September 2015 by RetailerNOW

SEPTEMBER 2015

INSPIRATION+EDUCATION

Don’t Eat Credit Card Costs

T GE N

% 20

F OF

S !

END OF SUMMER

ACCESSORIES SALE surya.com/endofsummersale RUGS PILLOWS THROWS WALL DECOR ACCENT FURNITURE LIGHTING BEDDING | ATLANTA DALLAS HIGH POINT LAS VEGAS NEW DELHI TORONTO | SURYA.COM

* sale ends September 30th

SEPTEMBER2015

TAKE 5! Five takeaways you can implement this month:

1 Upgrade your credit card terminals. 10

2 Stay consistent at work. 14 3 Leveraging big data. 20 4 Add a new line at market. 34 5 Free HR consulting. 38

10 WHAT’S INSIDE 2. 4. 14. 16. 26. 36. 38. 40. 42.

NAHFA President’s Letter Editor’s Note Retail Voice Member Portrait: Wells Home Furnishings Product Focus: Motion Furniture Next Generation: Amy Albert Member Benefit: Free HR consulting Government Action: Patent Trolls Of Note

DEPARTMENTS Cover Story 10. Don’t Eat Credit Card Costs Sales & Marketing 24. Integrate Your Online Marketing & Traditional Advertising 22. There’s a Lot We Can Teach Millennials

Operations 20. Create a Best Customer Profile 34. Maybe It’s Time for a New Line

RetailerNOWmag.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

“

President Marty Cramer Cramer’s Home Furnishings President-Elect Jeff Child RC Willey

— Malcolm Forbes

Have a Labor Issue? Let NAHFA Help You

Vice President Steve Kidder Vermont Furniture Galleries Secretary/Treasurer Jim Fee Stoney Creek Furniture

he most widely used programs the North American Home Furnishings Association offers are what I refer to as “the money programs.” These are the services that most of us use to put dollars back in our pockets. Synchrony Finance and credit card processing through Trekstone are the two most often used by our members. But there’s another program we offer that has huge dollar-saving potential and very few of our members use it. The American Consulting Group provides expert advice and hands-on consulting in the areas of human resources, labor and employee relations and workplace safety. ACG offers everything you may need from an HR consulting group at no cost: unlimited access to human resource lawyers and consultants, an entire data and labor law library including wage and hour laws, personnel forms, workers comp and unemployment insurance concerns. The best advice they offer is to call before you take action not after. Businesses that actively use an HR consulting firm see a sharp decline in unemployment and workers comp claims, reducing the ongoing cost of these programs. This is a nation-wide program. It doesn’t matter where you live, ACG has someone to help you. This is one of the most valuable assets we offer our members. The bottom-line effect on your business can be significant. How many of us have had a workers comp claim that drained our accounts and caused our premiums to sky rocket? Valid claims can still be managed to help get the employee back to work faster and reduce overall cost. Even something as simple as which personnel forms you should be using, but probably aren’t, can save money. The best way to manage personnel issues is with a proactive approach. Take a minute and contact our office to find out how to start using this money-saving program. You’ll be glad you did.

Chairman Rick Howard Sklar Furnishings Executive Staff Sharron Bradley Chief Executive Officer sbradley@NAHFA.org Mary Frye Executive Vice President mfrye@NAHFA.org

Marty Cramer

Membership Staff Kaprice Crawford Membership Team Leader kcrawford@NAHFA.org Jordan Boyst jboyst@NAHFA.org Sherry Hansen shansen@NAHFA.org Michael Hill mhill@NAHFA.org Jana Sutherland jsutherland@NAHFA.org Dianne Therry dtherry@NAHFA.org Please call 800.422.3778 for membership inquires.

NAHFA President

Twitter.com/retailerNOW Facebook.com/retailerNOW Pinterest.com/retailerNOW

”

He who says he never needs help, most does.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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AUGUST | 2015

“ RETAILERNOW STAFF Lisa Casinger Editorial Director lcasinger@nahfa.org

Three men were laying brick. The first was asked: ‘What are you doing?’ His reply: ‘Laying brick.’ The second was asked: ‘What are you working for?’ His answer: ‘Five dollars a day.’ The third man was asked: ‘What are you doing?’ He answered: ‘I am helping build a great cathedral.’ Which man are you? — Charles M. Schwab

Robert Bell Editor rbell@nahfa.org

Finding our purpose

Tim Timmons Art Director ttimmons@nahfa.org Cindi Williams Sales Executive cwilliams@nahfa.org

love a furniture market. I love the excitement of seeing new product; of retailers and designers scurrying from one showroom to another, swapping their goals and challenges over lunch in between; of sharing a shuttle bus ride with a complete stranger and hearing how business is in their corner of the world. One of my favorite things about market is talking to our members in person. At last month’s Las Vegas market I got to do just that. When I ask members what our association means to them, I’m always surprised at their responses. The financing, the networking, the educational opportunities. One even said she loved knowing she can always call us to vent. Like I said, your North American Home Furnishings Association has something for everyone. A few weeks before market, your association’s staff came together in California for four days to talk about what the association means to us. At first glance, that might not seem important. We work to make your life more prosperous and less onerous, not the other way around. We think we do a pretty good job already, but we know we can do better. There were no angels singing after those four days. No white smoke. But, goals in place, we’re on the right path to making your association even more valuable to you and your business. You’ll be seeing and hearing more about our changes in the coming months. If there’s something you want to add to the discussion, your membership staff is more than willing to hear from you. Speaking of staff, please welcome Dan McCann, Mary Ambrosoli and Erika Adams to our California office. Dan is charged with ramping up our marketing and communications efforts, Mary is responsible for paying the bills and Erika does a bit of everything as our new administrative assistant. Now the sad news: Michelle Nygaard, RetailerNOW's sales executive, has left us for another job. If you ever dropped by the Retailer Resource Center in High Point or Las Vegas you probably met Michelle. She was the one always flashing that ear-to-ear smile. Michelle is (I refuse to say “was”) the consummate professional who refused to let anything or anyone get her down. She will be missed. Already is.

Sydnee Funke Webmaster sfunke@nahfa.org RETAIL ADVISORY TEAM Carol Bell Contents Interiors Tucson, Ariz.

Robert Bell Editor, RetailerNOW

Travis Garrish Forma Furniture Fort Collins, Colo. Rick Howard Sklar Furnishings Boca Raton, Fla. Mike Luna Pedigo’s Furniture Livingston, Texas Andrew Tepperman Tepperman's Windsor, Ontario This Month's Contributors

Kevin Doran, Joe Dysart, Anders Eckman, Jeff Giagnocavo, Marty Grosse and Tom Shay.

Subscription: $70/year RetailerNOW, ISSN# 2166-5249, is published monthly (except March and December) by the North American Home Furnishings Association, 500 Giuseppe Court, Ste. 6, Roseville, CA 95678. Application to Mail at the Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Roseville, CA, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Address changes to: RetailerNOW, North American Home Furnishings Association, 500 Giuseppe Court, Ste. 6, Roseville CA 95678. If you would like to stop receiving RetailerNOW, please send an email to RNOWunsubscribe@nahfa.org.

”

Robert Bell rbell@nahfa.org

© 2015 North American Home Furnishings Association. Published by the North American Home Furnishings Association. Material herein may not be reproduced, copied or reprinted without prior written consent of the publisher. Acceptance of advertising or indication of sponsorship does not imply endorsement of publisher or the North American Home Furnishings Association. The views expressed in this publication may not reflect those of the publisher, editor or the North American Home Furnishings Association, and North American Retail Services Corp. Content herein is for general information only; readers are encouraged to consult their own attorney, accountant, tax expert and other professionals for specific advice before taking any action.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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RETAILER2.0

@RetailerNOW

facebook.com/RetailerNOW

pinterest.com/RetailerNOW

z GOOD TO KNOW

Smile! (And Get Ready for Instagram Ads) After years of speculation, Instagram plans to open its platform to all advertisers this fall You may not have heard much about it, but Instagram last month quietly switched on its API, or application programming interface, for ads. The Facebook-owned social media platform had been testing a variety of ad formats and buying through its API throughout the summer, preparing to roll out a suite of selfservice interfaces to all businesses. Advertisers will be able to access Facebook data to help target ads on Instagram, and “direct-response” ads will allow users to take action directly within ads, such as make a purchase, sign up on a website or download an app. By the way, Instagram is believed to have surpassed Twitter and LinkedIn in terms of active users.

Source: Marketing Dive

z COOL APPS Toole (toole.io)

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There are thousands of amazing online tools that will speed up your work and save you money, but they’re hard to find. Toole is a mobile app that gives you access to more than 1,500 online tools and services. It has a built-in price filter so you can quickly find which apps are free or use one of 28 categories to explore tools from a specific area, like marketing, design, analytics, cloud, finance, management and many more. Toole is a communitydriven app, where anyone can submit a tool and review it. It is a must-have resource for small businesses.

In this industry, it’s not so hard to see that the fax machine is still a core business technology. That’s the reality of business, especially when it comes to dealing with wholesalers and other vendors for your operation. But here's the important question you should be asking: why tie yourself to an overpriced landline service or outdated fax machine if you don’t have to? With RingCentral Fax you can receive faxes in your email inbox and fax any document from within any Microsoft Windows® application. Your subscription includes a local or tollfree phone number, encrypted connection, free fax software, text alerts, online logs, integration options and many other features. Not convinced RingCentral is the right online fax service for your store? Check out an apples to apples comparison of the top providers of online fax services at faxcompare.com. Web-based; Plans start at $7.99/month; 30-day free trial.

Free; iOS Want to share a cool app? Drop us a line at Rbell@nahfa.org

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T CHOOSE FAMILY? For over 36 years more than 800 home furnishings retailers have trusted PROFITsystems to take care of their businesses and their families

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

. .

CONVERSATIONS you ever held a Black Q:Have Friday sale?

Erick Black Black’s Home Furnishings Yreka, California “We’ve done one the last two years and it’s just not that huge for us. Part of the problem is we live in a small town and an hour away is a bigger city (Medford, Ore.) with no sales tax. People head over the hills for all their deals. Of course, when those deals don’t work out, they have to head back over the hills to make it right. That’s our advantage. We’re here for our customers.”

Daniel Kreisle Easy Livin’ Furniture Lecanto, Florida “We had our first Black Friday sale last year and it was huge. We put together some special deals with La-Z-Boy and Comfort Studio and tied them in with Stearns & Foster and Sealy. It was one of our best sales ever. Better than Labor Day or July 4th and we spent a small fortune advertising those sales.”

Billy Ratliff Charlies Store Llano, Texas “We’ve been running Black Friday sales forever. It’s a good time to sell appliances, but a close second is furniture. I load up on furniture the month before the sale and it’s almost always all gone by the end of the weekend. We’re a small country store in a small town—population 3,023—so a lot of people rely on us for their homes.”

