October 2015 — Going Green Keeps You in the Black

OCTOBER 2015

INSPIRATION+ EDUCATION

Retailer Resource

Centerinfo inside!

Going GreenKeeps Youin the Black

Going GreenKeeps Youin the BlackNAHFA member Andrew Tepperman knows what’s good for the planet proves good for business.

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RetailerNOWmag.com OCTOBER | 2015 1

WHAT’S INSIDE2. NAHFA President’s Letter4. Editor’s Note

14. Retail Voice 16. Member Portrait: Priba Furniture22. Product Focus: Casual Dining26. Next Generation: Guadalupe Padalgay28. Take 236. Member Benefi t: Performance Report44. Government Action: Tipping Furniture46. NAHFA Community

OCTOBER2015

DEPARTMENTS Cover Story

10. Going Green Can Put You in the Black

Sales & Marketing

38. Professional Advertising Done Right42. Prospecting for Shoppers

Retailer Resource Center

30. NAHFA High Point Market Seminarsand Exhibitors

Five takeaways you can implement this month:

1 Reduce your footprint forprofi t. 10

2 Create a promotion. 14

3 Compare your store. 36

4 Lure better prospects. 42

5 Sell safe furniture. 44

TAKE 5!

16

10

22

Marty CramerNAHFA President

W

President

Marty CramerCramer’s Home Furnishings

President-Elect

Jeff ChildRC Willey

Vice President

Steve KidderVermont Furniture Galleries

Secretary/Treasurer

Jim FeeStoney Creek Furniture

Chairman

Rick HowardSklar Furnishings

Executive Staff

Sharron Bradley

Chief Executive Offi [email protected]

Mary Frye

Executive Vice [email protected]

Membership Staff

Kaprice Crawford

Membership Team [email protected]

Jordan Boyst

[email protected]

Sherry Hansen

[email protected]

Michael Hill

[email protected]

Jana Sutherland

[email protected]

Dianne Therry

[email protected]

Please call 800.422.3778for membership inquires.

Contact Us

RetailerNOW3910 Tinsley Dr., Suite 101High Point, NC 27265

RetailerNOWmag.com800.422.3778

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2 OCTOBER | 2015 RetailerNOWmag.com

Every problem has a solution; it may sometimes just need another perspective.

— Katherine Russell

Have a problem?NAHFA can help

hat can your association do to help make running your busi-ness easier and more profi table? Th e North American Home Furnishings Association is a well-organized, dedicated and fi nancially sound group. We have a board that’s committed to helping members in the daily running of their businesses.

But I’m concerned we sometimes miss the obvious.By nature, people who volunteer to be on the board of directors tend to

be a mature and successful group of business leaders and their needs may not be the same as someone just starting out or even someone who’s been at it for a decade. I know my business needs have changed over the years. When I fi rst started my operation 22 years ago the things I counted on from this association were diff erent than what I am looking for today. Even though many of the programs that save me money are as essential to my business today as they were when I started, I tend to focus on the bigger picture programs today.

Member feedback is always a hot topic for any association, and NAHFA is no diff erent. Your input is the one thing we need most and yet it’s one of the hardest things for us to get. Th ere are hundreds of you who loyally pay dues and support programs year after year, but we rarely hear from you. What struggles are you having? What legislation or regulations are making it hard for you to do business? What’s your biggest problem? Hiring? Train-ing? Margins? Are there areas where you think NAHFA should be more or less involved? We want to hear from you.

Big or small, newcomer or veteran, we want to help with whatever issues you’re having. Aside from your fellow retail members, NAHFA has an exceptional team of membership representatives who would love to get to know you better and help you grow your business. Check out our member-ship staff listed on the left. Th eir mission is to help you. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and call or email and let us know what we can do for you, but don’t stop there. I would love to hear from you, too.

And, while I’m asking for your input, don’t forget to respond to the government relations survey we’re sending to members this month. We’re heading into an election year and being aware of the issues that aff ect our businesses is going to be even more important.



Robert BellEditor, RetailerNOW

RETAILERNOW STAFF

Lisa Casinger

Editorial [email protected]

Robert Bell

[email protected]

Tim Timmons

Art [email protected]

Cindi Williams

Sales [email protected]

Sydnee Funke

[email protected]

RETAIL ADVISORY TEAM

Carol Bell

Contents InteriorsTucson, Ariz.

Travis Garrish

Forma FurnitureFort Collins, Colo.

Rick Howard

Sklar FurnishingsBoca Raton, Fla.

Mike Luna

Pedigo’s FurnitureLivingston, Texas

Andrew Tepperman

Tepperman'sWindsor, Ontario

This Month’s Contributors

Jeff Giagnocavo, Marty Grosse, David Love, Martin Roberts, and Betsi Robinson.

Subscription: $70/yearRetailerNOW, ISSN# 2166-5249, is

published monthly (except March and December) by the North American Home Furnishings As-sociation, 500 Giuseppe Court, Ste. 6, Roseville, CA 95678.

Application to Mail at the Peri-odicals 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 [email protected].

© 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.

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I

Robert [email protected]

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

— Henry Ford

Wanted: A few good stories (yours?) to tell

love that quote by Mr. Ford at the top of this page. Don’t get me wrong, the bottom line is important to any business, but it’s not the only thing. A business should give something back to the rest of the world and inspire passion not just in its employees, but also the community it serves.

That’s why I love sitting down and talking with home furnishings retailers like you for our monthly member profile features. I love learning about your history, your hopes and fears, and your successes and challenges over the years. Most of all, I love hearing the passion you have for our industry.

A few weeks ago I met the Knox family—Bill, Priscilla and Scott—to hear their story. Bill’s a former Pan Am pilot, but it’s safe to say these days he’s firmly grounded in the home furnish-ings industry. Bill and Priscilla started Priba Furniture more than 33 years ago out of their house. Today their son Scott is running the show.

Our goal for each and every profile is to help you get to know your fellow members a little better. We hope they’re entertaining and maybe a little informa-tive. Here’s where you can help: if you think you and your store have a story to tell, or if you know of another member, drop me a line.

On page 28 of this issue, we’re introducing a new column. Take 2 will give retailers a look at stores that have been recently redesigned or refurbished. Two leading designers, Martin Roberts and Connie Post, will take turns sharing some of their projects. If you’ve been thinking about a store facelift, maybe Take2 is just the inspiration you need.

Bill and Priscilla Knox started Priba Furniture out of their home.

COOL APPS

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@RetailerNOW facebook.com/RetailerNOW pinterest.com/RetailerNOWRETAILER2.0

Want to share a cool app? Drop us a line at [email protected]

New Technologies, Tactics Make the Store of the Future a Reality

There are a variety of new touch points at retailers’ dis-posal, designed to create more memorable, interactive and personalized in-store shopping experiences. Last month, Retail TouchPoints released a special report on these tech-nologies. Here’s a highlight:

RFID (radio frequency identifi cation)This one’s been on retailers’ radars for years, but mer-

chants are only now reporting ROI on this technology. “This will bring tremendous strides in inventory management as every piece of inventory becomes visible and trackable,” notes Ian Goldman, CEO of Celerant.

BeaconsBeacon technology allows retailers to engage with any

customer carrying a smartphone by using the device's Bluetooth connection to send push notifi cations to your shoppers’ pockets, purses or hands.

Mobile POS and ClientelingArming store associates with mobile devices is helping

to rewrite the rules for how associates engage customers in the store. Mobile solutions can be a powerful catalyst for customer engagement, and retailers are just beginning to take advantage of the possibilities.

Source: New Technologies, Tactics Make the Store of the Future a RealityA Retail TouchPoints Special Report, sponsored by SAP

SumAll (sumall.com)Data works for big companies, let it work for you.

