Furniture World Articles by
David McMahon
Published: 11/30/2023
Scheduling appointments in advance with shoppers at multiple points throughout the sales process has proven to substantially increase close rates.
Published: 9/16/2023
News flash! Some furniture retailers continue to report increases in sales and profitability. Here’s how the best in our industry get above-average results.
Published: 7/1/2023
Seven traffic sources and 10 ways to boost your traffic numbers.
Published: 6/1/2023
Working to improve the Sales Per Guest metric is one of the most important things a retailer can do right now to dramatically improve sales performance.
Published: 3/27/2023
Now is the time for furniture retailers to get back to monitoring and improving GMROI, a master measure of retail productivity, in an organization wide way.
Published: 12/30/2022
To compensate for the impact of declining traffic, retailers should consider using guest productivity metrics.
Published: 12/4/2022
David McMahon explains why, given current and expected business
conditions, nothing is more important for retailers than understanding, measuring and preserving cash.
Published: 10/2/2022
Eight important strategies for maximizing profits during downturns.
Published: 7/13/2022
There are seven sources of retail traffic, but only four of them are pillars of traffic that can be managed to get positive sales results over short time frames.
Published: 5/15/2022
Whatever your business model, automation is needed to accomplish more with less time and allow your precious human talent to focus on what they do best.
Published: 3/13/2022
Whatever your business model, automation is needed to accomplish more with less time and allow your precious human talent to focus on what they do best.
Published: 1/2/2022
Improve the effectiveness of systems and move customers from an initial inquiry to a repeat purchase.
Published: 11/21/2021
Funnels create customer experience paths that boost retention, generate positive word of mouth marketing and turn more customers into repeat customers.
Published: 9/25/2021
Why is there a huge variation in the open service per million dollars in sales volume metric among furniture retailers? And, what can be done about it?
Published: 7/30/2021
Most retail businesses have systems in place to attract external customers.
Why should processes to attract and keep employees be much different?
Published: 5/9/2021
Retailers use CXM to automate sales and service processes. Automation triggers save time and produce meaningful results quicker.
Published: 3/20/2021
CXM is a tool that will help you to grow your furniture business and outperform competitors large and small.
Published: 1/22/2021
Twelve cash flow enhancing ideas for managing your retail furniture store pipeline in these chaotic times.
Published: 11/19/2020
Guide non-physical leads into a funnel of care that will deliver the highest level of service you are capable of providing.
Published: 9/23/2020
In the coming months, retailers will need to do more with less. Here are 16 strategies to help you cope.
Published: 8/4/2020
The new front door was not invented during the pandemic; however, it has become critically important for furniture retailers over the past few months.
Published: 6/29/2020
Frequent Furniture World contributing author David McMahon provides readers with a short checklist for mitigating COVID risks right now in your stores.
Published: 6/6/2020
The source and the management of every door to your operation are critical elements for retail business success.
Published: 4/2/2020
Here's how one retailer adopted product family reporting to seize control of its inventory and increase GMROI.
Published: 3/14/2020
Here's a quick checklist of things you can do to minimize the damage due to recessionary pressures on your business.
Published: 1/4/2020
How one retailer used the GROW and Cascade of Change models to improve sales performance.
Published: 12/7/2019
Tracking employee turnover will lead to greater sales and profit.
Published: 9/29/2019
This sales
formula for growth will help you take actions that will directly impact the strength of your retail
business.
Published: 7/15/2019
Retailer "A" has a bigger ad budget. Retailer "B" uses more digital media. Which one gets better returns?
Published: 5/30/2019
How one retailer grew sales volume by creating a strategy and a company-wide laser-focus based on average sale improvement.
Published: 3/23/2019
Why a formal valuation process can help to maximize long-term value.
Published: 1/2/2019
30 Supplier Criteria that should be considered for potential suppliers.
Published: 11/26/2018
Downturns can be times of opportunity, and it's best to prepare for uncertain economic times.
Published: 9/22/2018
Here are the metrics every home furnishings retailer needs to use to improve warehouse facilities and processes.