TOPSHELF Put Big Data to Work in Your Store The Big Data-Driven Business (Wiley, 224 pages, $30) When used car dealer Les Kelley launched the Kelley Blue Book, his target customers were used car dealers (and insurance companies and banks that made car loans). Dealers consulted the book and, based on the information it contained, had an idea of what price tag to put on their merchandise. Today, the target customers for the Kelley Blue Book, now free online, are used car buyers who consult it to have an idea of what they should pay for the used car they are buying. Just like with home furnishings, the customer flip for the Kelley Blue Book exemplifies the switch in power in the purchasing process from seller to buyer. Buyers are no longer dependent on sellers for information they need to make a purchasing decision. But in this new purchasing paradigm, sellers aren’t powerless. The reason, in large part, is what is commonly known as “big data.” As explained in The Big Data-Driven Business by Russell Glass and Sean Callahan, buyers no longer have to go to sellers to find the information they need to make the right decisions. Instead, they can use a variety of digital search channels to gather any information they need and then approach the sellers. You already know this. However, write Glass and Callahan, the same digital capability that allows buyers to take the initiative allows sellers to follow what the buyers are doing. They track the websites and pages within those sites that buyers or potential buyers are visiting. They also track purchasing trends, which merchandise is popular at a given time, which items lead to the purchase of other items and a whole host of other customer-related data—so much data, in fact, that we now refer to all of this information as “big data.” We know what you’re thinking: I don’t have the money to invest in big data. Using big data does not have to be expensive, however. In one of the most insightful chapters, Glass and Callahan offer 11 principles for successfully making a business more data-driven. Among the principles are, determine what you want to know about your customers and prospects; start small; don’t bet everything on technology (figure out first what you need, not what technology you want to use); and hire the right people—forget the art schools, and think about Star Trek conventions instead. Glass, who heads B2B marketing at LinkedIn, and Callahan, LinkedIn’s senior manager for content marketing, present a guide for marketers in home furnishings stores from the top 100 to the mom and pop. Their method works—and it can work for you. Book review: summary.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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WIRED FOR THE FUTURE NEXT GENERATION NOW ACTIVITIES AT HIGH POINT MARKET

Save the Date Market BASH

Saturday, 10/17 Starts at 5:00 pm

Lunch with Leaders

Sunday, 10/18 By Appointment 11:30am

Next Generation NOW is an NAHFAhosted community of young industry professionals whose mission is to give voice to the needs and goals of the industry’s next wave of leaders.

Visit the website for more info RetailerNOWmag.com NAHFA.org • NextGenerationNOW.net • @ngnow •

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

You Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Have to Eat It

Upgrade your card payment processors by October 1 or face being on the hook for future losses. By Joe Dysart

SEPTEMBER | 2015

RetailerNOWmag.com

ortunately for North American Home Furnishings Association member Lora Sigesmund, the closest her Perlora furniture store in Pittsburgh has ever come to credit card fraud has been the headlines she’s read about bigger retailers in the news. But those increasingly frequent stories were enough to convince her to make sure those fraud cases don’t hit even closer to home. Earlier this year Sigesmund replaced her store’s old magnetic-stripe terminals with new chip-card versions. “It was easier than I thought it would be,” says Sigesmund, “and the peace of mind is something you can’t put a price on.” Starting next month that peace of mind will be even bigger. Sigesmund and the rest of the retailing industry will be liable for the costs of credit card fraud if they don’t migrate to new chip card terminals by October 1, a deadline imposed by the major credit card companies. This significant change comes in the wake of numerous headline grabbing instances of credit card fraud and data breaches at major U.S. retailers such as Target and Home Depot. According to a Verizon report, retail accounted for one in 13 data breach incidents in 2014; the financial services industry accounted for about one in seven breaches and U.S. government agencies (ranging from the Army to the IRS) accounted for more than 70 breaches a day (according to the Government Accountability Office). Retailer breaches get more media attention because store names are more well known. Card issuers and retailers are making the switch to improved chip card technology to protect consumers. Liability for fraud will be shifted to the party that is the least compliant with these new card readers. Retailers and other companies that delay in replacing their mag-stripe technology risk being on the hook for the costs of a breach. “The threat environment for merchants is more hostile than we’ve ever seen—attack groups focused exclusively on stealing consumer data are continuously expanding their operations and employing new techniques,” says David DeWalt, CEO of FireEye, a security firm specializing in preventing cyber attacks. In no uncertain terms, retailers that refuse to bring in chip-card processing terminals by October 1 face a rude awakening: if a fraudster comes into your home furnishings store after that date and fraudulently charges anything on a credit card, your business eats the loss. All of it. That’s not all: some credit card companies will begin imposing fines or higher processing fees for retailers that don’t transition to the new technology. Problem is, hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses—including many home furnishings retailers—have no idea they’re on a collision course with that fraud liability this fall.

OUT WITH OLD Retailers should replace their magnetic stripe terminals like this one with chip-card versions.

And credit card companies are worried. “While the credit card industry needs to churn out a lot more chip cards, retailers seem to be in worse shape,” says Matt Schulz, a senior industry analyst at creditcards.com. “Very few are ready to accept chip cards.” Indeed. According to a February 2015 poll by Newtek Business Services, 71 percent of business owners were unaware they’ll be on the hook for magnetic stripe fraud next month. “Business owners still do not have a full understanding of the importance of chip-card processing,” says Barry Sloane, CEO, Newtek. “It is extremely important for individuals taking credit card payments to be aware.” Still other businesses—which already know about chip cards— are slowing the U.S. migration to the new technology by hesitating to make the switch, or simply refusing to do so. One example: an American Express survey found that more than a third of merchants interviewed who knew about chip cards were on the fence about the technology—or had decided not to upgrade to chip-card terminals. Fifty seven percent of those merchants cited the cost of chip-card terminals as the reason they were on the fence—or were simply going to ignore the new technology. Despite the anticipated backlash from businesses that begin getting stung for fraud this fall, the major credit card companies are sticking to the deadline. No wonder. All of those credit Goliaths have been burned by the wholesale theft of credit card data—often measured in millions of

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

accounts. But it’s not just the Targets and Home Depots of the retailing world that are at risk, but a variety of small medical offices and other small businesses whose owners perhaps never thought they’d be targets, too. That is the crux of the problem facing America’s small businesses and consumers: they may not think they’ll be targets of hackers looking for big scores, but all of them probably will be. It’s just too easy and too lucrative for hackers to gather and use people’s personal information, including small retailers with databases that seem at first blush to be of limited utility. But experts say history has shown that hackers will always go after the weakest link. If they determine that the big, trusted retailers have toughened up, they’re just going to go after easier targets, like small businesses. That’s why the credit card companies are pushing for the switch. Chip cards are much more secure, according to Megan Shamas, a spokesperson for EMV-Connection, a branch of the Smart Card Alliance. Specifically, chip cards produce a one-time-use cryptogram for every transaction, making it much more difficult for fraudsters to compromise. “The creation of dynamic cryptograms for every transaction with online authentication is an important feature of chip cards that provides enhanced levels of security,” says Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. Plus, if a chip card is lost or stolen, the card is also much more difficult to counterfeit, Shamas says. Chip cards—also known as EMV cards, an acronym for the three companies who helped develop the card technology (Europay, MasterCard and Visa)—also have an extremely successful track record in Europe. Credit card fraud in the United Kingdom plummeted by 72 percent after chip cards were widely adopted, according to Patricia Moloney Figliola, a specialist in Internet and telecommunications policy with The Congressional Research Service, a private research

team employed by Congress. Canada saw a 48 percent reduction in fraud after chip cards were rolled out there, Figliola says. Almost all credit card terminals in Europe are chip-enabled. And 84.7 percent of terminals in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean also accept chip cards, says EMV-Connection’s Shamas. In fact, the U.S. is the last major market to make the switch to chip cards, Figliola says. “This is a technology that has already been widely adopted in many markets, and has proven to significantly reduce the incidence of fraud at the physical point-of-sale,” says Kim Lawrence, senior vice president, corporate initiatives, Visa. Besides intense pressure from credit card companies on chip-card migration, fed-up consumers are also pounding the drum skins. A recent MasterCard study revealed that 63 percent of credit card holders want a chip card ‘immediately,’ says Carolyn Balfany, group head, U.S. product delivery, MasterCard. Major banks have also been helping wean the U.S. off fraud-vulnerable mag-stripes, issuing chip cards when the older cards expire, or when customers seek replacement cards. Of course, the rub for retailers is that getting from here-to-there

CHIP SECURITY FEATURES COMBAT COUNTERFEIT CARD FRAUD WHAT'S CHANGING

When your customer swipes her card, your terminal will direct her to insert the card instead.

The customer inserts her card toward your terminal and leaves it in until prompted to remove it.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

She verifies her transaction by signing or entering her PIN. Some transactions may not require either.

RetailerNOWmag.com

When your terminal indicates the transaction is complete, your customer removes her card.

PRONE TO FRAUD The United States is the last major country to switch over to chip cards. Not surprisingly, nearly half of all credit card fraud occurs in the U.S.

will cost some coin. Expect to pay $300 - $1,300 for each new chip card terminal you bring in—depending on the features you’re looking for—says Phil Wimberly, vice president, integrated solutions sales, OpenEdge, a payments software provider. One of your best resources for the new terminals will probably be the business that’s already handling the processing on your magstripe cards, Wimberly says. Fortunately, members of the North American Home Furnishings Association have access to the new technology with little or no expense to them. Trekstone Financial will upgrade a store’s equipment for free to members who subscribe to their month-to-month service. Chase Paymentech has a similar promotion. More than 600 NAHFA members have already made the switch to Trekstone’s program, said Amy Llewelyn, the company’s president. “A lot of merchants haven’t been taking this really seriously until recently,” Llewelyn said, “but they’re starting to get on board.” Llewelyn said retailers can receive Trekstone’s new equipment within two to three days so it’s not too late to make the switch. She said it’s even more imperative to switch sooner rather than later to build in time to train employees on the new technology.

One silver lining: your customers will most likely find making the switch fairly intuitive. There will be a few differences. Chip cards need to be inserted into a terminal, rather than swiped. And a chip card needs to stay inserted in the terminal until a transaction is completed. For verification, chip cards will require either a customer signature or a customer PIN. And some will be ‘contactless,’ requiring only a simple ‘wave’ over a terminal to initiate a transaction. During the first few years of the transition, chip cards will also come with a conventional magnetic stripe, which will enable consumers to make purchases at businesses still clinging to mag-stripe technology. But the primary point to remember is that as long as your store has chip card terminals, you won’t be on the hook for fraud created by any mag-stripe card you accept as payment. Essentially, as long as your business has made the effort to accept chip cards, the credit card companies and banks aren’t looking to penalize you for accepting a mag-stripe card, Llewelyn says. As the October deadline looms, all the major credit card companies are ramping up massive business educational campaigns, hoping to help businesses dodge the fraud liability ax. “Unfortunately, many small merchants do not know about EMV or what they need to do to take advantage of it,” says André Williams, president, Global Merchant Services, American Express. “We created the Small Merchant EMV Assistance Program to help them.” But even with the massive PR push, industry watchers fret that this fall, there will still be hundreds of thousands of uniformed businesses seeing red over new fraud liability. “The Achilles heel for EMV merchant adoption will be small and micro merchants that are not only unprepared for EMV, but even unaware of the fraud-liability shift in the U.S. this year,” says Nick Holland, head of payments, Javelin Strategy & Research. Don’t be one of those businesses. Joe Dysart is a speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan. He can be reached at joe@joedysart.com.