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your social account data in one place, and compareany metrics in one graph

• Platform grouping, auto-posting and moreInsights and reports services are off ered on top of the

free SumAll tracking service. Reports are built to validate your work, while insights are built to show you where and how to improve.

iOS; Web-based. SA Tracking (free); SA Reports ($59/mo.; 14-dayfree trial); SA Insights ($99/mo.; 14-day free trial). Each paid subscrip-tion automatically signs you up to receive the free SumAll tracking service.

Have2Have.it by Soldsie (soldsie.com)Designed to help Instagram users become consumers.

Last month Retailer2.0 covered Insta-gram ads, which, after months of expecta-tions, fi nally launched to the tune of an average of 300 million active monthly users.

One company is hoping to cash in on those numbers.

Social solutions company Soldsie soon after launched its newest product—Have2Have.it—claiming it’s the fi rst aff ord-able solution for purchasing products directly from Instagram.

Instagram captions and photos are not linkable. Your only link is in your profi le. Soldsie uses this link to showcase your content and make your photos link to the products and content your fans and followers are trying to fi nd.

Brands participating in the Have2Have.it pilot saw an aver-age of an 87 percent click-through rate and 50 percent more time on a site from Have2Have.it referrals relative to those com-ing directly from Instagram.

Web-based; 14-day free trial.



CONVERSATIONS TOPSHELF

Q:How does your store locationimpact your business?

Catherine UngerFurniture ClassicsAnchorage, Alaska

“Our location helps and hurts. We’re located in the downtown core area. That brings a lot of people in off the street, but parking and traffi c are still a problem. They keep a lot of people from coming downtown in the fi rst place. We validate parking so we’ve eliminated

that argument, but there’s always going to be that convenience issue.”

Jeff NeedhamThe Book TableLogan, Utah

“Our location defi nitely hurts us. We’re in an old part of town that was once a booming retail hub, but has since morphed more into an offi ce environment. We’vethought about moving, but we own our building so we’re committed. Fortunately we’re doing a lot more in online

sales so we haven’t felt the sting like other retailers around us.”

Vicky Early Artichoke DesignsCarmel, Indiana

“We have really poor parking because we’re in our city’s arts and design district. It’s all street parking and nobody has the patience for that. We’re lazy Americans, I guess. If we were in New York or Boston we would have a great location, but people outside of our loyal customers

think it’s going to a great deal of eff ort to get to our store.”

Get Your MVPs the Help They Need ASAP(Admired: 21 Ways to Double Your Value, Evolve Publishing, 240 pages, $12.99)

How do you become admired, either as a leader, a worker or even as a person? Mark Thomp-son and Bonita Thompson, co-authors of Admired: 21 Ways to Double Your Value, think they know the answer. The secret is to give value—and specifi cally to give your MVPs, the most valuable people in your life, what they value most.

The authors tell the story of Margaret, a personal trainer who was more focused on working with customers out on the fl oor than sitting at her computer answering emails from her boss. However, responsiveness was something her boss valued high-

ly. Eventually, she was given a smartphone to be able to answer quickly when her boss had an urgent question or request while still being able to focus on her customers on the fl oor—thus fulfi lling what she valued most while responding to what her boss valued as well. This simple example reveals the heart of the book: it’s about them ... but it’s also about you. The key, as the authors write, is to match what you want and what the company needs with what your MVPs want.

A small team in a company, although passionate about the com-pany’s product, consistently missed its goals. When the authors were asked by the head of the team to sit in on the team’s staff meeting, they saw that some of the company’s goals (such as the dreary task of writing technical instructions) didn’t motivate team members. The authors had a suggestion: since one team member loved video production and editing, why not assign her the task of making video instructions? Today, this task is no longer a drag on product development.

As promised by the subtitle, the Thompsons off er 21 specifi c tools to help readers become admired. The tools, developed from original research into the traits that people admire in others, are grouped into six categories.

The fi rst category is Action. To be admired, the authors write, you have to be proactive. One of the unexpected tools in this category is “Guilt is good.” Guilt pushes people to get something done.

The second category of tools to increase one’s value is Develop. Among the specifi c tools in this category are “Start Where You Are,” “Invest in Yourself,” and “Be Misunderstood”—the latter tool refer-ring to the willingness to be misunderstood in the short term.

The other four categories of tools are: Measure, which focuses on goal setting; Innovation, which is to be creative in helping your MVPs fi nd value; Recruit, which not only covers the importance of hiring those who can address your weaknesses, but also explains how to prepare your MVPs to face challenges on their own; and Ex-cite, which off ers tools on how to engage yourself and your MVPs. At the end of each of the 21 tools is a list of steps for applying that tool.

Book review: summary.com

RetailerNOWmag.com SEPTEMBER | 2015 9

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Retailers know what's good for our planet is good for business.

By Robert Bell

At Tepperman’s, a four-store home furnishings company in Ontario, Canada, Tuesdays are known as Styrofoam Night. You won’t hear about it in the company’s radio or television spots. And it’s not

exactly as sexy as Ladies Night or some other promotion. But by the end of the evening, the company still manages a nice profi t without a single customer walking through its doors.

Th at’s because every Tuesday, a few workers gather the boxes and plastic containers piled high with all the collected polysty-rene—Styrofoam to you and me—and put it in a machine that grinds up the material and condenses a truckload of the waste into manageable three-foot bricks. Th e condensed polystyrene, used to pack the hundreds of pieces of furniture and casegoods that are delivered every day to Tepperman’s, is then sold to a company that keeps the environmentally indestructible stuff out of landfi lls by recycling it.

Andrew Tepperman, president of Tepperman’s, learned of the compressing machine when he was touring Gallery Furniture in Houston a few years back. He ordered one that week and within three months Tepperman’s environmental footprint, already petite, was shrinking even more.

“One of my better investments if I can say so myself,” recalls

Going

Keeps Youin the Black

Going

Keeps Youin the Black

Tepperman, whose business now makes about $2,000 a month recy-cling the polystyrene that once went to landfi lls.

Tepperman long ago learned what many retailers are slowly starting to realize. Going green is good business—not just for Tepperman, but hundreds of other home furnishings retailers hoping to build a sustainable image with consumers while saving money at the same time. As more and more consumers prefer doing business with environmentally responsible companies, more retailers are respond-ing. Besides gaining customer loyalty, they’re recouping thousands of dollars on the back end of their businesses.

Indeed, Tepperman and other larger retailers have turned sustain-ability into a nice chunk of revenue while positioning their stores in the forefront of eco-minded consumers’ minds.

Th e numbers behind Tepperman’s recycling drive are impressive. Last year, the company’s four stores diverted 30 tons of plastic from area landfi lls. Another 520 tons of cardboard were compressed and baled before being sent off to be recycled, and 312,000 cubic feet of polstyrene packaging—the equivalent of three Olympic-sized pools—never saw a landfi ll.

And he’s not fi nished. Tepperman said his company is looking at adding solar panels to the store’s rooftops within the next 18 months.

Sustainability isn’t exclusive to home furnishings chains like


Tepperman’s. Many smaller, independent stores are picking up on what larger retailers are doing and scaling their green efforts down to fit their needs, says Adam Siegel, vice president of sustainability and retail operations for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which helps retailers become sustainability leaders in their communities.

Siegel says that, over the years, larger retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have paved the way for technology that is easily accessible to smaller retailers interested in incorporating it into their businesses. Case in point: LED lighting.

Pressed by the federal regulation last year that is phasing out the most common 60- to 100-watt incandescent bulbs, light emitting diode-based bulbs are being embraced by many home furnishings retailers, but Siegel says it wasn’t always this way.

“National retailers spent the last 10 years playing around with LED light bulbs in their parking lots,” he says. “The cost and quality just wasn’t there, but bigger retailers could see this was the future so they worked with vendors to find ways to get lower costs and better quality lighting.”