Published: 7/4/2018
Scores of ideas to help furniture retailers improve facilities, processes and warehouse metrics.
Published: 5/23/2018
Field-proven ways to maximize your realized gross margin.
Published: 3/23/2018
Does your total Gross Margin after deducting Cost of Goods Sold give you a full performance picture?
Published: 1/14/2018
Attention to written & delivered sales increased annual cash flow more than $100,000 for this average sized retailer.
Published: 11/29/2017
If you are a furniture retailer who wants to continuously improve, but needs to know where to start, this article is for you!
Published: 9/23/2017
Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats facing your business allows you to focus.
Published: 7/7/2017
The seven traits of the most successful sales performance managers, plus tips on how to develop them.
Published: 6/1/2017
Here's how one retailer used Expanded GMROI, a team approach, to grow GMROI 16% from 2015-2016.
Published: 3/29/2017
Which opportunities should you invest in to get the best return? How do you know if costs will be covered?
Published: 12/28/2016
A short-term Kaizen Blitz event will increase furniture store efficiency and effectiveness in 2017.
Published: 11/29/2016
Traditional layers of management are focusing more on task-accomplishment rather than people-management.
Published: 9/30/2016
David and Wayne McMahon talk about furniture retailer profitability and ways they can do better.
Published: 7/7/2016
Ten major ingredients in a tasty recipe that you can use to maximize your store’s gross margin.
Published: 6/2/2016
Earning the right to sell more at higher prices is the way the best retailers generate sustained profits and cash flow.
Published: 3/25/2016
See how LEAN techniques took one retailer from losing money to more than 10% profit.
Published: 1/4/2016
Every furniture store needs a strategy for implementing LEAN and applying it to inventory. Here’s how.
Published: 11/27/2015
Every furniture store needs a strategy for implementing LEAN and applying it to the marketing. Here’s how.
Published: 9/28/2015
Every furniture store needs a strategy for implementing LEAN and applying it to sales force management.
Published: 7/17/2015
LEAN practices allow businesses to realize their potential. First of a multi-part series.
Published: 6/9/2015
Executing these activities properly and coordinating them improves sales and profitability.
Published: 3/24/2015
It’s a fact that the FP&A process increases the odds of retail success, producing better profits and cash flow than if you ignored FP&A. Here’s how it works.
Published: 12/27/2014
Retailers across the country are asking what they should do to prepare for well known chain stores and others that are entering their marketplaces. Here’s the answer to those questions.
Published: 9/29/2014
Reverse supply chain logistics is the practice of controlling resources that are returned, repairable, reusable or recyclable. It’s a catchy phrase for business activities that turn
normally wasteful occurrences into profit.
Published: 7/9/2014
Here are seven indicators you can use to know your business better, plus how you can use this information to surpass your unfocused competitors.
Published: 5/22/2014
This article describes a number of powerful practices that act as a catalyst for retail growth. Each can help make your business operations more efficient, and maximize sales, profitability, and cash flow.
Published: 3/16/2014
Willingness to use GMROI as a tool is one factor that separates best performing stores from their peers.
Published: 1/3/2014
By using the break-even sales equation your business can see in advance what volume
will be required to produce your desired profit. You will be able to create a meaningful strategy and plan better for the upcoming year.
Published: 12/10/2013
David McMahon outlines the advantages of putting in place a strategic growth plan for the new year. For your business, strategic growth planning is the GPS for your retail future. It helps your business stay on course.
Published: 9/30/2013
Seven important meeting types that set the stage for retail success.
Published: 7/11/2013
The difference between operations that run smoothly and those that are chaotic is often the number and severity of operational bottlenecks.
Published: 4/1/2013
In this issue, David McMahon speaks about eight practices that separate successful home furnishings retailers from their struggling competitors.
Published: 1/10/2013
David McMahon presents a checklist for eliminating weak links to help you improve retail furniture store efficiency in 2013
Published: 12/3/2012
No matter which software system you are running, you have thousands of report queries available. How you sift through this data and make sense of it all is the purpose of business intelligence or “BI”.