NAHFA members who have yet to upgrade their credit card terminals can still do so with little or no expense to them. NAHFA has partnered with Chase Paymentech and Trekstone Financial to upgrade a store’s equipment for free to members who subscribe to their month-to-month service. NAHFA members can learn more by contacting Kaprice Crawford, NAHFA’s membership team leader, at

RetailerNOWmag.com

800-422-3778 or kcrawford@nahfa.org Infographic source: www.emv-connection.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

Tee Up Your Business for Success How Consistency Touches Every Aspect of Your Store By Jeff Giagnocavo

“

A checklist for golf is not unlike a checklist for your business. If you adopt this same type of checklist you will see more reliable, consistent results. — Jeff Giagnocavo

SEPTEMBER | 2015

RetailerNOWmag.com

”

his summer my travels took me to the Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club to watch the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament. Watching these professionals at work is a lesson in and of itself and in a word, these ladies of professional golf are consistent. Their swings are consistently straight down the fairway. Not bombs or long shots because no one “crushes it” on the women’s tour—typically that is what the men do, or at least so we say. But in men’s golf, regardless of the level—professional to hack—consistency is not how I would describe the play. Typically those bombing it and crushing it are 280 yards plus, though where it lands can often be anyone’s guess. Not exactly the definition of consistency you’re looking for unless you like being consistently out of bounds. Now you might think that was a pretty easy wrap-up to the game of golf and it is provided you can consistently hit 280-yard drives, straight and true with the ball landing 10 yards of the center line, the game becomes very predictable, very reliable, and extremely consistent. So how consistent is your business? Are you expending great energy with a vendor/supplier chasing something that is not worth your time? Spending time on a segment of leads that will never buy from you? Are you hoping to crush it with a major sales effort simply because you need to? What put you in this position? At some point when you started down this road, you stepped up to the tee box and meant to crush it. Rather than take the consistent play straight in the middle of the fairway you sliced it hard right. Something was missed in the tee box when you kicked off whatever is ailing you right now. When I tee off, I go through a mental check list, which includes more than a dozen points. Are my shoulders lined up to the pin or target? Is my grip just right? Are my knees bent? What about my head? Is it down? On and on the list goes. Not just for my tee shot, but every shot. One last thing I always do in addition to all of this is I tee up the ball so that I only look at the white part of the ball, I hate focusing on the writing on the ball—I’m only focused on the clear open space. A checklist for golf is not unlike a checklist for your business. If you adopt this same type of checklist you will see more reliable, consistent results. Things that have helped my game immensely in golf translate easily to business.

with each other, everyone and everything all lined up for the same expected result?

Knees, hips, back: proper positioning of your marketing messages—what audience are you positioning for? Is part of your message out of line hindering your best possible results?

Head down: Always keep your eye on the mission. Never take it off. Don’t let the noise of staff, family, friends take you off your mission—it’s your game and your swing; don’t ever forget that.

Talking to myself: You should always be communicating to your team, your suppliers/partners, and yourself about what you want to have happen at any given time, don’t internalize everything. Owning a business is hard enough on your own, talk it out. Focusing on the ball: My favorite part of my game. I get here and I’m ready to go, I put the ball down first but I never focus on the clear open space of the ball until I’ve gone through this entire mental checklist I’ve outlined. By the time I’ve gone through everything here, if the golf ball doesn’t look like the size of a grapefruit to me then I take a step back from the tee and re-set. When done right, and done for every aspect of your business, you’ll find that what you’ve done is create a whole bunch of systems. Systems for when you sell things, get leads, make sales calls, welcome new customers, ask for referrals. Take this further and you’ll develop internal systems for how you advertise, what components are in every advertisement, what measure you take to ensure customer satisfaction, team member compliance and management, supplier/partner expectations, and ultimately better management of yourself. Done right, developing systems and then automating them means you can always see your target, you have a clear direction of where you are going, and when it’s time to step up to the tee box you can take that consistent swing that lands you straight down the middle of the fairway avoiding hazards, water, and tall grass that can all suck the fun, life, and profitability right out of your business. Establish these systems, go back to them and tweak continuously for a better result and you’ll see longer distances, or successes, from each system. My challenge for you this month is to take a step back from the box, figure out your systems for whatever you have in front of you right now and implement them. Then take your birdie, high five, and move on ‘cause you’re up again shooter!

Clean unscuffed ball: don’t let any past failures cloud a future effort. Get over it, wipe it off, clean yourself up, and move on. You have to. It’s your turn to swing again.

Shoulder and toes: are all parts of your business congruent

RetailerNOWmag.com

Jeff Giagnocavo is co-owner of Gardner’s Mattress & More in Lancaster, Pa. He is also the co-owner of Infotail, a sales and marketing automation agency. He regularly speaks at industry events on successful retail strategies. He can be reached at jeff@infotail.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

At Wells, it’s Not Just Business, it’s Personal For 92 years, John Wells’ family has been selling furniture in West Virginia. Through impeccable service and strategic growth, he’s positioned the company to be around even longer. By Robert Bell

arly on, the father-son relationship is one of hero worship. Dad can do no wrong. On the baseball field, the tennis court—even the family business. John Wells III remembers waking up every Saturday morning, putting on a shirt and tie, and heading off to work with his father, John Wells Jr. He was three years old. “I spent the whole day there or at least what seemed like the whole day,” recalls Wells, the son who is now president of Wells Home Furnishings. “I’m sure he gave me some silly chores to do, maybe to get out of his hair, but to me I felt so important, like this was the only place I was meant to be.” More than 50 years later, the image is no less crisp for sitting on the outer edges of Wells’ memory. Of course, that relationship doesn’t always last. Sometimes the worship morphs into something of a duel. Sometimes it’s difficult for fathers to see their sons become men and match them in height or strength or accomplishment. Wells remembers butting heads with his father over business decisions more than a decade ago. “I remember going at it over almost every decision,” Wells remembers. “The conversations were really intense. Not angry, but not pleasant either. It wasn’t always fun.” In 2002, father and son agreed that dad would slowly phase himself out of the business over the next five years. A few months later, John Wells Jr. was diagnosed with cancer and the head-butting stopped. “I don’t know what it was, but we just put everything aside and got along great the rest of the time we had together,” the son says. “Whatever problems we had with one another seemed so insignificant then and now.”

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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ALL IN THE FAMILY John Wells III, right, and his son Jason know the importance of offering personalized service to every customer who enters their two West Virginia stores.

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

John Wells Jr. died in 2005. Wells says his father taught him many lessons, but saved the most important for last. “Your business is your livelihood,” says Wells. “It’s important, but never too important to get in the way of your family.”

WHOLE PACKAGE John Wells uses a PowerPoint presentation to help customers refurnish their homes. Instead of buying a single piece of furniture, 93 percent of Wells customers buy the complete room. Average ticket price: $10,300. It’s easy to look at Wells’ family tree and think Wells' fate was sealed decades ago. His great-grandfather, Russell Herndon Kyle, started a wholesale furniture distribution company in Charleston, W. Va., in 1923. Kyle traveled the state’s southern coal fields when coal was king and there were thousands of miners who relied on coal company stores. Kyle’s son—Wells’ grandfather—took over and ran the company for 40 years. Wells and his father worked there before they opened Wells Home Furnishings in 1993. Wells never felt pressure or sense of obligation to the furniture business. “I’ve never felt more comfortable or had more purpose to my business life than when I’m in this store selling furniture, helping improve other people’s lives in this town,” he says. “Not a lot of people can say that about their job. I’m fortunate to be one of those people.” This just in: running a successful independent home furnishings store these days is like finding that needle in the haystack. It can be done, but it’s not easy. The trick is made all the more difficult in an economically stressed state like West Virginia, whose once-prideful coal is now a waning commodity, and who has some of the poorest and most remote communities in the nation. 18

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Yet against such a bleak backdrop Wells Home Furnishings isn’t just surviving, it’s thriving. Wells sells mid- to upper-level furniture—Norwalk is by far its best-selling line—and the retailer continues to grow in sales as the state’s economy struggles to gain a footing. Indeed, just earlier this year Wells Home Furnishings opened a second store. Wells doesn’t have time to dwell on the negatives. “In West Virginia it’s always going to be something,” he says. “Coal affects everyone around here. The pay isn’t what it should be and the younger kids tend to move out when they have the first chance. But those are just excuses. At the end of the day you have to find a way to make your business succeed.” Wells has done that with two seemingly disparate allies: warm and personable customer service combined with cold, calculating technology. Six years ago, in the midst of the recession, Wells implemented a design program for his customers. For a nominal $70 fee, a Wells employee will visit a customer’s home and take measurements of a room. A designer will meet with the customer and show them furnishings and fabrics to come up with several layout plans. Within 10 days the client and designer get together for a PowerPoint presentation of proposed floor plans. Wells emphasizes the 10-day turn-around with his employees. “Strike while there’s interest,” he says. “If a customer is going to get cold feet, we don’t want it to be because of us.” Even if a customer is only looking for a sofa, Wells Home Furnishings employees map out the entire room—from sofa to end table to accent chairs. According to Wells, the customer buys the complete room 93 percent of the time. Average ticket price: $10,300. “The biggest hurdle for us is to let them show what we can do for them,” says Wells. “A lot of people walk into our stores not knowing what they want, or not having the vision to see what we can do for them. We run a very persuasive, helpful program for them.” The PowerPoint is only half the strategy. After the technology has made the sale, Wells follows up with an old-fashioned letter to each customer. Not a flyer or a generic letter, but a hand-written note thanking the customer by name for putting their faith in Wells Home Furnishings. The messages vary depending on whether the customer is new or faithful repeating client, but one thing is constant— Wells writes each and every note himself. “I’m sure there are people who might look at this and think, ‘Who writes letters anymore?’ It’s old and from another time and it’s kooky, but I know our customers,” says Wells, a tinge of pride in his voice. “A note tells them they took the time to invest in us so I’m going to take the time to thank them.” That philosophy has turned Wells and his stores into one of the most successful independent home furnishings retailers in West Virginia, but Wells is not above admitting a little luck helped along the way. When Wells and his father went looking for a site to open the family’s first retail store in 1994 they scoured Charleston before settling on a property just off U.S. 119, a main corridor that cuts through the city. Shortly after construction began on the store, Wal-Mart announced it was building a store just down the road. A McDonald’s soon followed. “Everything goes right by our store,” he says. “We get a lot of traffic just from people shopping somewhere else and stopping by afterwards.” Earlier this year business had grown to the point that Wells decided to do something many of his fellow home furnishings retailers would have thought unimaginable. He opened a second store in April three hours north of Charleston in Morgantown.