Today, LED lighting in a home furnish-ings store is an easy first step for retailers hoping to build a sustainable business. Not long ago, an early adopter paid as much as $68 for an LED bulb. Today that bulb costs

POLY PRESSED Tepperman’s president Andrew Tepperman, left, and Allan White

show off the company’s polystyrene densifier, which can compress 50 cubic feet of

the material down to 1. The waste is then sold to a distributor who repurposes it.


about $24, says Monte Lee, of Service Lamp Corp., which helps stores convert their lighting fixtures to the more efficient bulbs.

Lee estimates a retailer who switches from halogen lighting to LED, will save roughly 60 percent in energy costs. Replacing flores-cent lighting with LED blubs would cut a retailer’s expenses in half.

Not only do LED bulbs require less energy, saving a retailer on their electric bill, the bulbs produce less heat, which means lower air-conditioning bills. Lee said one home furnishings store that switched over to LED bulbs removed its rooftop air-conditioning units after reducing the amount of heat produced in its showrooms.

Rather than pick and choose which green strategies to use in a store, Tepperman recommends store owners incorporate sustain-ability as part of their store culture. At Tepperman’s, environmental sustainability is one of the company’s six guiding principles. The annual strategic plan for each department—whether its financing, warehouse, sales or anywhere else—must factor in the company’s economic footprint.

“It’s as much a part of our culture as sales,” says Tepperman. “So no matter what we come up with on the financing side we have to ask ourselves, ‘How will this reduce waste? Can we recycle? What will be the impact on our landfills?’ ”

Those are exactly the questions Siegel says smaller retailers should be asking themselves, but don’t stop there. “They need to be questioning their vendors about what practices or services they offer that will help make them more sustainable,” he says. “So a retailer needs to be asking their waste hauler what type of recycling program they offer. They need to ask their utilities vendor if there are any rebate packages available for running a more efficient light-ing or HVAC system.”

That includes smaller retailers talking to their manufactur-ers about what green products they can provide. If a storefront is leased, Siegel urges retailers to talk to their landlord and find out how they can work together to be more green.

“Smaller retailers and mom-and-pop stores don’t always have a lot of control over things, but if they start asking their vendors and landlords and other service providers, they at least signal those deci-sion makers that they care. They might not get what they want in the first few months, but maybe next year things change.”

No other home furnishings store in North America has embraced the sustainability movement like American Furniture Warehouse. Owner Jake Jabs has gone to great expense to make sure no part of his 14 stores—12 in Colorado and two in Arizona—misses out on turning potential waste into cash.

Like Tepperman, Jabs’ stores routinely divert their cardboard, Styrofoam and plastic from landfills to recycling centers. Make no mistake, Jabs is one of the leading advocates in the industry for sustainability, but there’s a financial incentive, too.

Five years ago all of Jabs’ stores converted to LED lighting, which saves the company an estimated $10,000 a month in electricity. Every week, Jabs sends three truckloads of baled cardboard from his stores to California, where recycled cardboard has, in recent months, fetched as much as $200 a ton. One

semi filled with cardboard recoups

$2,400, according to Jabs.

“I believe in being green,” Jabs says. “At the end of a day, I believe in leaving my community and my world the way I found it or better. And if we can save a little or, in our case, a lot, of money doing that, well, that’s even better.”

Siegel says the push for a greener workplace continues to expand. Just as LED lights were once thought too expensive but are now mainstream, he thinks other prohibitive technologies will soon be affordable. The next wave: solar power.

“If you own your rooftop, that’s like owning more real estate,” says Siegel. He says retailers can partner with for-profit companies to produce solar energy. Retailers could use the energy themselves or sell it to the utility company.

NAHFA members City Furniture in Florida and Pilgrim City in Connecticut are already using the sun to harness energy for their stores.

When City Furniture owner Keith Koenig opened his Boca Raton store in 2011, it was one of the first green-certified home furnishings stores in the country.

Some of the store’s fea-tures include rooftop solar tubes that direct natural light into the showrooms, LED interior and exterior lighting, high efficiency air-conditioning, and interior and exterior decor made from reclaimed or recycled parts and materi-als.

Koenig says the store should save about $30,000 a year on electricity as a result of some of its eco-friendly features. “When it comes to return on invest-ment,” he says, “it’s a slam dunk.”

GO WEST Jake Jabs of American

Furniture Warehouse recycles his

company’s cardboard in California.

CASHING IN City Furniture’s

Keith Koenig calls recycling “a

slam dunk” investment.


1. Switch to post-consumer waste (PCW) paper, paper products, and packaging. Whenever possible, skip paper entirely, but if you have to print, use eco-friendly paper. Well-intentioned stores may look for a recycling symbol on a box of paper, but this is an unregulated designa-tion. Only PCW paper is made entirely from the paper we place in our recycling bins each day.

2. Rethink your landscaping. Many trees and shrubs need heavy watering and can raise your utility bill—not to mention waste water. Consider drought-resistant plants instead.

3. Install LED lights. Th ough LEDs have a higher pur-chase price than standard incandescent bulbs, they last

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signifi cantly longer and use much less energy. LED bulbs can replace standard bulbs in most fi xtures and save you up to $200 per bulb over time.

4. Use alternative energy. In many areas of the country you can purchase “green power” from your utility provider. Green power is generated from renewable energy sources (wind and solar, geothermal, hydropower and plant mat-ter). Purchasing green power increases your electric bill by a small percentage, which is used to purchase clean energy that’s fed into the electrical grid.

5. Use alternative fuel or hybrid vehicles for delivery. Both will reduce your carbon footprint and highlight your environmental commitment—and save you money.

Retailers Don’t Have to Think Big to Act GreenHere are fi ve easy strategies you can implement by the end of the year.

Visit nahfa.org/products to view our complete product

catalog or call 800-422-3778 select option 2.

NAHFA members enjoy exclusive member pricing on a variety

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Vendor Events—Who Needs Them?

Get proactive! Turn those tired fi nance off ers into promotions.

By Jeff Giagnocavo

I ’m sure you receive off ers from your fi nance provider on a regular basis off ering a promotional period of fi nancing at a discounted rate. We use these to our advantage in more ways than one by putting our own spin on them and turn-

ing them into an event. Th is means we don’t have to wait for vendor events to pop up on our calendars, we take matters into our own hands.

Rather than just off er the same old “me too” long-term, no-interest off ers, at Gardiner’s Mattress & More, we turn them into something diff erent, something special.

Let’s consider how you can take those everyday fax notices about lower fi nance rates and create an event that

drives a few more customers through your store’s front doors.Every October our store takes the long-term, no-interest off er a

bank usually provides and transforms it into something we like to call our Sign, Sleep, Dream event.

Th e breakdown on the fi nancing is typically a steep 12 to 13 percent discount rate. But we’ve created accessory packages (see one of our examples in the lower left corner) that we attach to each sale that essentially covers the cost of fi nancing, plus we make about a 20 percent margin on the accessories.

We promote our Sign, Sleep, Dream event with advertising and by emailing to our house list of contacts that are in our “world” and have yet to buy.

We include deadline dates (see one of our ads below) on the ac-cessory packages to prevent customers from waiting until the end of the month to make their purchases. Because, let’s face it, without a deadline much in this world simply doesn’t get done.

Why is the deadline based on the mattress accessory packages and not on the product itself? Because we have more margin to play with in the accessories than we do the product, and we’re telling the prospect that there are acces-sories to purchase, and in fact, they are required to qualify for the no-interest and no-money-down Sign, Sleep, Dream event to be eligible.

We have a well-trained staff that knows how to greet


customers and understand how to present the products for this event (monthly payment amount with accessory package included).

As new contacts come into the database, they not only get information about the products they’re interested in, they also re-ceive information on how to buy the mattress set using our Sign, Sleep, Dream event financing offer.

All of this is done automatically. There is no licking of stamps or typing out singular emails because we’ve created our own CRM software with this capability. It’s one of the most powerful business assets we have in our possession.

You may be asking why would we email and mail? Simple: how many emails have you already deleted today? Better yet, how many emails did you delete that you didn’t read from people you knew?

