Furniture World Articles

What’s in Store For 2022?  - 12/27/2021

There will be winners and losers this year. Industry observer Tom Liddell provides insights into potential problems and what if anything retailers might do.

Design & Designer: Michelle Lamb  - 11/21/2021

The trend and design consultant comments on trend styles and colors, plus discusses how retailers might adjust the percentage of core vs. trend merchandise in their stores.

Funnels and Paths  - 11/21/2021

Funnels create customer experience paths that boost retention, generate positive word of mouth marketing and turn more customers into repeat customers.

Next Big Thing: Natural Language Processing  - 11/21/2021

Natural Language Processing (NLP), the analysis of speech and text by computer software, helps retailers to become more efficient and better marketers.

Holy Extended Terms, Batman!  - 11/21/2021

Create the options you need today, rehearse them with your sales team and keep your ‘Gotham’ safe, secure and viable.

Next Level Training - Part 2  - 11/21/2021

As pandemic related issues retreat, what exactly might be done to increase the relevance of in-store sales experiences?

HFA Reports: Become the Disruption  - 11/21/2021

What should retailers do as the online behemoths wade into brick & mortar in 2022?

Editor’s Corner: 2022 Forecast & The Old Farmers’ Almanac  - 11/21/2021

I hope that the business climate in 2022 will be less chilling for our industry than the Almanac’s forecast.

Outlet Store Design  - 11/20/2021

Retailers have increased the scale of their outlet areas and built freestanding outlet stores to meet demand and provide merchandising flexibility.

Editor's Corner: The Importance of Designing Joyful Retail  - 9/26/2021

The feature article in this issue of Furniture World provides insight into the “design of joyful retail.”

Store Design: Customer Flow  - 9/25/2021

Store layouts influence how customers interact with your merchandise and how much they buy.

Design & Designer: Ingrid Fetell Lee  - 9/25/2021

Designer and “Joyful” author discusses how retailers can adapt in-store environments to influence moods and affect shopping behaviors.

Turnover Tsunami at Retail  - 9/25/2021

Can you keep nearly fully staffed in a very tight job market? A top furniture industry recruiter explains how.

Top Ten Reasons to Call a Sales Meeting  - 9/25/2021

There are many reasons to get together with your team. From scheduled to impromptu, why, when and how you manage them is very important.

Operations: Organize Your Service Experience  - 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?

Delivery: Two Guys and a Truck  - 9/25/2021

When a delivery driver is both the first and last person your customer meets after an online purchase, making a great impression is even more important.

Halloween at Retail  - 9/25/2021

Slasher film characters like Michael Myers come back from the dead in sequel after sequel, but customer issue resolution need not be a series of horror stories

Next Level Training: Asking the Right Questions  - 9/25/2021

Ten proven benefits that flow from asking shoppers the right questions to help them create the right feel for their rooms.

HFA Reports  - 9/25/2021

Information of interest to retailers from the Home Furnishings Association.

What You Need to Know About Copyrights & Patents  - 9/25/2021

Being on the wrong side of a copyright lawsuit is not a good place to be.

Fourteen Ways to Find & Retain Employees  - 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?

Clubhouse Social Media Platform Explained  - 7/30/2021

Leslie Carothers explains why Clubhouse is a valuable addition to the social media toolkits of home furnishings retailers and brands.

The Delivery Tool Quandary  - 7/30/2021

How to reduce frustration and extra costs resulting from lost tools and touch up materials during delivery.

Valuable Lesson at the Retail Resource Center  - 7/30/2021

Over the HPMKT five days, I learned a lot more about members who stopped by the newly redesigned Resource Center.

How Independent Furniture Retailers Can Attract Quality Employees and Enhance Retention  - 7/30/2021

Independent retailers may not be able to afford to lure potential employees with large signing bonuses and substantial financial and benefits packages.

HFA Reports: Update on Supply Chain Issues and HFA's Push for Federal Action  - 7/30/2021

HFA’s Government Relations Action Team has been working with policy influencers at the national and state levels.

The Three Million Dollar Retail Salesman  - 7/30/2021

One exceptional salesperson wrote the equivalent of $10,000 every day in 2020, selling furniture and mattresses.

Editor's Corner: Don't Kill that Fly!  - 7/30/2021

Are we stuck in the furniture industry’s version of flypaper—sticky, pandemic-created—where the end to the inconvenience and uncertainty is endless?

Consumer Financing For a Post COVID World  - 7/29/2021

Best retail practices using consumer financing options to increase close rates and average sale through 2022.

Space Race: How to Negotiate Your Best Deal  - 7/28/2021

Leases on roughly 1.5 billion square feet of retail space will expire this year. That, combined with a high vacancy rate, make it a buyers’ market for home furnishings retailers.