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Wells laid out $740,000 for a run-down, 12,000-square-foot light industrial building, stripped it down to its concrete and metal beams before investing another $1 million in refurbishing it. With inventory, Wells has roughly $2 million at stake—a sizeable outlay for a small businessman in West Virginia, but Wells never hesitated. “I’ve always believed if you’re not growing, you’re going the other way,” Wells says. “We’ve had it good here for several years. Maybe we got comfortable. This (new store) has me excited again.” Wells also has a vastly different market to do business with in Morgantown than he does in Charleston. The city is home to West Virginia University and nearby Clarkesville is home to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services, the bureau’s largest division. Business, so far, is good. Wells’ youngest son, Jason, runs the store. Wells’ wife Mimi helps him during the week before heading back to Charleston on the weekends. Jason Wells says it’s a comfort getting to pick his father’s brain when he needs help. “He loves it when I come to him with a question or suggestion for doing something different,” Jason Wells says. “His eyes light up and he has this smile. You can tell; he’s got such a passion for the business.” Even though he never pressured any of his sons into taking part, John Wells couldn’t be happier. He is 56, and while he loves nothing more than showing up to work every morning, he sees his son growing more comfortable in the business and knows a transition is near.

WHAT NAHFA MEANS TO ME

“

If a furniture store wants to be the best it can be it needs to reach out to any resource available to them. My dad got us involved 21 years ago and I can honestly say the NAHFA has given us so much more in return than what we’ve paid in dues. You can’t put a price on the access to the networking this association has given me. The fact that I can pick up a phone and talk to anyone at the association or another retailer or someone in the industry about a problem and by the end of the call, the day or the week my problem is solved. I’m not sure I can put a price on that. John Wells III, member since 1994

”

John Wells is determined that transition will go smoother than when he took over from his father. “I learned a lot from that time and I’ve always said I’m not going to let that happen again. I still think I have a lot to teach Jason, but I promise that when he looks at me and says, ‘Dad, I got this,’ then I’m gone.”

ALLS WELLS Clockwise from upper left: Wells Home Furnishings has been a fixture in Charleston, W.Va., since 1993. Sam, Jason Wells’ English Bulldog, is a frequent guest at the family’s new store, which opened in Morgantown earlier this year. RetailerNOWmag.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

Create a Best Customer Profile to Hone in on Likely Buyers By Anders Eckman

Website Email

Direct mail

Social

Top 5 acquisition channels used

SEO/PPC

The path to acquisition is predominantly digital For many brick-and-mortar stores, new customers represent about 60 percent of sales each month. Many furniture marketers are under a lot of pressure to find the right data and the right strategies to attract these new customers, however, not all consumers are created equal. Some are willing to pay a premium for your products and are more apt to become loyal customers and brand advocates. Others couldn’t care less about your brand and are simply shopping for the lowest price possible before they move on

SEPTEMBER | 2015

to the next store. So, how do you acquire profitable new customers? And where do you find them?

Create a Best Customer Profile Perhaps one of the most powerful ways to boost sales is by establishing a Best Customer Profile. Analyze your marketing database to find key characteristics of your most profitable customers. Consider a wide range of characteristics, such as demographics, interests,

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behaviors and lifestyle. Be sure to add other types of third-party data to your database. Many data vendors can provide further insights such as home square footage, discretionary income, or home decorating interests. By establishing a profile of your best customer, you can apply the same characteristics to create a best prospect profile. Remember the words of Holger Schulze, vice president of eG Innovations: “Your future prospects resemble your best customers, and that’s the place you should start.”

Acquisition Channels Reaching potential customers can span across many channels. The ideal channels will vary depending on your prospects’ profiles. Once you’ve identified your ideal customer profile, you’ll be able to determine the best acquisition channels to reach your target audience. For example, are they a younger demographic who flock to social media and mobile? Do they respond best to advertising or direct mail? Today’s consumers are digitally driven so be sure to expand your acquisition strategies to include multiple channels. According to Business Insider Intelligence: The Future of Retail, by 2017, 60 percent of all retail sales will involve the web. For the furniture retail industry, online sales of furniture are growing at a rate of nearly 14 percent annually and will reach 6.4 percent of total category sales in 2017. Also consider that multichannel consumers spend three to four times more than single-channel customers, according to Wordstream. Research from DMA shows that the most popular digital acquisition channels are websites and email (see the chart on the opposite page).

the market soon. Any number of key words can be used to find ideal prospects. These prospects can then be delivered on a daily basis, in real-time, to a company’s channel systems, ad agency, or marketing automation systems.

Social Media

Personalized Campaigns

By now, most companies have a social platform or presence in place. A Facebook page to share content, a LinkedIn group to network with prospects or perhaps a Pinterest page to showcase products. Many marketers are hyper-focused on measuring the number of followers, retweets or shares their pages and content are getting. This is certainly a good thing to measure, and engaging with your customers and prospects on social platforms is a must. However, there are huge opportunities within social media that can lead to even bigger wins. Your customers and prospects are having all sorts of conversations on social media about products and services you offer, your competitor’s name, or other discussions that may indicate readiness to purchase. Each of these conversations would be impossible to monitor on an individual basis. However, using data-as-a-service, a company can find just the right social conversations to target new prospects or engage with current customers. Take the example of the furniture retailer on the graphic above. Through data-as-aservice, web scraping technology can be used to find prospects who are "looking" to purchase "furniture" or perhaps getting ready to buy their first house and will be in

Personalized messages and campaigns are also key components of customer acquisition. Remember, you’re marketing to people, and you’ll get more favorable responses when you hone in on their interests or provide personalized recommendations. Here’s a great quote by Hubspot: “The goal of personalization isn’t to engage with one audience of many, but to engage with infinite audiences of one.”

One Audience of Many

Infinite Audiences of One

Also you might want to consider these great statistics: • Personalized emails improve clickthrough by an average of 14 percent and conversion rates by 10 percent. (Aberdeen) • Businesses personalizing web experiences are seeing an increase in sales of 19 percent on average. (Econsultancy) • 56 percent of consumers say they would be more inclined to use a retailer if it offered a good personalized experience. (O2) Consider offering targeted discounts to potential new customers or sending personalized emails to stay top of mind with your prospects, making them more likely to convert. Digital strategies and remarketing also offer an ideal way to re-engage website visitors with personalized offers and recommendations. Successful customer acquisition requires having the right marketing data to develop your own unique mix of audiences, channels, and messaging. And with the right mix, you can expect to power your company’s growth with whole new sets of loyal customers. Anders Eckman, president of DataMentors, has brought data-driven innovation to clients including MasterCard and Kohl’s. Anders has worked with well-known brands such as GM and AT&T Wireless. He can be reached at aeckman@datamentors.com

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

Circle of Trust When it comes to home furnishings, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot we can teach Millennials By Marty Grosse

ave you hugged a Millennial today? Are you ready for that massive buying group that is projected to engulf our industry like a tidal wave? It seems the whole furniture industry is abuzz. Manufacturers are scrambling to create products. Marketers are telling us how to connect. Conferences and seminars are held to specifically study and predict Millennial behaviors. Retailers are wondering if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to be left in the dust unless they adapt quickly.

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Recently my wife and I were invited to a barbecue with friends of my daughter. It was supposed to be a relaxing day away from work, and it was. But I learned a little about our industry, too. My daughter is technically a Gen Xer but she admittedly is trapped in the body and mind of a Millennial. The majority of the folks at the barbecue were Millennials. If you have ever been around a college campus and wondered why teenagers were now attending

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college then you must know how I felt when I showed up. The evening was typical. Plenty of food, music and, of course, the grill operating at full tilt. The kids were running around antsy for fireworks. Like many social occasions where married folks and families gather, the guys gathered around the grill and the gals were in the house. My guy group included a teacher, hardware guy, software engineer, finance/banker, insurance salesman, plumber, a comic book store owner and me, the gray-haired furniture guy. I must admit I was anxious to spend time with these Millennials to find out what makes them so different and so feared by us old retail furniture guys. A few of the topics of conversation included barbecue smokers, football season (including a conversation on fantasy leagues) and recent movie releases. A lengthy debate was held on craft beers and which ones were the best. The demise of cable television was confirmed by all in attendance. Even religion and politics surfaced briefly until we all decided to put those subjects away. In every topic the ubiquitous mobile devices reared their solidcircuit heads. The debate over the best smoker to buy for barbecuing (remember, I live in Texas) created a virtual shopping experience in front of my very eyes. The best smoker reviews and the best place to buy online was quickly agreed upon by the group. This group had formed a fantasy football league last year and it is never too early to get started on the upcoming season. There was laughter about last year and the text wars that had occurred during the season. They all agreed this year to not let the texting and online badgering get out of hand. They sent out some invites electronically around the grill, received responses and set the date for the draft. Things move fast in their technological world. “Did you see that super hero movie that just came out?” the comic book guy asked. “Here’s the YouTube trailer and you have to see it.” We huddled around the guy with the iPhone 6 and watched. Not for me, but who am I to judge? Then I made a typical older guy mistake. I admitted that I was clinging to an iPhone 4S and was promptly reminded that it was

from the Stone Age. I remember being super impressed the first time I used a fax machine, but decided to keep that to myself. Having been phone shamed, I changed the subject to some of the craft beers in the cooler. Did you know there is an app that allows you track different beers you try and you can earn badges showing different levels of achievement? Yep, they showed me how to download it and I am on my way! I also decided to not disclose I cut my teeth on Falstaff and Old Milwaukee. Then the technological earthquake of the evening occurred. Most of these guys have cut the cable cord and the discussion turned to media streaming and the slickest apps that would allow you to watch what you want and not pay much, if anything, for it. Now I was out of the conversation completely and could only stand back in amazement as they shared apps and links to various services. It was a lightning fast conversation with everyone but me participating. They were working together to help each other and I now feel sorry for the cable companies. I could not hold it in any longer. I told them about my 36plus years in retail furniture and I was curious to know how they viewed furniture and furniture purchases in their future. Some asked me the best place to buy online. How do you get the best price? One asked me if I could show him what to look for in terms of quality. Another said that his wife needed help with colors and decorating. Others had stories of bad furniture experiences. (I am always amazed that when you tell someone you are in the furniture business they all have a story or a need). The finance/banker guy wanted to know more about those four- and five-year, no-interest deals. Suddenly I felt relevant again. It is true the Millennials have grown up with technology and will use it in ways not yet imagined. It is also true that people of all generations find furniture and décor to be a bit perplexing and an unknown entity. Marketing to Millennials and getting them into your store may be the challenge, but once they are there, helping them meet their furnishing needs, helping them understand quality differences and providing quality service is the same as dealing with us old Baby Boomers. The difference is a Millennial customer will be your best/worst advocate via their technological prowess. As darkness settled in, we all adjourned to the cul-de-sac and the fireworks fun started. All the cell phones and mobile devices went into pockets and purses. We were unplugged, but still connected. The oohs and aahs were real and reassured me that the more things change the more they stay the same. This is going to be a fun new group of customers. They will make us better merchants and keep us young, too.