My guess is a few too many. And those are from people you know and care about.

We aren’t so foolish to think that just because we enjoyed a pleasant conversation with a prospect or customer that we can rely on them to say, “Wow, those guys sent me an email! Let me put down my lunch and call them right back with my credit card!”

We know it takes much more than that. In a time when we’re subjected to upwards of 5,000 advertisements daily (DM News July 2013), it takes more to corral the consumer’s attention, especially if you’re selling to the consumer’s need as opposed to what they want.

How you keep their attention is mostly all won and lost in how you got their attention. “Me too” offers like free, no-interest financing are found everywhere in your marketplace. But a Sign, Sleep, Dream event is already speaking towards what the cus-tomer truly wants—a peaceful dreamy sleep—without the hard work of pulling the finances together.

I hope this article gives you some inspiration for a sales pro-motion of your own. Take the initiative and come up with your own rather than waiting by the fax machine.

Jeff Giagnocavo co-owns Gardner’s Mattress & More in Lancaster, Pa. He is also the co-owner of Infotail, a profit automation company helping retailers increase their profits. He can be reached at [email protected].

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We know it takes much more than (an email). In a time when we’re subjected to upwards of 5,000

advertisements daily, it takes more to corral the consumer’s attention,

especially if you’re selling to the consumer’s need as opposed to

what they want.

The NAHFA Retailer of the Year Awards, known as the ‘Oscars’ of the home furnishings industry,

rewards excellence and outstanding

achievements to the most respected home furnishings retailers across North America.

Awards will be given in two categories—

And the Retailer of the Year award goes to...

Join us in celebration at the NAHFA Networking Conference

May 22-24, 2016 at the Westin Long Beach, CA.

Nominations Now Open

• Retailers with salesvolume under $10 million

• Retailers with salesvolume of $10 million

and above

Soaring Above the Competition

Bob Knox once worked in the clouds.These days the former airline pilot and his family

make a living on the ground. Good one, too.

By Robert Bell

The letter showed up by registered mail. Bob Knox sat at the kitchen table holding it and turning it over, but not opening it. He already knew.

It was 1972 and Knox, a Pan Am pilot, had already been a part of several furloughs before. He knew the routine: fi nd a job, one that will hold you over until the airline calls and you go racing back to the cockpit.

Only this time was diff erent. “Th is time,” Knox recalls, “I had two children at home.

When you’ve got mouths to feed the game changes.”Some people enter the home furnishings game because

of their passion for furniture and helping others fi nd the right piece for their home. Bob Knox got into the game because of his love for putting food on the table.

Th at’s not to say the passion didn’t come later. Th ese days Knox, the owner of Priba Furniture in Greensboro, N.C., can think of nowhere else he’d rather be than roaming his showroom fl oor. Pan Am eventually collapsed in 1991. Priba continues to soar, going head to head in

Greensboro with several chains such as Rooms to Go, Bassett, Badcock Furniture & More and Ashley, as well as Furniture-land South, one of the country’s largest independent retailers.

Like any good pilot, Knox says the secret to success is chart-ing your own path and staying committed. Priba has always tried to brand itself as a store for mid- to high-end furniture lines. “We’ve never let our competitors defi ne who we are and what we want to be,” says Knox, 78. “We had a lot more com-petition around here years ago, but I think other stores felt forced to change their strategy to set themselves apart. Most of those stores aren’t around anymore.”

Most of those stores aren’t like Priba, which prides itself on off ering its clientele some of the most distinct pieces of fur-niture and accessories in the area. Its history is just as unique. Bob and his wife Priscilla started the company out of their home. Th ey transformed a bedroom in the basement into an offi ce. A kitchen drawer upstairs served as the fi le cabinet. Allthat was left was to fi nd some customers.

Knox had many cockpit conversations on international fl ights with fellow pilots about the furniture deals that were


YOU’RE COVERED To stay ahead of the chain

stores around them, Bob and Priscilla Knox offer

thousands of covers, sizes, finishes and shapes

for their furniture and casegoods.

STILL FLYING HIGH All Bob Knox, left, wanted to

do was fly. When that was taken away he found a

new love—selling furniture. Today Knox, his son

Scott and Bob's wife Priscilla run Priba Furniture in

Greensboro, N.C. Opposite page, Bob Knox still has

his Pan Am pilot's hat and photos from his travels.

available out of nearby High Point, which, at the time, had the allure to shoppers outside North Carolina with so many stores and manufacturers. So the Knoxes advertised in an airline pilot’s magazine: “Prices as good as High Point!”

Bob Knox still remembers the company’s first sale. “We took the profits and bought us some letterhead for purchase orders and everything else that made us look like a real store,” he says. The Knoxes knew they finally made it when they sat in a Greensboro restaurant nervously waiting to meet Doug Wilson, a Henredon sales rep. Bob Knox was hoping to convince Wilson to let the Knoxes carry the company’s line. Wilson was late, but when he showed up he walked into the restaurant with a stack of catalogs under both arms.

Priscilla Knox smiles remembering the story. “That’s when we knew we were going to be OK,” she says.

More than OK, actually. It didn’t take long for Priba Furniture to outgrow the family home. The Knoxes moved to a separate

house in Greensboro. As word spread around town about the couple selling furniture out of a house, business grew even bigger. One day a city inspector showed up at the house and said that neighbors were complaining about all the traffic. Priba was on the move again.

The Knoxes outgrew their first traditional storefront before mov-ing to the current showroom in 1991 on the outskirts of Greensboro just a few miles from High Point.

If you’re counting, that’s four different addresses over the years, but one singular philosophy: “We always wanted to be the source for higher-end furniture with value,” Bob Knox says. “It’s been a good decision for us.”

That’s not to say the Knoxes haven’t had their share of struggles. In 2008, when new housing in Greensboro and the rest of the na-tion slowed to a trickle, so did Priba’s business.

The Knoxes deal mostly in higher-end, American-made lines such as Baker, Century, Drexel, Heritage and Henredon. Scott Knox, Bob and Priscilla’s son and the company’s president these days, said there


were times when dropping down to lower-end furniture—competi-tors around them were doing just that—was tempting, but never seemed to make good business sense for the long run.

“Those sofas for $200 or $300? That just puts a lot of pressure on your business,” says Scott, who handles the store’s day-to-day opera-tions. “Instead of selling just one sofa, say Baker, at a higher margin, you’re asking your staff to sell four or five lower-end sofas.”

Scott Knox says Priba got through the recession with competitive pricing and impeccable customer service that other stores couldn’t or weren’t willing to provide. With six designers on staff, Priba offers free design service. Employees have been in the industry for years, making them extremely knowledgeable on the industry and design. And unlike bigger stores like Furnitureland South, Priba markets to Greensboro—not a large swath of the South. The store will even pick up a piece of furniture from a nearby manufacturer—rather than wait for the manufacturer to deliver it—if it means an anxious customer gets the piece a few days faster.

The Knoxes also learned that bigger isn’t always better. Priba’s 55,000-square foot showroom is impressive, but not nearly as intimidating as some of its competitors. “You can get around here without feeling overwhelmed,” Scott Knox says.

The family keeps it simple when it comes to pricing, using a low, but firm mark-up and working from there. “We’ve got a smart sales team,” Bob Knox says. “They know what a good deal is. If everyone’s happy—the customer, the sales (associate) and the store—then we’re going to make it happen.”

They also let their customers know they can customize any piece, from sofa to end table and everything in between. “Size, finish, color, upholstery, you name it,” Scott Knox says. “Our strength is we’re able to give the customer exactly what they want. You can’t always get that level of care in this town.”

The store is heavily accessorized and has many pieces of unique accent furniture to go with their lines. They even sell paintings from local artists. “It’s all part of trying to be something everyone else is not,” Scott Knox says.

