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.
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