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Furniche.com founder Marty Grosse has 35 years of experience including senior positions across six top-tier retailers. Furniche provides visitors real, relevant and timely shopping advice with access to research, local furniture stores and manufacturer information. Contact him at martygrosse@furniche.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

Integrate Your Online Marketing and Traditional Advertising By Kevin Doran

nternet marketing is the talk of the industry. How to increase search, be number one on Google, retarget ads, convert social to sales, etc. These are all important practices for any retailer, and consistent effort in these areas will help you improve and reach wider audiences. However, focusing on just one aspect of marketing in today’s difficult business climate produces mixed results. The process of developing your online presence should include a strategy that integrates online and offline media with one comprehensive message throughout. This will help you achieve a successful ad campaign with the greatest reach and return for your efforts. Your customer is bombarded with more than 3,000 branded messages every day. This does not mean there are 3,000 opportunities for your message to be heard, it means there are 3,000 opportunities for your message to be lost. Without a way to easily search, create and share content about your business, customers will lose interest and eventually your message will become background noise as just another one among the many. That is why a marketing strategy that bridges traditional and online advertising methods will help you reach your customers in all the venues where they spend their time and prefer to shop.

Online = Offline: Synergy between online appearance and offline messaging is more important than ever in today’s market. You need to make sure the same messages you promote in traditional media also speak loud and clear on your online properties. Just as it is important to select the right traditional media to spread your message, choosing the proper online outlets to reach your target audience is key to making your message memorable. In a survey done by BrightLocal (an SEO research company) 88 percent of consumers indicated they have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business and 39 percent of consumers revealed they have read reviews on a regular basis. If we as business owners aren’t monitoring and claiming our online properties then we have no chance at controlling our brand message. Any blip in this synergy can lead to a possible lost sale.

Shareable: Do you make it easy for your customers to share your brand message via their smartphones? The audience controls your messages the moment you promote it, and you need to give them every opportunity to share it with their social community. Direct your audience to the proper online channels and make sure your message is clear and can be shared easily. Each customer who shares your message with her network creates that many more possible sales. You can’t build a house from the roof down, and you can’t start converting online consumers to your customers without setting the foundation for success. Begin your integrated approach and watch as customers become ambassadors for your message.

How do you start the process?

Kevin Doran is the CEO of R&A Marketing. Armed with more than 30 years of furniture retail marketing experience, R&A Marketing works with retailers in the home furnishings, appliances, and electronics industries. Email info@ramarketing.com for more information.

When building your marketing strategy, focus on these three things:

Storefront = Online Storefront: Your online properties (website, social media, Yelp, Google places, etc.) will likely be the very first impression a new customer has of your store, so you need to ensure that you online presence reflects your physical storefront. Using the tools these online properties provide (pictures, videos, tours, etc.) will help you with online search success and attract customers. By equipping your business with the most current online properties you’re giving your business a real chance at attracting customers via online search.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

“

Marketing that bridges traditional and online advertising methods will help you reach your customer.

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— Kevin Doran

”

Grant Laidlaw VP of Sales Eric Clarke President

Locations: Puyallup, WA #, Ĺ&#x17D; )' ĂźĹ&#x17D; Ĺ&#x17D;Ä Ĺ&#x17D; ),! (.)(ĂźĹ&#x17D; Fax: ĂšĂłĂšÄ&#x2018;Ă¸ĂˇĂľÄ&#x2018;ĂľĂľĂˇĂ˛Ĺ&#x17D;Ä Ĺ&#x17D;Phone: 855-208-6377 Email:Ĺ&#x17D;- & -Ä? *, --Ăť )' Please contact Grant Laidlaw VP Sales at 778-549-3188 or glaidlaw@nwfxpress.com to review your transportation needs.

The Northwest Furniture Transportation Leader

www.NWFXpress.com

Guaranteed to Move You

As more customers want to recline, motion furniture sales continue to incline. By Robert Bell

SEPTEMBER | 2015

otion furniture is on the move again. Same direction as last year and the last several years before that: up. Sales continue to dramatically climb—$6 billion by one account last year—for one of the industry’s fastest-growing categories. One furniture manufacturer unblushingly believes the ever-changing category’s momentum is leading the home furnishings industry’s overall resurgence. “As an industry, I really think motion (furniture) is the most important category we’ve got going for us these days,” says Lee David Fautsch, senior vice president of sales home furnishings for Flexsteel Industries. “For Flexsteel, motion is where the steady, double-digit growth has been for the past eight years now, and I really don’t see it slowing down.”

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Mississippi-based Southern Motion is also having another strong year in sales due to the company’s fierce loyalty among shoppers. “We’ve grown like crazy the last six or seven years,” says Jack Tidwell, the company’s western regional sales manager. “I just don’t see a slowdown anytime soon. People want what’s comfortable and that’s what motion provides. It’s only going to get bigger.”

As Grace tells it, at the end of the day, we’re all looking for the same thing. “It doesn’t matter what age you are,” he says. “You always want to relax.” Motion furniture long ago shed its clunky image when it went by the oh-so-drab name of recliner. You know the one: the grubby chair covered in dog hair that Frasier’s dad fell into on television every Thursday night. The one almost always found in

ELEGANT Motion isn’t relegated to the basement. These days pieces like Palliser’s Shorecrest are likely to make a statement in the living room.

Retailers tend to agree. In Marcy, N.Y., North American Home Furnishings Association member Bill Grace carved out more space on Grace Furniture’s showroom floor this summer to make room for a half dozen more motion sofas and loveseats alongside his La-Z-Boy chairs. Demand has been steadily increasing over the past five years at his store, located in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, and Grace wants to keep up. “People want to try something different and motion is something that certainly qualifies as different,” he says. “There’s always been a demand for recliners, but the past few years more people are coming in wanting a sofa they can kick back in at the end of the day and take their feet off the ground.” Grace’s son lives in Atlanta, a decidedly bigger and younger market than Marcy’s aging population. Grace has heard of motion furniture’s popularity in larger cities with Millennials, but it’s just as big of a seller in tiny Marcy (pop. 8,982).

front of a television and usually in the basement. These days motion furniture, with its sleek lines and high-end upholstery, has cleaned up its image and has found a home in living rooms as a statement piece. Palliser’s Jessica Smithson said her company has an unwritten philosophy behind every piece of motion furniture it designs. “All of our effort goes into how to not look like motion furniture,” says Smithson, marketing manager for Palliser. “We take a lot of pride in the contemporary, trendy look we bring to market.” And with Palliser, whose Pinnacle line is a high-end alternative for retailers, those trends can range from hidden USB ports for charging smartphones and tablets to wineglass tables. The manufacturer’s latest accessory is Flex Light, a bending lighting fixture that the user can adjust for whatever task it is needed. “People more and more are into comfort and style with motion

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

FLEXING POWER Flexsteel’s Elliot Power Group has helped make motion furniture one of the company’s most profitable categories in recent years. (furniture),” Smithson says. “They’re not into building home theater-style seating as much as they are making the piece fit their lifestyle needs. Movies are two hours out of a day whereas our sofas can be used throughout the day and night. That’s important to people.” Motion furniture got its start thanks to the overwhelming value of leather out of Asia, says Fautsch. “Consumers could look at a stationary sofa and a motion sofa as equals,” he says. “You could get a motion sofa for the same price as a fabric that just sat there and did nothing. What has continued the growth has been the style and scale and ease of function that’s been added.” With the choices of leather and fabrics increasing in the cat-

REST IN STYLE Left, Palliser sofas and recliners come with optional accessories. Top to bottom, USB ports, drink holders with storage and extra-wide padded arm rests.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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CLEAN LINES Motion furniture is no longer the clunky, overstuffed piece your father or grandfather fell asleep in. Palliser's Shorecrest recliner, left and below, displays sleek lines while still providing comfort.

egory, it was only a matter of time before women became more and more interested in what was once one of the few home furnishings categories dominated by male users. “When women got interested suddenly the audience doubled,” says Fautsch. “That’s when things really took off.” Technology has rendered the clunky handle for reclining obsolete, though it’s still on the market. Fautsch estimates 70 percent of Flexsteel’s motion sales are from power-activated pieces. He and others say it took an inexplicable number of years for power activation to be adopted by the home furnishings industry despite the auto industry employing the technology for years. “The technology in your sofa is almost identical to what you have

in your car,” he says. “Why it took so long for (the industry) to adopt the technology is a mystery to me because it was a natural to transfer to home furnishings. “Anyone driving a relatively new car feels really at ease using a motion sofa or chair as soon as they get it in their home,” he says. “People have been driving around with this technology for years. It was only a matter of time before what was in their driveway ended up in their living room. Now it’s styled such that a woman would be proud to have it in her home—and not Continued on page 31

CURVE APPEAL Palliser's Shorecrest sectional sofa seats (and reclines) four people based on each user’s individual preferences.

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

FOCUS NOW

Quality beats quantity every time. RetailerNOW is the only association print and digital media focused entirely on your target audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;retailers. Focus your ad dollars on reaching the CEOs, owners, buyers and decision makers rather than just blindly reaching. Advertise now. Call Michelle Nygaardatat916.960.0277. 916.757.1160. Call Cindi Williams

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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INSPIRATION+EDUCATION

Get back in the Game Continued from page 29

with a Lynch Sale!

“Outstanding job. This is the second time we have engaged Lynch Sales. We were impressed. 8631 clients shopped in 42 selling days resulting in millions of dollars in written sales. We were very pleased.” Robert A. Masin Masins • Bellevue, WA June 29, 2015 just in the basement, but upstairs.” Covers have changed, too. Consumers can still get their fill of brown and blue corduroy or leather, but there’s also a wide spectrum of leather in bright reds, yellows and oranges—even aqua. Fautsch is proud of how far motion furniture has come in terms of appeal. “We’ve taken what was once considered a category devoid of fashion and made it just as inspiring as any stationary piece of furniture,” he says. “In fact, stationary furniture now appears to be very boring. Just look it. It just sits there waiting to be sat on. It doesn’t do anything!” Customers are big on head rests this year and manufacturers have been quick to respond. At the April High Point market, Southern Motion introduced an electronic headrest offering infinite possible positions while still offering a separate motor for adjusting the reclining position. Flexsteel, Palliser and others offer a similar headrest that shoppers are responding positively to, according to the manufacturers. Tidwell says one of the biggest misconceptions of motion furniture is that the comfort comes at the expense of quality. “We have single- and, in many cases, double-needle stitching,” he says. “You’re getting just as much quality in motion as you are in any other piece of furniture.”

“The Sale has been beyond our wildest expectations!” Patrick Cullinan Parson’s Furniture • Wolfeboro, NH June 22, 2015

“It was the best sale we have ever had with no complaints and 99.999% of our sales were implemented and completed - an amazing statistic.” Jim & Linda Shubert Shubert Design Furniture • Manchester, MO March 4, 2015

Contact us today or visit our website for a complete outline of our legendary Sale Plans and our no-nonsense, one-page contract.