These days it’s Scott who runs the show at Priba. As early as 12, his summers were spent working in the family store moving furniture or straightening the warehouse. There was never any pressure to join the family business, but after graduating from the University of North Carolina, there was never anything Scott wanted to do except work for his family. “It just seemed com-pletely natural for me to end up here,” he says. “All these years later it still does.”

When he took over running the store about 10 years ago, Scott’s mission was to reduce the store’s dependency on out-of-state buyers and focus on local customers. He pumped up local advertising and word has spread. “We’re a completely different company than we were 10 years ago,” Scott says.

Bob and Priscilla Knox have no intention of retiring. “There’s not such a thing for me,” says Bob. “I have more fun here than I would on a golf course or around the house.” Priscilla agrees: “Every day’s different. “We’re not in here as much as we used to be, but if Scott wants a vacation and needs someone to lock the door and turn the lights off, he knows where we are.”

They still show up at Priba a few days a week, talk with employees, maybe even sell some furniture. “When you have as much fun as we have,” Bob Knox says, “how can you walk away from this?”

THE LONG HAUL Scott Knox, right, has been working in the family store since he was

12. Today he runs Priba’s day-to-day operations. Above, customers shop Priba for its

unique furniture and accessories as well as local art.

“

”

WHAT NAHFA MEANS TO ME

We more than get back our annual membership in the programs the NAHFA offers. Just look at our workers’ comp insurance. When we started going

through the association, we saved at least 15 percent off our old quote. When we go to market, I always

find two or three seminars that are helpful. I’m busy. I don’t always have the time to carve out to find the training for our staff so it’s nice to know we can get good, dependable training at market through our

association. I really believe we’re a stronger business because of the NAHFA.

Scott Knox, Priba Furniture, member since 1985


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FRESHPERSPECTIVES

Are You My Mentor?

By Brooke Feldman

Remember P.D. Eastman’s book Are You My Mother? It was one of those great books your mom used to read to you before you went to bed about a hatch-ling bird’s one quest to fi nd his mother. He jumps from animal to animal asking the same question.

As a child, you get to know diff erent animals and get a great hug from your mom. Th e days of being a child.

Sometimes fi guring out the next steps to take in life can feel like you are a newborn bird, wanting to fl y in a new direction, but not sure if it's the right one. Whenever my brain is jumbling around with thoughts of what to do, my fi rst instinct is to contact a men-tor of mine. While I’m close with my family, and I talk to them on a regular basis, sometimes getting a perspective from someone who’s not related to me helps me look at things a bit outside of the box and helps me fi gure out the best decision for me and only me.

I have a contact list of mentors, people in my life who I’ve met through my years as a student, intern and co-worker. I talk to some more than others, but if I happen to be doing something that is their specialty, I send an email or give a call. It took me a while to create this list of people. How do you identify who is a mentor for you, but most importantly, are you open to accepting a mentor?

Go Outside Your Family Circle: I love my mother, but sometimes she doesn’t know best. I love talking with my family, but they aren’t in my industry so, sometimes I feel like I’m talking in circles about dilemmas I face or questions I have. It’s better to get a fresh perspec-tive. Many of us spend two to four years earning an education and go through multiple internships/jobs becoming a stronger profes-sional. Sometimes that person who hasn’t known you since you were in diapers can provide insight you thought you would never get. If you come from a family business, make sure to attend conferences or become a part of a professional leadership program to meet others.

Find Someone You Identify With: One of my favorite teachers in high school was a history teacher. Clearly I didn’t grow up to become a scholar, but he taught me a valuable lesson outside of the classroom I carry with me today. In high school I was a basketball and wrestling scorekeeper. I was around a lot of coaches, referees and parents as well as students. My teacher said that no matter where you go, people are always going to be looking at you. Always look presentable and not sloppy. To this day, I’m dressed in business casual even when I’m traveling. Why would I identify with this? Because when you begin to grow into certain positions in a company, you have to look the part. Why not look the part even before you get the job? It’s important to me to fi nd individuals who have values and customs I identify with. It’s not a religious thing, but rather how each of them had worked to get to where they are today. I respect hard work and perseverance. To this day, the best mentors in my life have fi rst taught me something about how I conduct business and, second, how I conduct myself.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask: Th e fi rst conference I ever attended, I sat in on a great session presented by a wonderful speaker. I had more questions than time allowed, but I was scared to go up to the speaker afterwards and ask. What if he had somewhere to be? What if he wasn’t a one-on-one talker? Eventually I mustered up the courage and walked over. I’m glad I did. We still email back and forth and he’s been a wonderful mentor. Th ere’s no harm in starting a conversation because it makes you bolder and more confi dent. Some of my favorite mentors I still talk to today I met unexpectedly. Once you get to know someone whom you identify with, don’t feel hesitant to email or call.

I wonder if Eastman was actually writing a book that foreshadowed our future. I could be over thinking it, but that little bird was in need of guidance and he asked and asked and asked till he found what he was looking for in one person. Each day we are learning on our own, but it never hurts to get a little help.

Brooke Feldman is the marketing m anager for MEGA Group USA. Brooke works with local and national organizations helping them promote their mission in the community. She can be reached at [email protected]

Someone who can guide you

through work’s obstacles can prove

invaluable. Here’s how to find them.



The Search Is OverSoftware for Furniture Retail Scalability

1.888.4.STORIS

www.STORIS.com

“We have been a family-owned Canadian retailer since 1925

and have experienced many changes through the decades.

The transition to STORIS provided a platform that allowed

us to expand more efficiently. Like Tepperman’s, STORIS

understands the need to innovate and provide

technological solutions for the future.”

Andrew Tepperman - President & CEO

Noah Tepperman - Treasurer


Casual DiningNo other room in the home has changed

as dramatically as the dining room, where formal is out and casual is cool.

By Betsi Robinson

DOWNSIZED DINING Millennials living in smaller spaces are

attracted to Hooker’s Willow Bends dining table and cabinet,

which come in a smaller scale than traditional dining sets.


A decade ago, consumers in the market for dining room furniture demanded pristine, high grades of wood—a shimmering cherry, walnut or maple—to set off that

special space devoted to gatherings of loved ones and friends.Today, manufacturers say, the more rustic the wood looks, the

better. Th ink reclaimed wood, aged driftwood, distressed fi nishes and the like.

“Dining has gone completely away from formal to casual, in all price points and all forms,” says Pat Watson, vice president of merchandising for Hooker Furniture. “You can fi nd some formal at the top of the price points, but that is about it. Casual has become the overriding design infl uence.

“Retailers attending the High Point Market won’t see as many high-sheen fi nishes in Hooker’s collections. What they will fi nd is some metals in the mix.

“Th ere’s a very big trend in terms of mixing reclaimed looks

CASUAL COOL Fairmont’s Moderne 39

collection, acacia veneers and poplar solids,

is inspired by mid-century modern elements

with the casual consumer in mind.

LIVE EDGE More

consumers are drawn to

tables where the edge often

resembles its harvested

look—sometimes with the

live bark accenting the

wood.


with metal and, surprisingly, reclaimed wood with polished metal looks, such as a stainless steel, a chrome or a nickel. That is very hot right now,” Watson says. “The reclaimed combined with metals to create a contemporary look is a newer trend. In addition you are seeing gold leaf and silver leaf used with reclaimed wood looks.”

Another trend is “live edge” products, a so-called cousin of reclaimed looks. “It’s like a solid wood, a slab cut out of a tree,” Watson says. “The sides of the dining table look just like whatever the tree looked like when it was harvested—sometimes the bark is left on, sometimes not. That edge has the same kind of look as Mother Nature gave it.”

Steve York, vice president of merchandis-ing for Fairmont Designs, agrees that the eclectic mixing of materials is a hot trend in the dining category.

“The layering of materials is very im-portant today, with veneers, inlays, metal treatments, metal bases, even the textures you put on the dining chairs,” York says. “Leather is not really important anymore in dining chair seats or backs. Today it is more about the casual fabric.”

