3/25/2016

HENRYs account for roughly 40% of total consumer expenditures, as compared with10% for ultra-affluents.

Steps of the Sale: Selection Step  - 3/25/2016

If not executed properly, the selection step can wind up badly for both RSA and the customer. Here’s how to do it right.

A Store Design That Sells  - 3/25/2016

Sleep Simple store design boosts sales for Vermont retailer.

Lean Techniques Part 5: Case Study  - 3/25/2016

See how LEAN techniques took one retailer from losing money to more than 10% profit.

Furniture Product Liability  - 3/25/2016

Latest on the product liability landscape for furniture retailers and manufacturers.

Opportunity Doesn’t Knock, It Rings!  - 3/25/2016

Every day your service or sales teams end phone calls without suggesting a solution or invitation.

Editor`s Corner  - 3/25/2016

Would It Help?

Advancing Women in 2016  - 1/4/2016

Mattress Firm’s Abby Ludens outlines a program for hiring and advancing women in home furnishings organizations.

Ten Retail Commandments 2016  - 1/4/2016

Rules to live by that will help you to build your business, ignite your passion and reduce your level of stress.

Employee Theft  - 1/4/2016

You may be thinking that fraud is not a problem at your operation, but the statistics are sadly not in your favor.

Better Bedding & Mattress Sales: Hybrid Marketing  - 1/4/2016

What will you do about the online retailers selling lower priced mattress who expect to take market share away from you?

Steps of the Sale Series: Qualifying Questions  - 1/4/2016

More qualifying questions RSA’s can use to keep the sale moving along.

Retail Success: Boulevard Home Furnishings  - 1/4/2016

With three locations plus distribution center, this retailer focuses on delivering a family experience with lots of fun.

Real Bad Feelin’ About Brands  - 1/4/2016

Bill Napier, offers tips on how to win back brand loyalty in 2016.

Deceptive Pricing  - 1/4/2016

What to do if your competitor deceptively prices their products?

Design & Designer Series: Richard & Catherine Frinier  - 1/4/2016

Award winning design team Richard and Catherine Frinier discuss the past, present, and future of outdoor furniture.

Lean Techniques Part 4: Inventory  - 1/4/2016

Every furniture store needs a strategy for implementing LEAN and applying it to inventory. Here’s how.

EDITOR'S CORNER: Who will you be in 2016?  - 1/4/2016

Since the year is new, considering, “who the hell are ya?” both personally and for your business, can be an illuminating exercise. The question is a sidewalk restatement of Socrates’ observation, “An unexamined life is not worth living”.