FEATURED MANUFACTURERS Here’s how to get in touch with this month’s manufacturers. Flexsteel flexsteel.com | 563.556.7730 Palliser palliser.com | 866.444.0777 Southern Motion southernmotion.com | 662.488.9301

Serving the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

Call (800) 824 - 2238 or visit www.LynchSales.com RetailerNOWmag.com

NAHFAATWORK

Next Gen Members Learn the Zappos Way

By Robert Bell

he sold-out bus of Next Generation NOW members stared wide-eyed in the manner of Las Vegas tourists close to finishing off one of those yard-long margaritas on Fremont Street. Only there was no alcohol or show girls in sight. They had just arrived at one of the city’s more offbeat, and increasingly popular, attractions: an hour-long tour of cubicles and a lunchroom. Oh, and a jail, too. Zappos, the online shoe and apparel retailer, welcomed 24 Next Generation NOW members to an exclusive tour through its Las Vegas headquarters, translating its quirky customs for the suit-andtie masses of the home furnishings industry. The tour was organized by the North American Home Furnishings Association, which hosts the NGN community of young industry professionals whose mission is to give voice to the next

SEPTEMBER | 2015

wave of men and women working in the industry. NGN members took a break from last month’s furniture market to see what tips the popular Internet retailer could provide to help their own businesses back home. “Culture guides”—there are no tour guides at Zappos—spent the morning mixing witticisms and history with sound business advice, chief of which was this: the customer comes first. Always. For many NGN members, Zappos (which was scooped up by Amazon in 2009 for about $1 billion}, represents the alt-indie vibe they envision for their stores. The company started shifting from its old system of department managers about three years ago. It’s too early to measure the impact, but employees say the goal is to maintain a small-firm culture even as the company with more than 1,000 employees grows.

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Zappos made another big change last spring. The giant online shoe retailer got rid of managers altogether, replacing them with a system of self-governance by all employees—holacracy—anyone who didn’t like it could take a buyout. Fourteen percent of employees did. The rest are adjusting to what a business without a boss looks and feels like. Holacracy is a term coined by political writer Arthur Koestler. Its central tenets are grounded in individual autonomy and selfgovernance by employees, two important practices on display at Zappos every day. At Zappos, employees aren’t told how to work. Instead, they belong to voluntary groups called circles, or peers who help vet new ideas or problems. That means everyone has equal say, and employees are evaluated and rewarded by peers, instead of by a boss. From the outside looking in, holacracy may sound like a recipe for chaos. But in fact, meetings are highly structured. Anyone can add items to the agenda, which is documented using online software so everyone can monitor every decision. Zappos customerservice worker Jaqui Gonzalez says the company is guided by 10 core values that she believes any company could and should adopt: deliver WOW through service; embrace and drive change; create fun and a little weirdness; be adventurous, creative, and openminded; pursue growth learning; build open and honest relationships with communication; build a positive team and family spirit; do more with less; be passionate and determined; and be humble. Gonzalez contrasts her current job with her previous career working in various veterinarian offices in San Francisco. At her old job, others told Gonzalez what needed to be done and when on a daily basis. At Zappos, she says employees set their own agenda, then identify and solve the problems they encounter. Gonzalez paraded Next Generation NOW members past desks festooned with streamers and toys in Zappos’ customer service operation, which, in many ways, is the heart of the company. “I like to tell people we are a customer-service operation that just happens to sell shoes,” she says. Gonzalez is a perfect example of holacracy at work. Zappos allows its customer service representative to spend as much time on the phone with a customer—the company unblushingly boasts that one call lasted more than 10 hours—and each representative is allowed to keep in touch with a customer by sending them a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates or cookies or even a simple thank-you card. They do this without needing prior approval from a manager because—remember?—there are no managers. Zappos doesn’t like to use the phrase “phone calls.” Instead the company refers to every incoming call as a PEC, or Personal Emotional Connection. The idea, says Gonzalez, “is to reach out and connect with customers on more than just a transactional level. When you connect on an emotional level, we believe strongly you’re creating the foundation for a returning customer.” NGN member Nick Gates of Gates Home Furnishings in Grants Pass, Oregon, was impressed with the company’s dedication to connecting with the customer. “It’s refreshing to look at how other companies address customer service,” he says. “We’re always looking at ways to improve our (customer service) rather

CULTURE CLUB Next Generation NOW members took an exclusive tour of Zappos’ headquarters in Las Vegas and learned how the company empowers its employees.

than just have its purpose be to put out fires. They come at it from an entirely different approach and it pays off for them obviously.” “One of the things NAHFA loves to do is help provide support and great educational opportunities like the Zappos tour to Next Generation Now members,” says NAHFA’s executive vice president, Mary Frye. “It’s a great opportunity for them to learn, and when Next Gen members learn, the industry as a whole learns and gets stronger.” Zappos, founded in San Francisco in 1999, moved its headquarters to Henderson, Nevada in 2001, and moved to its current location, which was once the municipal headquarters for Las Vegas, in 2013. The campus spans about 276,500 square feet across 11 stories; it was named #4 on Bloomberg’s list of most impressive offices in the world. There’s a cafeteria and kitchen (with free salads every day and gourmet coffee that never costs more than $2), roof terrace, game rooms, yoga studio, touch-screen video games in the elevators and a gym in the old city jail cell. The tour was just one of several educational seminars and events the North American Home Furnishings Association puts together every year for NGN members. Gates looks forward to the educational events at every market. “When I’m at home in my bubble I get a lot of ideas in my head,” says Gates. “Next Gen is a place where those ideas can start to grow because I’m meeting with so many of my peers. Networking is not only about shaking hands. It’s about sharing ideas and getting to understand other perspectives and yourself better.”

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

Listen Up! Maybe it's time for a new line By Tom Shay I’m guessing if a retailer like yourself visited retailers from different trades, you’d find you have more in common than you thought. That’s because it’s the customer who remains the same. The customer shops in one store the same way she shops in another. The retailer who wants their business to stand out from other businesses selling similar products would do well to look at retailers selling different products to observe how these other retailers appeal to customers. Look at drug stores and hardware stores for example. The pharmacy is located at the rear of the drug store for the same reason the screen repair and glass cutting are located at the back of the hardware store or the repair center is at the back of the power equipment store. All are placed that way so that the customer is forced to pass by merchandise before they get to the service they initially came in for. It’s the same reason grocery stores put the necessities (milk, bread) furthest from the front door. I recently read an article about the banking industry that stated there’s a 90-percent chance a customer will move an account to a different bank if that customer has only that account with the bank. The article went on to say there’s a way that same customer will keep his money in his old bank, but it requires work on the part of the bank. The same customer, if they use at least five of the products/services of the first bank are 90 percent unlikely to move their

SEPTEMBER | 2015

business to a second bank. So what’s the takeaway? It’s simple, really: the business that does a better job of taking care of its customer’s needs is more likely to retain that customer’s business. The experience of the banking industry gives a lesson that can apply to other retailers, including anyone who sells home furnishings or accessories. Selling additional products in your store, including consumables, can cause a customer to increase their dependence on the retailer. In previous columns we’ve discussed getting your money out of any inventory sitting stagnant in your showroom or warehouse. Moving that money to your checking account makes sense only if you are in arrears with your payables. If this is not the case, that money should be put into action in the form of additional products you could be offering. How would you select the items you would add to your offering? Of course, there

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has to be room on the showroom floor to have this discussion, but that is a discussion for another day. There are two ways we can answer the question about selecting these new additions for your product selection. We could first look at related items. Ask your sales team what items your customers ask for most that your store doesn’t stock. When a customer asks for an item and your salesperson says you don’t carry that, the next question is usually “Do you know where I could buy one?” Guess what? That’s the customer’s way of saying (screaming, actually) “If you offered this item, I would buy it from you. Since you do not offer it, I would like your recommendation as to where to buy it.” So customer inquiries would be the first category of products you should consider adding to your product mix. At first glance you may not see the relationship of these items to the products you are currently selling, but they’re the items your customers

HELP CUSTOMERS see as relevant to your business. Retailers that consider adding this line to their product offering are focused on ‘who’ their customer is instead of ‘what’ their products are. This is the evolution of retailing. Think about retailers that have ceased to exist in the past decade. With many of them, they failed to adjust their product offering to the current wants of their customers. The additions you would be considering adding could be a part of your evolution. The second type of products you might add could be that of consumables. Adding these products means your customers will have a need to return to your store more frequently. Consumables aren’t high-dollar items, but they do give the customer a reason to return more frequently and, like the example of the pharmacy, see the rest of your offerings. If you carry lamps, lighting and lighting fixtures, offer the bulbs to go with

them—not just the bulbs commonly found at hardware stores and home centers, but unique bulbs that make the light fixtures and lamps you sell have a more unique appearance. Furniture practically begs to be sold with accessories, the natural add-on sale, but don’t forget the consumables—cleaners and polishes for furniture and appliances are one example, sheets and pillows for mattresses are another. Next month’s High Point Market could be the right time for you to break from the traditional routine of the lines you look at. This could be the time to consider some additional product lines that give your customers additional reasons and needs for visiting your store more frequently. Tom Shay is a former retailer who helps other retailers grow their business. Subscribe to Tom Shay’s e-ret@ailer, a monthly newsletter packed with tips for growing your business, at profitsplus.org.

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AUGUST | 2015

NEXTGENPROFILE

Six Answers With Amy Albert I’ve been working in the business since I was a kid. When I was younger I would come in and start dusting, changing the light bulbs, odd jobs like that. I was paid pretty well—generously actually. Today I’m the controller. I handle all the content that goes in and out of the website and on social media.

Amy Albert Controller Pilgrim City Furniture Southington, Conn.

zzz

I’ve worked in almost every department in the store so far. It’s given me a good understanding of what each department goes through and how it can be stronger. They’re all interesting, but one of the most challenging is customer service. When someone is not happy with us, how can we improve that? I think it ties into the social media aspect of the business. There are a whole bunch of customers who reach out through Yelp. If they want a services person, we send out a tech, if there’s a spot on a sofa and they ask for an exchange we reply. “If that’s what you like then sure!” We don’t have very many who reach out like that so when it happens we fix it so our customer service is very public and transparent for everyone to see. zzz

The business is evolving so fast that nobody has a road map to be ready for what’s ahead. If they did they’d probably be more successful selling that knowledge than selling furniture. The NAHFA seminars are a great place to hear what everyone is doing, what’s working for people and what isn’t working for them. Then we take that information and make a plan from there. zzz

I play a lot of tennis and a little bit of golf when I’m not at work. I’ve got two puppies at home, Marley and Lola, who take up a lot of my time, but they’re great to relax and play with. zzz

Our Pilgrim City Furniture Golf Tournament is something fun to do every year. This year I’ll be pretty involved with registration and expenses and I’ll be playing. It’s a nice way to get a lot of people in the industry together and over the years we’ve raised more than $50,000 for children to go to camp. zzz

Next Gen NOW does a good job creating a community of people going through the same things everyone else is going through. We share our struggles and successes and we can help each other through their struggles or help them get to the success we’ve had. You won’t find any other group like it in the industry. That’s why I support it.