That said, formal dining tables along-side full-size china cabinets aren’t entirely obsolete these days. York says consumers who live in more traditional urban centers like New York City and Detroit continue to demand the style.

And traditional designs continue to dominate Fairmont’s sales so far this year, York says, adding that the dining room category accounts for roughly 35 percent of the company’s business. The styles, how-ever, tend to be more casual and relaxed. Contemporary is making some gains, York notes, but is not a huge seller in the United States.

“What you are seeing is casual contem-porary, casual traditional, casual formal,” he explains. “It’s not the traditional we all used to see, with carving everywhere and over-the-top opulence. It’s more casual but you still have that core basis of traditional product that people can associate with—the bracket feet, inlays or borders. Then it’s brought down from the higher sheens to lower/dryer finishes. And you present it in a much more casual lifestyle.”

The trend toward casual reflects the fact

that formal dining rooms are less important today than in the past, Watson says. Dining accounts for about 25 percent of Hooker’s case-goods business.

“Because of that there are homes out there these days that may not even have a formal dining room on the floor plan, and the family eats at a smaller table, whether that is in a room by itself or in a kitchen space,” he says.

Counters and counter stools are becom-ing increasingly important for Millennials who live in smaller spaces such as apart-ments or condominiums. “They are either using a bar stool at a counter, or they have a much smaller-scale dining set than they would have had in the past, regardless of the style or the materials used or the cost,” Watson says. “They are still at a more tran-sient point in their lives.”

Bar cabinets are another hot trend, manufacturers say, replacing the more elaborate china cabinet once used to show off formal tableware.

Take Fairmont’s Moderne 39 collection, inspired by mid-century modern elements but updated for today’s more casual con-sumer. Made of acacia veneers and poplar solids, it features an eclectic wine bar on a brushed brass base with a front finished in a dove white, textured diamond pattern.

“The accent pieces are getting into things that are different, like dining bars and armoire bars,” York says. “There is less of a need for formal and more of a need for eclectic.”

Likewise, Hooker features a vertical case dry bar cabinet that includes storage and a prep area for drinks. Its new Skyline bar cabinet was “extremely well-received” at the April market, Watson says.

ENTERTAININGHooker's Skyline

Bar features a

vertical case dry

bar cabinet that

includes storage

and a prep area

for drinks.


“Another trend that has replaced the real big, full-size china cabinet is a smaller cabinet we would call a display cabinet,” he says. “These are smaller pieces, much more narrow with one or two doors, as opposed to four doors across the top, then drawers and more cabinets.”

Both Hooker and Fairmont plan to roll out new collections at the High Point Mar-ket in October that reflect the latest trends in the dining category.

Hooker conducts individual training sessions with its retail customers as soon as a new collection arrives on the sales floor to educate salespeople about the product, Watson says.

York believes such training is critical to a successful launch. Fairmont conducts mar-ket sales training in High Point and then follows up with sales training seminars for its retail customers. The company empha-sizes product features and benefits, such as silver trays in the drawers, ball-bearing full extension drawer slides, LED lighting and English dovetail drawers.

“It’s all of the small nuances or features that we put into the product that we try

to educate the retail salespeople about,” York says. “If we can educate them about all the product features, and the benefits of those features, that gives them more reason to talk to the customer about our product as opposed to the competition. To me, that is very important.”

Betsi Robinson, an award-win-ning journalist, spent 30 years working for daily newspapers in North Carolina as a reporter, editor and columnist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill and cur-

rently works as a freelance writer based in Greens-boro. She can be reached at [email protected].

MIXED MEDIA Fairmont’s Oasis gathering table is the perfect fusion of wood and

rustic metal accents, which is big with shoppers these days.

Here’s how to get in touch with this month’s manufacturers. Hooker | hookerfurniture.com | 276.656.3335 Fairmont Designs | fairmontdesigns.com | 714.670.1171

Six Answers withGuadalupe Pagalday

I was born and raised in Argentina before I went to work for an American company that brought me here and that’s when I just fell in love with marketing. I like listening to a customer and trying to understand what it is they need and how we can build strategies that help solve those needs.

A lot of retailers know that in order to make money they need to do better in understanding and using the data that’s available to them. But it’s not just about that. Data can help a retailer improve the way they run things in their store. When you put your data to work for you, you’re not using as much manual work. You’re more effi cient in your day-to-day operations. Less hours doing one task means you can use that time somewhere else that might be more valuable or profi table to you.

I was looking for that balance in my life a while back after working in front of a computer all day. Th at’s how I got inter-ested in yoga and meditation. Th ey’re a pretty regular part of my life now. I like the balance between the spiritual mind and body. I can have a really long day at work, but then come home and feel completely at ease and relaxed. It’s helped me align who I am and how I allocate the hours in my life.

We bought a dining room table from Wayfair. We didn’t want to spend $1,500 for a table online without being able to see it in person, but Wayfair had such a big selection and made it so easy. After we knew which table we wanted we Googled to see who had the best price and it was still Wayfair. Th ey even of-fered us a coupon since we were using them for the fi rst time and free delivery.

For retailers, the takeaway from my experi-ence is that if you’re thinking you’re not going to be online because you don’t think you’re going to sell a lot of $2,000 sofas, you’re missing the point. It’s about research and it all starts online. Th at’s where the research starts. If they want to look at that chair, touch it, sit down in it, they have to come to your store and then you might be able to sell it to them. But fi rst they need to know you have it.

I’m very interested in Next Gen NOW. Th ey are the

future of the (home furnishings) industry and will be the ones changing the way they do business. Th at’s a good thing—if they play their cards right. Th ey’ll be the ones dictating how product is purchased, displayed, marketed. It’s great being a part of that change.


T

Six Answers is a monthly profi le 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.

NEXTGENPROFILE

Guadalupe Pagalday Director of Product MarketingHighJump

“When you put your data to work for you,

you’re not using as much manual work.

You’re more effi cient in your day-to-day

operations.”

RetailerNOWmag.com SEPTEMBER | 2015 37

High Point Market/ Thursday, October 15 - Wednesday, October 21In the Klaussner Furniture Showroom / 101 North Hamilton StreetAt the market, call Brad Lebow 443-956-3538 to make an appointment to see us.

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New Address, Same Refi ned Look

Relocating and designing a new fl agship store for the iconic 117-year-old Swann’s Furniture & Design in Tyler, Texas, was an exciting and far-reaching endeavor for Martin Roberts Design.

A few years ago, Elam Swann, longtime owner of Swann’s Furniture & Design, could see his hometown of Tyler, Texas, slowly changing. Growth was shifting to the southern end of town away from his store’s southeastern location in an area

that had slowly morphed into industrial use and no longer refl ected the store’s high-end brand. Swann spent months looking at proper-ties to purchase to relocate his store. Only he didn’t settle on one. He bought three prime parcels and continued to watch how the city’s growth evolved before settling on one of the lots for his new store. All that was left was for someone to design it. As Swann tells it, “We think Swann’s takes the lead when it comes to decor and design in our area so we wanted someone who could take our old store and give it an updated, fresh look in our new neighbor-hood.” Swann entrusted retail designer Martin Roberts with the task of creating his new 51,000-square-foot store; redesign the brand’s identity; increase the store’s visibility in the communi-ty; and ensure consistency of the shopping experience between the retailer’s new website and the physical store.

Th e outdoor façade illustrates Swann’s new branding ele-ments while refl ecting traditional regional architecture. Th e increased height of the façade, with its faux second fl oor

BEFORE

AFTER

The new façade to Swann,s displays the store

,s new branding elements

while reflecting traditional regional architecture. The height of

the facade, with its faux, second floor design, makes the store appear

larger and increases its street presence.

TAKE2


From the lighting design and high-quality fi xtures, to the designer’s workstations and fi nishes, every element Roberts’ design crew incorporated into the new Swann’s reinforces the feeling of affl uent, updated traditional styling that is key to the store’s brand.