Design & Designer: Victoria at Home  - 7/28/2021

Interior designer, store owner and style spotter shares her thoughts on selling, supporting the interior design community, High Point Market and current trends.

How the Pandemic Permanently Changed Mattress Retail  - 7/28/2021

Recent proprietary data from the website GoodBed.com points to long-term opportunities as well as threats for mattress retailers.

Future Stores  - 5/9/2021

A fundamental shift has occurred in the way forward-thinking home furnishings retailers are approaching store design.

Design & Designer: Gary Inman & Zach Hodgin  - 5/9/2021

Inman and Hodgin anticipate a post-pandemic flood of designs focusing on new materials and colors. Get ready for less beige and boring plus a number of hard-to-reconcile, diverse design trends.

CXM Workflows Defined  - 5/9/2021

Retailers use CXM to automate sales and service processes. Automation triggers save time and produce meaningful results quicker.

Furniture Leasing: Fernish Has A New Model  - 5/9/2021

Online furniture retailer Fernish targets a young mobile audience that sees traditional furniture retail as clunky, costly, inefficient and hassle intensive.

Ad Targeting: Big Opportunity For Brick & Mortar  - 5/9/2021

Changes coming from Apple and Google promise to rock the ecommerce industry, creating opportunities and challenges for furniture retailers.

HFA Reports: Dramatic Changes  - 5/9/2021

HFA’s Government Relations Action Team has been working with policy influencers at the national and state levels.

HFA Reports: I can’t believe it’s you!  - 5/9/2021

The product must be good, but just as important are how we make our customers feel welcome.

The Pay Raise You Didn’t Know You Wanted  - 5/9/2021

Ringing the register with incrementally higher sales tickets results in pay raises all the way around.

Editor's Corner: Not Everyone Loves Cookies  - 5/9/2021

No, not that kind of cookie.

Customer Experience Management  - 3/20/2021

CXM is a tool that will help you to grow your furniture business and outperform competitors large and small.

Design & Designer: Fashion Snoops Update  - 3/20/2021

Fashion Snoops’ expert forecaster Jay Anna Mize looks at what’s now and what’s next in style and consumer buying behaviors.

Corporate Social Responsibility  - 3/20/2021

Andrew Koenig explains how home furnishings retailers can conceive and implement a CSR program that helps employees, customers and the communities.

Retailer’s Guide to Digital Advertising  - 3/20/2021

Here’s what’s going on in retail with IP targeting, OTT, mobile ID targeting, programmatic, targeted Facebook ads and much more.

Rebranding: Badcock Home Furniture &more  - 3/20/2021

Here’s how this 380+ store retailer created a new branding campaign just right for reaching out to customers, non-customers and lapsed customers.

HFA Reports: Succession—Miskelly Furniture  - 3/20/2021

Miskelly Furniture ensures succession success— and challenges the next generation to create its own path.

HFA Reports: PPP Tax Implications  - 3/20/2021

News about Home Furnishings Association’s retail members plus legislative and other information of interest to Furniture World readers.

HFA Reports: Looking Forward  - 3/20/2021

Ode to HFA's retailer benefits... Texas style

Bedding & Mattress Sales: Sumthin’ for Nothin’  - 3/20/2021

Free delivery and give-a-ways like free pillows and protectors do more harm than just eroding margins. They lessen perceived value.

Editor's Corner: Don’t Trip On The Dismount  - 3/20/2021

Nobody in our industry can deny that the past months have been grueling.

Furniture World: 150 Years of Furniture Retailing  - 1/23/2021

Retailers are arrested, die of apoplexy, visit furniture shows, and pioneer DTC mattress sales models. It's the same old home furnishings business!

Point Counterpoint: Optimistic about 2021?  - 1/23/2021

Ed says that he's never been more positive. Bill issues dire warnings and advises retailers to batten down the hatches!

Retail Sales: A Great Career?  - 1/23/2021

Selling mattresses and furniture can be a great career. So, what can be done to elevate the status of RSAs, starting now in 2021?

HFA Reports  - 1/23/2021

News about Home Furnishings Association's retail members plus legislative and other information of interest to Furniture World readers.

Harkness Furniture at 100  - 1/23/2021

HFA member Harkness Furniture completes a century of growth and looks forward to a bright future.

HFA: Looking Forward  - 1/23/2021

After what we've seen this year, it's more important than ever to have a support system.

The 2000-Year-Old Furniture Man  - 1/23/2021

Gordon Hecht chats with a 2,000-year-old man about his experiences in the furniture industry over the past 150 years.

Editor's Corner  - 1/23/2021

150 years of never changing needs.

12 Ways to Avoid the Coming Cash Flow Trap  - 1/22/2021

Twelve cash flow enhancing ideas for managing your retail furniture store pipeline in these chaotic times.

Design & Designer: SCAD  - 1/22/2021

A discussion of furniture design trends consumers will be looking for as we exit the pandemic.