Published: 9/25/2012
David McMahon presents proven strategies that can produce 50 to 60 percent gross margins even in highly competitive markets.
Published: 6/6/2012
An in-depth look at how to analyze one of your three critical financial statements: your statement of cash flow.
Published: 4/11/2012
An in-depth look at how to analyze one of your three critical financial statements: the Balance Sheet.
Published: 3/20/2012
An in-depth look at how to analyze one of your three critical financial statements: the Profit and Loss.
Published: 12/5/2011
99% of furniture retailers will have their own app within 5 years.
Published: 10/4/2011
Flexible Budgeting lets you ‘Flex’ your top line and observe the resulting operational effects on your P&L and operating income.
Published: 7/26/2011
Program fills a void for furniture retailers that can benefit from better planning, budgeting, and forecasting, but don't have a full-time CFO.
Published: 7/12/2011
A performance scorecard is used to measure your progress with respect to achieving goals. Those business people that do it properly have a significantly better chance of succeeding in their marketplace.
Published: 3/15/2011
This article will demonstrate how to calculate your break-even point of sales. It also provides real world examples of ways smart retailers can reduce their break-even points and level of risk.
Published: 1/5/2011
Today, consumers initiate their shopping experience. If they find you through Google, you have a chance to get their business. Here’s how to manage your e-tail inventory to make the most of an initial website contact. Included is a 12-step process that will help to make their buying decision easier.
Published: 12/10/2010
Using rewards as enticements and threats of punishment are approaches aimed at obtaining obedience and compliance, but they can overpower, rather than empower.
Published: 11/24/2010
A prime reason why top performing companies out perform their average performing peers is because they pay people extra when they perform better. Here is how to go about taking this path to success.
Published: 9/22/2010
This article is about selling more inventory and improving inventory buying. David McMahon presents a coordinated approach to age your inventory, mark it down and provide sales compensation incentives to improve profitability.
Published: 7/21/2010
The business analysis will help furniture retailers visiting the Las Vegas show identify areas of opportunity in their business to increase profitability and cash flow.
Published: 7/9/2010
David McMahon shows you the core practices that the most profitable businesses follow to achieve the highest return on their inventory investment.
Published: 11/19/2009
Some retailers seem to always manage to perform well. In this article David McMahon takes a close look at what those successful retailers do to cut costs during lean times and achieve maximum returns. Specific steps to cut fixed costs and make retail operations more responsive to cost cutting measures are examined.
Published: 10/4/2009
Track this inventory metric to understand your customer’s buying patterns, establish a more relevant product mix, satisfy more people and sell more.
Published: 8/25/2009
e-Showroom enables retailers using PROFITprofessional software to integrate and cross reference their inventory with vendor catalogs and display them directly on their new e-Commerce enabled website.
Published: 8/21/2009
Summit sponsored by The Lively Merchant, NHFA and World Market Center.
Published: 8/19/2009
What are the characteristics that separate the best operations from the worst?
Published: 4/6/2009
Old media techniques broadcast a campaign that is the same for everyone. Here’s how to target specific groups with messages they want to see, when they want to see them.
Published: 4/6/2009
This article tells the story of a furniture store owner in St. Augustine who used fresh tactics to beat last year’s numbers in November, December, and January. How he did it is instructive and worth your attention.
Published: 1/14/2009
New media is uncharted territory for many furniture retailers, but with a bit of knowledge you can be one of the first in our industry to do it right.
Published: 9/11/2008
Part 2: Old school ways to increase this critical measure are just not enough anymore!
Published: 7/14/2008
This article will highlight some modern ways to increase your GMROI by using technology to pull in extra customers and move merchandise while minimizing costs.
Published: 3/8/2008
Clearance sales may have their time and place, however, there are many other more productive ways to increase GMROI. You can do this without increasing prices or holding inventory clearance sales.
Published: 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.
Published: 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.
Published: 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.
Published: 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.
Published: 2/27/2007
This series looks at tools and techniques you can use to measure and improve the health of your inventory over time.
Published: 12/5/2006
A two-part series that looks at tools and techniques you can use to measure and improve the health of your inventory over time.