Martin Roberts, a retail and design industry veteran, has more than 40 years of design projects to his credit around the world. His company, Martin Roberts Design, includes an award-winning team of retail con-sultants, architects, and interior and graphic designers. Roberts can be reached at [email protected].

architecture, in proportion to the fl oor size and depth, makes the store appear larger without the expense of constructing a bigger facility—a solution that saved Swann’s a signifi cant amount of money while still achieving the goal of high visibility.

Refl ecting the brand’s focus and the added value provided by Swann’s decorating staff , we started the customer’s journey in the new design center, showcasing the colors, materials and textures available to clients seeking customized solutions.

Swann,s mattress section is one of the store

,s few

areas that features extensive signage to assist

customers in identifying a particular brand.

We created two studio exposition areas

for collections and room design concepts

developed by the store,s designers.


OCTOBER 17-22 Retailer Resource Center Space # PS1-527 First Floor of Plaza Suites

What DrivesNAHFA?

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YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR BUSINESS


EXHIBITORDIRECTORY

ADVERTISING/MARKETING/WEBSITESACA/Advertising Concepts of America .............................39DesignCliq, LLC ............................................................. 26FurnitureDealer.net ..........................................................37Imagine Advertising & Publishing, Inc. ...........................13Knorr Marketing ..............................................................15Mail America .............................................................20, 21Moso Graphics ..................................................................9Spectrum Marketing ........................................................12

BUSINESS CONSULTINGFurnitureCore/ImpactConsulting .........................18, 19, 29JRM Sales & Management ..............................................11

.........................................17

FINANCIAL SERVICESLendPro ...........................................................................27 Synchrony Financial .............................................16, 31

........................................ 40TEMPOE ......................................................................... 10

PRODUCTS and SERVICES Best Buy for Business ......................................... 34, 35 NAHFA ........................................................................14

S.A.W. Enterprises, Inc. .....................................................5Service Lamp Corporation ............................................. 30

...................................... 6

SOFTWAREFurniture Wizard ..............................................................44MicroD, Inc. ...................................................................1, 2

........................................................41, 42 .......................22, 23

STORIS......................................................................24, 25

WAREHOUSE & DELIVERY ........................................4

Diakon Logistics ............................................................. 36DispatchTrack ................................................................ 38United Steel Storage (USSI) ............................................32

INSURANCE & WARRANTIESRisk Assurance Partners, LLC ......................................... 8

Along with the many business service providers showing in the Retailer Resource Center, NAHFA is proud to feature Endorsed Program Partners. When researching your next partner, look for the Endorsed Program icon for exclusive NAHFA member discounts and/or services.

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SEMINARROOM

FIREEXIT

STORAGE

STAFFOFFICE

ENTRANCE

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2

BUYERS’ LOUNGE

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NAHFA Seminar Seriessponsored by:

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17

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Erika Sparrow & Jim Spencer, Imagine Advertising & Publishing

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Produce Measurable Return on Investment

STORIS, Kyle Mulvaney and Lindsey Scapicchio

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Today’s Real Estate Trends for Growth and Expansion

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2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Retailer’s Zero Moment of Truth Doug Knorr, Knorr Marketing

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5:15 – 6:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18

8:30 – 9:30 a.m. State of the Furniture Industry Jerry Epperson, Mann, Armistead & Epperson, LTD

10:00 – 11:00a.m. Storytelling: A New Brand Imperative David Altman, CEO, MartketShare Advisors

International

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Buckle Up! This is for Promotional Stores Only! Sale Events for Big Weekends Next Six Months

Brad Lebow, Horich Hector Lebow Advertising

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Dynamic Retail Solutions for a Modern World

Connie Post, Affordable Design Solutions

2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Anatomy of a Salesperson Joe Milevsky, JRM Sales & Management

4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Leveraging E-Commerce to Sell Your Showroom

Bob Bradley, Netsertive

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19

8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Implementing a Productivity Improvement Program

Brad Huisken, IAS Training

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Real World Strategies for Remarkable Retail Design

Martin Roberts, Martin Roberts Design LLC

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Furniture Tip-Over Safety: What You Need to Know

Bill Perdue, American Home Furnishings Alliance

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Control Your Financials. Grow Your Business Lee Rychel, PROFITsystems

2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Great Expectations: Give Your Shoppers a Great Online Experience

Jesse Akre, MicroD Inc.

4:00 – 5:00 p.m. RE:THiNK What You Need to do to Win Customers in the Digital Age

Jennie Gilbert, Retailer Web Services

5:15 – 6:00 p.m.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20

8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Ellen Gefen, Gefen Marketing

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. It’s Not E-Commerce; It’s Commerce Sev Ritchie, Tailbase

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Designers as Change Agents Mary Knackstedt, Mary K Interiors


NAHFA’s Retailer Resource Center

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Transform Your Order Takers into Order Makers

Philip Gutsell, Gutsell & Associates

Phil will uncover the critical skills and behaviors that separate order-makers from order-takers, preventing your customers from walking and costing you thousands of dollars in sales. Learn how to develop rapport, trust, confidence and, most importantly, customer commitment. Return to your store armed with the persuasive tech-niques and skills that will propel your sales and design staff to earn an even greater bottom-line result.

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Top 10 Marketing Synergies & Apps to Connect withMillennial Shoppers

Erika Sparrow & Jim Spencer, Imagine Advertising & Publishing

With the Internet of Things dominating marketing rhetoric, our discussion will focus on the top 10 marketing synergies and apps retailers and brands must embrace to compete with online retail-ers, as well as, rent-to-own retailers. We will highlight these web and digital strategies in depth, and list the partner resources where you can get access to these platforms. Additionally, we will offer thumb-drives loaded with research and case studies that support our presentation.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Produce Measurable Return on Investment withSoftware Driven Efficiencies

STORIS, Kyle Mulvaney and Lindsey Scapicchio

Retailers don’t buy inventory and then sell it for a loss—inventory is purchased to drive revenue and profit. By the same token, you shouldn’t buy software unless it too drives revenue and profit. It is critical to understand how technology driven operational efficien-cies can deliver dependable and, most importantly, measurable re-turns on investment results throughout your organization. Explore how to measure positive ROI results in sales, operations, finance, inventory, logistics and merchandising and turn any software pur-chase into an investment.

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Today’s Real Estate Trends for Growth and Expansion

Julius Feinblum, Julius M. Feinblum Real Estate

Julius will discuss the effects the Internet and online shopping have on the home furnishings industry and how they influence how you find the proper new site for your store. Find out why it’s an opportune time to expand your business and learn why more real estate is becoming available, and where those markets are. Julius will focus on the current national commercial real estate market and discuss what’s affecting market rent, property availability and which geographic areas have the most excitement and promise for growth.

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Retailer’s Zero Moment of Truth

Doug Knorr, Knorr Marketing

Google’s 2011 eBook coined the term “Zero Moment of Truth, ZMOT.” The focus was on the consumer buying process. In this high-energy seminar, Doug Knorr, president of Knorr Marketing, and Dan Kolle, director of digital services, will define retailer’s Zero Moment of Truth and what it takes today to engage new custom-ers and re-engage existing customers to increase store traffic, gross margins and profitability.

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Building a Social Media Community That BuildsYour Brand, Your Store

Jeff Evans, Social Dealer Connect

Join Jeff Evans for this step-by-step guide to growing an online, local army of advocates for your brand—your store. Learn how to develop high-quality content for specific social media platforms—content that tells your stories and covers your community in a way that results in conversations with people who don’t even realize they’ll be a customer, a store ambassador or both. He’ll discuss a two-part step that is virtual actions that result in real world actions. The end result is a trusting, engaged community that ultimately drives sales.

5:15 – 6:00 p.m.

The Profit Series

John Egger, Profitability Consulting

Profit is a beautiful word. This two-part seminar series will give you new ideas with tried-and-true systems to get your entire team think-ing PROFIT! This could be your most profitable event at market. John Egger has helped nearly 1,000 companies increase their bottom lines and he’s ready to help yours.