ALBERT: ”The business is evolving so fast that nobody has a road map to be ready for what’s ahead.“

Six Answers is a monthly profile of a Next Generation Now member. Next Gen NOW is an NAHFA-hosted community of young industry professionals whose mission is to give voice to the needs and goals of the industry’s next wave of leaders. Connect with members at nextgenerationnow.net or Twitter @ngnow. 36

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

BENEFITFOCUS

NAHFA’s Human Resources & Employment Law Hotline Free Service Can Keep You Out of Trouble Consulting Services, you are. ACG can help make sure you and your home furnishings store are documenting everything with your employees correctly.

By Kaprice Crawford

anaging employees is hard work! Not knowing whether you are in compliance with your state and federal laws can be troublesome and detrimental to your business. Fortunately, your North American Home Furnishings Association membership helps simplify things. Included in your membership are free phone consultations with ACG Consulting Services, a company specializing in all aspects of labor and employee relations, human resources and workplace safety. You have immediate, unlimited access to the seasoned staff of human resource, employment law and safety specialists for expert advice on the most challenging employment issues you face, including: • Employee discipline and termination strategies • Overtime, rest and meal periods, exempt/non-exempt, and other wage and hour regulations • Leaves of absence—FMLA/CFRA, pregnancy, disability, and other protected leaves • Workers compensation issues • Employee relations and HR administrative strategies • OSHA and environmental regulatory compliance • Sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination • Employee record keeping and workplace posting requirements

Wage and hour lawsuits, government investigations, and enforcement actions represent the single most significant threat to U.S. employers. Federal wage and hour lawsuits filed nationally have increased by more than 400 percent since 2000. State courts have also experienced high volumes of wage and hour cases, especially in California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts. The U.S. Department of Labor has increased the number of wage and hour investigators auditing employers’ pay practices and is initiating enforcement actions with greater frequency, which means you need to be on top of employment law. And with ACG

Did you know?

SEPTEMBER | 2015

Did you know?

Earlier this year, in an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the religious-discrimination case of EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., a case that could have far-implications for many retail businesses. Title VII prohibits a prospective employer from refusing to hire an applicant in order to avoid accommodating a religious practice that could be accommodated without undue hardship. In the fashion retailer’s case, the court needed to determine “whether this prohibition applies only where an applicant has informed the employer of his need for an accommodation.” The Court rejected Abercrombie’s argument that an applicant cannot show a violation of Title VII without first showing that the employer had “actual knowledge” of the applicant’s need for accommodation. Instead, the Court held that “an applicant need only show that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer’s decision.” The bottom line? “[T]he rule for disparate-treatment claims based on a failure to accommodate a religious practice is straightforward: an employer may not make an applicant’s religious practice, confirmed or otherwise, a factor in employment decisions.” So, many employers are wondering: now what? American Consulting Group can help provide the dos and don’ts for hiring following the Supreme Court’s ruling and other legal matters. Take advantage of your membership and let ACG Consulting Services help you with any of your labor issues! The risks of employment litigation and regulatory compliance issues continue to grow, but most potential hazards can be avoided with the right advice and guidance. ACG has helped countless businesses avoid the huge costs and aggravation of lawsuits and regulatory investigations.

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Kaprice Crawford, NAHFA membership director, can tell you how this HR and safety consulting hotline can give you peace of mind and support your company’s existing HR function. The service is included in your membership benefit package. Call 800.422.3778 for more information.

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GOVACTION

TROLLING FOR DOLLARS Patent trolls are increasingly targeting retailers and demanding large sums of money. Here’s how you can fight back. By Lisa Casinger Unless you’ve personally been involved with a patent troll case you might not have the foggiest idea what they are; if you haven’t you’re lucky. Patent troll is the nickname given to companies that swoop in and buy vague or broad patents in the hopes of cashing in big. These patent assertion entities (PAEs) aren’t usually the inventors or creators, they’re looking for a fast buck. For several years they’ve been targeting retailers and restaurants specifically. They’ll send the unsuspecting retailer a demand letter written in legal mumbo-jumbo threatening to sue unless the store pays the licensing fee for the “infringement.” Claims are made over common practices such as offering free Wi-Fi in store, using a shopping cart on a website or even how a visitor searches for product on a website. Often retailers either get caught up in lengthy and costly legal battles with these

patent trolls or, to avoid that, they’ll settle out of court (which is what the trolls hope for) and pay whatever the “fee” is as deemed by the troll. The National Retail Federation estimates the average cost of defending against a patent troll’s claim is about $2 million and can take up to 18 months. The federation estimates patent trolls cost businesses just like yours as much as $80 billion a year. Recently the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a version of the Patent Act, a bill that would make it harder for patent owners to file lawsuits against businesses. This bill requires plaintiffs to clearly state which patents they think are being infringed rather than being vague and broad in their suit. The bill increases transparency and curbs abusive demand letters. It attempts to limit the amount of discovery (the work you have to put into it to produce evidence, which is especially burdensome for small retailers). Another provision provides a process to recover fees if an abusive litigant is hiding behind a shell company. If you receive a demand letter, what are your options? The first option is to settle—just pay the fee and go on about your business. Some say this path of least resistance is the way to go because you’re either going to spend a lot of time and money on legal fees or paying the fee and you might as well cut your losses. The second option is to resist. NAHFA member David Lively, owner of TheLivelyMerchant.com resisted. It started in 2011 when more than 200 of Lively’s customers received a 16-page “scare tactic” letter, according to Lively. The claim? The websites of Lively’s clients were using a guided parametric search. For seven months, Lively worked with

three law firms for more than 500 billable attorney hours in three states. In the end, Lively and his clients were vindicated. “The patent claim was widely invalidated,” he says. Lively said fighting the claim was worth it. “It is important to protect our intellectual property,” Lively says. “However I would suggest each company should get their own legal advice before deciding what to do in these cases.” Here are a few tips on dealing with patent trolls: • If the suit is frivolous, don’t settle. Conduct your due diligence to determine if in fact you are infringing on the patent and if not, contact a lawyer. The letter Lively’s customers received stated that if they simply paid the $40,000 fee there would be no further litigation—typically trolls don’t care about the patent, they’re looking for a payday. • Respond quickly and ask (or have your lawyer ask) the plaintiff’s lawyer specific questions—what their economic interest is, specifics about how you’re supposedly infringing the patent, the parties involved, etc. • While some reports say the proliferation of patent trolls is declining, they’re still a hazard, especially to small, independent businesses. Urge your members of Congress to co-sponsor patent litigation reform to protect entrepreneurs from patent trolls. Lisa Casinger is ReailerNow’s editorial director and NAHFA’s government relations liaison. You can reach her at lcasinger@nahfa.org or 916784-7677.

A media campaign urging voters to contact Congress and ask for legislation to end patent abuse was launched through a joint effort by the National Retail Federation, The Internet Association, Food Marketing Institute and National Restaurant Association. The advertisements can be seen and heard at stopbadpatents.com.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

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NORTH AMERICAN HOME FURNISHINGS ASSOCIATION’S 2015 SPONSORS

Premier Sponsors

Coaster Company of America Furniture Today North American Retail Service Corp. Titanium Sponsors

Ashley Furniture Industries Emerald Home Furnishings FurnitureDealer.net Furniture Wizard MicroD, Inc. Myriad Software Nourison STORIS Synchrony Financial

Platinum Sponsors ACA Advertising Concepts of America • Best Buy for Business DataMentors • Diakon Logistics • Furniture of America High Point Market Authority • Leggett & Platt • Mail America 5VY[O^LZ[ -\YUP[\YL ,_WYLZZ 7YVÄ[HIPSP[` *VUZ\S[PUN .YV\W PROFITsystems, Inc. • R & A Marketing • Simmons USA

Gold/Silver Sponsors

1HPW\Y 7OVLUP_ ( 4 + /VYPJO /LJ[VY 3LIV^ (K]LY[PZPUN Restonic Mattress Corp • Steve Silver Co. • Why Not Lease It

Bronze Sponsors

Banner Marketing • BrandSource AVB • Ekornes • Moso Graphics Netsertive • Rooms to Go • Rooms to Go Kids • Therapedic Idaho Wahlquist Management *List as of AUGUST 20, 2015

To become an industry sponsor contact: North American Home Furnishings Association Call Cindi Williams @ 800.422.3778 | cwilliams@nahfa.org

OFNOTE With a little help from its friends, Coconis Furniture raises nearly $70,000 to support autism awareness NAHFA member Coconis Furniture raised almost $70,000 at last month’s annual “Tee It Up Fore Autism” charity golf outing. More than 130 golfers and 30 companies participated in the sixth annual event. Randy Coconis, president of Coconis Furniture, was thrilled with the number of participants and supporters and the amount of money they raised. “This is the best and most rewarding thing we do,” Coconis says. “I have seen firsthand how getting the kids the proper help and therapy at an early age can make a huge difference in their lives. When parents say “thank-you” with tears in their eyes, you know you are doing something right.” Another clue that you’re doing something right: in the six years Coconis Furniture has held its “Tee It Up For Autism” event, more than $305,000 has been raised for the National Autism Association of Southeast Ohio. Serta Mattress Co. was the title platinum sponsor of the event for the sixth straight year. Jacqueline and Chris Laurita, stars on Bravo’s reality TV show, Real Housewives of New Jersey, were this year’s featured guest speakers. The couple’s 8-year-old son is

NAHFA members to be honored for industry excellence NAHFA members El Dorado, Jerome’s, Grand Home Furnishings, Ashley, and Badcock Home Furniture & More will be honored at Furniture/Today’s Annual Leadership Conference Dec. 1-3 at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort in Naples, Fla. “The success of these retail organizations across generations of change in Ameri-

SEPTEMBER | 2015

FORE CHARITY More than 130 golfers participated in Coconis Furniture’s “Tee It Up Fore Autism” event last month including, above, left to right, Michael Pitman, Jake Monnier, Myra Stone of Ashley and Don Sohl of King Koil. Left, former professional golfer Tammie Green and Bob Kessler of Kessler Sign Co. autistic. Since his diagnosis, the Lauritas have embraced the autism community and speak all over the country raising autism awareness. Ninety percent of all funds raised will remain in southeast Ohio, which is good since autism is not covered by insurance in Ohio, leaving families to pay out of pocket or go without necessary treatments and medical therapies.

“The “Tee It Up Fore Autism” charity outing would not be a success without the help of the furniture industry,” says Coconis. Serta, along with many other furniture companies and representatives stepped up to make the event a success. Ashley Furniture, Tempur-pedic, fellow NAHFA member Sheely’s Furniture & Appliance in nearby Youngstown, and countless others participated.

can society perfectly embodies this year’s conference theme, ‘Furnishing the Needs of the 21st Century Family,” says Furniture/ Today’s editor-in-chief Bill McLoughlin. “At a critical time for our industry, which is undergoing its own generational change in its consumer base and employee pool, these retailers have demonstrated the ability to evolve and grow from small family businesses into true retail dynasties.” Each of these second- and third-generation family businesses are among Furniture/ Today’s top 100 retailers. Ashley, headquartered in Arcadia, Wis.

is number 1 with 551 locations and $3.27 billion estimated sales; Badcock Home Furniture & More in Mulberry, Fla. is 27 with 309 locations and $318 million in estimated sales; El Dorado in Miami Gardens, Fla. is 42 with 13 locations and $188 million in estimated sales; Grand Home Furnishings in Roanoke, Va. is 54 with 19 locations and $130 in estimated sales and Jerome’s in San Diego, Calif. is 49, with 11 locations and $147 million in estimated sales. Ashley Furniture, Badcock Home Furniture & More and El Dorado also play an active roll in the NAHFA board of directors.

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OFNOTE StarFine Furniture & Bedding Center to celebrate 95 years

It was 1920 when David M. Goldhirsh opened a second-hand furniture store in Galveston, Texas. The city was emerging as a major tourist destination centered on casinos and other vice businesses and Goldhirsh saw his chance to make an honest living. Ninety-five years later, it’s safe to say Goldhirsh was right. Next month NAHFA member StarFine Furniture & Bedding Center will celebrate its 95th anniversary in Galveston. Today the store is run by Goldhirsh’s son, Ben Jay Stein, who plans on throwing a month-long sale to commemorate the anniversary. “It’s not quite 100, but it’s still a big deal for us,” says Stein. “And when we get to 100 it will be even bigger.” You don’t get to be 95 years old without doing something right. Stein, Goldhirsh’s grandfather, points to three reasons for his store’s success: Passion: “Everybody that has come into the business has loved the furniture business,” he says. “And because of that love they’ve always put their heart and soul into it with energy and ideas. Each of us—me,

my grandfather and my father—has added to the company in some ways big and small when they took over.” No Debt: “Except maybe the first few years we’ve always been debt free,” says Stein. “I’m convinced that’s the only way to make it these days. You need to own your building, warehouse and inventory clear and free. It’s the only way to grown and be successful.” Go with the flow: “All of us have been able to adjust with the times when we needed to,” he says. “Look at me. When I started out, nobody thought about buying containers of furniture. That was just unheard of. People would have thought you were crazy, but we’ve been able to adjust with the times.” Today, StarFine has adjusted. Goldhirsh’s second-hand store as grown into a 32,000-square-foot showroom. Two years ago Stein purchased a 30,000-square-foot warehouse. The company once sold low-end furniture, but now sells Lexington, Hooker, Bernhardt, Legacy and other higher-end lines to distinguish itself from its competi-

tion. They even changed their name to StarFine not long after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought Star Furniture in nearby Houston in 1997. “It’s a silly name, isn’t it?” says Stein, not waiting for an answer, “but it works. People know us.” StarFine Furniture might be on an island, but just across the bridge to the mainland the competition heats up. In addition to Star, StarFine goes head-to-head with big names like Rooms To Go, Ashley and other stores. Stein likes to think his company’s personal attention sets it apart from others. “We work here everyday,” he says. “We don’t have absentee ownership. If there’s a problem my son and I are here and we can put a name to a face and so can the customer. When you’re making a pretty big investment, I think that’s important you can count on that.” Stein isn’t sure exactly what he’ll do for his company’s 95th anniversary. He plans on a sale of some sort. “It will be big, but not too big,” he jokes. “We’re saving that for when we turn 100.”

Deal keeps Showtime in Market Square through 2020 Showtime, the twice-a-year textile event for the home furnishings industry, will remain at High Point’s Market Square. The International Textile Market Association and International Market Centers last month reached a deal that will keep the

event in High Point for the next five years. Showtime is held twice a year—the next event is Dec. 6-9—in the Market Square complex. Hundreds of buyers from across the nation converge on High Point to check out the latest, fabric, leather and trimmings

available to their industry. UPCOMING SHOWTIME DATES: December 6-8 June 5-6, 2016

Got an item for Of Note? Send your information and hi-res photos to Robert Bell, rbell@nahfa.org.

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SEPTEMBER | 2015

Welcome New NAHFA Members NAHFA is pleased to recognize and welcome the following retailers to the Association.

Don Polley Fairfield Galleries Fort Wayne, Ind.

Charles Falugo Bedding Center Attleboro, Mass.

Francisco Rodriguez Hacienda Furniture, Inc. Oxnard, Calif.

Salvador Llanos Famsa, Inc. Dallas, Texas

The North American Home Furnishings Association provides networking and educational events across the country throughout the year. Visit NAHFA.org/Events (or email events@ nahfa.org) for information and registration or if you’d like to host an event in your area.

The Ultimate Diamond Heist September 15, 2015 The Ultimate SkyBox at DiamondView Tower San Diego, CA

Pilgrim Furniture City Annual Golf Tournament September 29, 2015 Lake of the Isles, Southington, CT

Next Generation NOW’s Lunch with Leaders @HPM Next Generation NOW’s BASH @HPM October 18, 2015 High Point, N.C.

New England Holiday BASH December (More details to come)

Igbarra Igbarra Furn-O-Rama Furniture Bronx, N.Y.

Gary Seals Ashley Furniture HomeStore New Braunfels, Texas

Nick Renna Barr’s Furniture Riverside, Calif.

Nicki Richardson J&R Furniture & Carpet Shenandoah, Iowa

Greg Rich Habitation Furnishings + Design St. Louis Park, Minn.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

Lake of the Isles North Course, Southington, CT

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Delivering Education Every Month

NAHFA hosts monthly webinars (free to members) on a variety of topics ranging from technology, sales and marketing and operations to consumer studies, ecommerce and more. Webinars are scheduled for the third Thursday of every month from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. PT. Visit NAHFA.org/events for more information and registration.

Consumer Study Report

In-Store Analytics

Social Recruiting

September 17

October 15

November 19

Software for Furniture Retail Growth

“Furniture Barn has been a family-operated business for decades. We have experienced growth, from a “mom and pop” store to a thriving business with a 20,000 square foot showroom. If it weren’t for STORIS and their constant support, we wouldn’t be able to successfully operate the way we do today.” David Everett - General Manager

RetailerNOWmag.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

INDUSTRYCALENDAR Midwest Furniture Show September 2-3 Arlington Heights, Ill. midwestfurnitureshow.com

Casual Market Chicago September 16-19 Chicago, Ill. casualmarket.com

AHFA Solution Partners Regulatory Summit October 1 Hickory, N.C. ahfa.us

Fall High Point Market

11th Annual Pilgrim City Golf Tournament September 29 North Stonington, Conn. nahfa.org

AHFA Solution Partners Education Golf Tournament September 30 Hickory, N.C. ahfa.us

October 17-22 High Point, N.C. highpointmarket.org

Showtime December 6-9 High Point, N.C. showtime-market.com

Winter Las Vegas Market January 24-28 Las Vegas, Nev. lasvegasmarket.com

The High Point Market runs October 17-22.

NAHFA-hosted regional events are highlighted in red.

ADINDEX

CONNECT NOW

You’ve got product, we’ve got buyers. Let us help you connect. RetailerNOW is the only association print and digital media dedicated entirely to your target retail audience. Our readers are the CEOs, owners and decision makers you want to reach. Ready to connect? Advertise now. Call Cindi Williams at 916.960.0277.

INSPIRATION+EDUCATION

Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. (608) 323-3377 ashleyfurniture.com Page 37 Furniture Wizard (619) 869-7200 furniturewizard.com furniturewizard @furniturewiz Page 3 High Point Market (336) 869-1000 highpointmarket.org http://tinyurl.com/ HighPtMarket @hpmarketnews Page 5 Lynch Sales (616) 458-6662 lynchsales.com lynchsales @lynchsales Page 31

NAHFA Sponsors (800) 422-3778 retailerNOWmag.com retailernow @retailerNow Page 41

STORIS (888) 4-STORIS storis.com STORIS.solutions @STORIS Page 45

NAHFA Products (800) 422-3778 nahfa.org NAHFA @NAHFA Inside Back Cover

Surya (877) 275-7847 surya.com SuryaSocial @SuryaSocial Inside Cover

Northwest Furniture Xpress (828) 475-6377 nwfxpress.com Page 25

TEMPO 844-TODAY4U tempoe.com TEMPOEsocial @tempoe Page 35

ProfitSystems (800) 888-5565 profitsystems.com PROFITsystems @PROFITsystems Page 7 For information on how to advertise in RetailerNow, contact Cindi Williams at (916) 960-0277.

SEPTEMBER | 2015

RetailerNOWmag.com

NOWLIST Animal Attraction

Fusion of Art & Furniture

The Animal Chair Collection from Maximo Riera includes The Rhino Chair (yours for about $67,000) above and The Whale, left. These pieces are made-to-order, take nine weeks to make (about 400 hours) and are crafted from highdense polyurethane around an internal metallic frame.

Pop Mural is functional art where Folditure’s furniture is nested into a frame of textile and wood. The furniture silhouettes “pop” out of the art and unfold into chairs. The Good Angels triptych is the first in a series of Pop Murals created by Alexander Gendell. Source: Folditure.com

Bend, OR

Boise, ID

Source: Maximoriera.com

Charleston, SC Hilton Head Island, SC Myrtle Beach, SC

Fort Collins, CO Greeley, CO

Raleigh, NC

Fastest-Growing Metros Thinking of Expanding? These are the fastest-growing metros in the U.S. St. George, UT Austin, TX Houston, TX Midland, TX Odessa, TX

Daphne, AL

The Villages, FL Cape Coral, FL Naples, FL North Port, FL Panama City, FL Orlando, FL Source: U.S. Census Bureau

RetailerNOWmag.com

SEPTEMBER | 2015

THE WAY WE WERE

hat’s my father, Albert Mitrani, on the left with my uncle, Jose Mitrani. Dad opened Flamingo Furniture on June 22, 1976, which was also the day his first child, my sister Estee, was born. As Dad would often tell it, he went to the hospital in the early hours of the day, met his baby daughter Estee for the first time, kissed my mother, and hurried off to work. It’s interesting when I think about my father and uncle, and how much they had already accomplished when they posed for this picture in 1976. They were children when they came to this country from Cuba in the early 1960s. All they had were the

clothes on their back and each other. They had no choices in Cuba and only one in America: learn as much English as possible and survive the American way. The original store was small—an 1,800-square-foot showroom packed with furniture. Today Flamingo is 40,000 square feet of showroom, but we’re still packed with so much furniture! My focus is to make sure we separate the Flamingo brand from other stores by offering furniture at a value while at the same time guaranteeing a certain level of service my dad and uncle offered. I’ve been with the company for the last 15 years. I can’t wait for the next 15.

Jonathan Mitrani, President, Flamingo Furniture, Brooklyn, New York

Y Share your old photograph and memory by contacting Robert Bell at 916.757.1169 or rbell@nahfa.org

SEPTEMBER | 2015

RetailerNOWmag.com

Warehouse & Operations Products for the Furniture Industry Order today from our extensive product offering. We’re sure you’ll ﬁnd just what you’re looking for to help your business and boost your level of customer service.

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Save the Date

MAY 22-24 The Westin Long Beach, CA

North American Home Furnishings Association Call us: 800.422.3778 or visit: NAHFA.org/HFNC