NAHFA’s Retailer Resource Center - Seminar Descriptions

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

State of the Furniture Industry

Jerry Epperson, Mann, Armistead & Epperson, LTD

The home furnishings industry is entering a renewed “Golden Age of Retailing” thanks to technology, the economy, demographics and specific industry opportunities that are coming together. Other industry sectors are now envying us—as hard as that is to believe.

10:00 – 11:00a.m.

Storytelling: A New Brand Imperative

David Altman, CEO, MartketShare Advisors International

Customers have grown weary of the hard sell; they want to share values and beliefs with their brands. The days of B2C have been replaced by H2H (Human to Human). What’s your story and how can you best bring it forward? This session will uncover what storytelling is, why it’s vital in today’s world, who’s winning and best practices to put to work today.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Buckle Up! This is for Promotional Stores Only! Sale Events for Big Weekends Over the Next 6 Months

Brad Lebow, Horich Hector Lebow Advertising

Keep the momentum going by putting traffic-driving sale events on your calendar for a big finish to 2015 and a strong start to 2016. Brad Lebow, president of Horich Hector Lebow Advertising, will walk you through the best opportunities and the best ideas for sale events from now until the next High Point market. Plus he’ll show you the best way to reach your customer through television, direct mail and digital media.

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Dynamic Retail Solutions for a Modern World

Connie Post, Affordable Design Solutions

Join Connie Post, the industry’s expert in retail design for a fast-paced look at stores that sizzle. Strap on your seat belt for a whirl-wind tour of news-making stores across the country as the industry’s own takes on the industry. She’ll focus on transformative retail strategies currently in play, and insights into engaging customer ex-periences that really work from the retail strategist who understands shoppers best. Along the way, you’ll benefit from a master’s class in trend-setting interiors, exteriors and graphics that amp up traffic, along with enlightened visual identity and merchandising concepts that set leaders apart in their marketplaces.

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Anatomy of a Salesperson

Joe Milevsky, JRM Sales & Management

Assuming the answer cannot be both; would you rather have a beautiful store with a terrible sales team, or an ugly store with a great sales team? You could have a beautiful store, great merchandise, and a great location; but people buy from people, not stores. Huge dif-ferences in the performance of salespeople dramatically limits your

potential. Learn about what makes a great salesperson, how to find them, how you keep them, and how you can ensure their success.

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Leveraging E-Commerce to Sell Your Showroom

Bob Bradley, Netsertive

Retailers need to add e-commerce as a core competency in 2015 as consumers rely more heavily on mobile devices to research pur-chases. In this session, marketers and local retail owners will learn about building and leveraging online shopping carts, using Google for product listing ads and how to pair a mobile savvy digital strat-egy with traditional customer service and next-day delivery options as a way to give the local retailer a leg up versus online retailers. Session attendees will learn why inventory should be the main focus of retailers’ digital marketing campaign and how to offer the

“white glove advantage”—the personal touch local retailers can offer customers that online retailers cannot.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Implementing a Productivity Improvement Program

Brad Huisken, IAS Training

Brad Huisken will lead participants through a fun and motiva-tional seminar on how to implement a productivity improvement program. He’ll discuss the five benchmarks for productivity im-provement along with detailing non-negotiable sales and customer service standards, training techniques and his training checklist for sales people and sales managers. The main responsibility of a sales manager is to give their people the help, training, and guidance they need to achieve success. Only through the consistent applica-tion of sound business principles can we achieve increased produc-tivity.

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Real World Strategies for Remarkable Retail Design

Martin Roberts, Martin Roberts Design LLC

If you’re a retail executive with P&L responsibilities this is the one seminar you can’t afford to miss. It’s time to think differently about how design impacts strategy, assortment planning, and making the most of your valuable assets. Roberts focuses on post-recession strategies of retailers who adopt offensive positions to cultivate new customers. Learn more about recent expansions and those in the pipeline. Hear how to take advantage of distressed real estate, as well as provocative brand repositioning designed to update and/or entirely remake your image in the marketplace. This session is for those tasked with the bottom line, presented in Roberts’ usual fast-paced, honest delivery.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Furniture Tip-Over Safety: What You Need to Know

Bill Perdue, vice president of regulatory affairs,American Home Furnishings Alliance

The number of furniture tip-over accidents harming children are on the rise. Do you know why? What can your store do to help reverse


NAHFA’s Retailer Resource Center - Seminar Descriptions

NAHFA Seminar Seriessponsored by:

this tragic trend? Don’t miss this timely seminar, which will include a demonstration of the industry’s voluntary tip-over standard and how to tell if the products your store carries meet the minimum requirements for furniture stability.

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Control Your Financials. Grow Your Business

Lee Rychel, PROFITsystems

Unless you have an accounting degree, you may spend more time running away from your fi nancial data than analyzing it. Financials are the Holy Grail of business. Join industry expert Lee Rychel and learn valuable tips and tricks to understanding, analyzing and controlling your fi nancial data. As a bonus, Lee will show you how you can save thousands of dollars in your accounting bills. Leave feeling empowered to take control of your fi nancial data and grow your business.

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Great Expectations: Give Your Shoppersa Great Online Experience

Jesse Akre, MicroD Inc.

Did you know you only have 10-20 seconds to impress your website visitor? Are you giving them what they want, a reason to stay and a reason to buy? Having a strategy for pricing, product branding, and target marketing are critical elements in making your online showroom a hub for potential customers. Learn from industry experts how to give shoppers a powerful online experience when we discuss best practices for online pricing, pros and cons of hide-and-seek, risks versus rewards of displaying brand names, and driving traffi c through online promotions and target consumer campaigns.

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

RE:THiNK What You Need to do to Win Customersin the Digital Age

Jennie Gilbert, Retailer Web Services

Independent retailers don’t have time or money to waste time trying to adopt the latest retail fads. Th ey need practical advice that is grounded in the way retail consumers shop for the products they sell. Jennie will focus on 11 tactics anyone in home furnishings can implement to beat the competition, no matter their size. Her insight is the result of consumer feedback collected through propri-etary research conducted with consumers nationwide. Explore re-search and supporting examples that will provide you with concrete, data-driven steps to use in your business.

5:15 – 6:00 p.m.

The Profi t Series

John Egger, Profi tability Consulting

Profi t is a beautiful word. Th is two-part seminar series will give you new ideas with tried-and-true systems to get your entire team think-ing PROFIT! Th is could be your most profi table event at market. John Egger has helped nearly 1,000 companies increase their bot-tom lines and he’s ready to help yours.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Showrooming: Leverage it to YOUR Benefi t

Ellen Gefen, Gefen Marketing

Showrooming has become a brick-and-mortar store’s worst night-mare. Or has it? Th e practice of visiting a store for the purpose of checking out a product before buying it online at a lower price is the new way to shop. Retailers have been trying to fi gure out a way to keep up with this trend. Some brick-and-mortar retailers have suc-cessfully competed with online retailers by off ering loyalty programs, in-store price matching and other promotions to deter showroom-ing. At this informative seminar, we’ll go over ways you can position, present and promote your products so that showrooming works for your benefi t.

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

It’s Not E-Commerce; It’s Commerce

Sev Ritchie, Tailbase

Th is seminar will illustrate the importance of integrating e-com-merce into your business. More than 70 percent of purchases in the home furnishings space are infl uenced by an online source (search engine, social media, etc.) and in some cases 20 percent of store pur-chases are being made via a shopping cart. Learn from case studies selected from the thousands of retailers throughout North America and from attendees’ marketing strategies. Attendees will leave this seminar with the foundation of a strategy to integrate or enhance their e-commerce capability.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Designers as Change Agents

Mary Knackstedt, Mary K Interiors

Th ere’s a reason interior designers often become close friends with clients—it’s because they enhance their lives. People don’t want to be ‘sold’ they want assistance from knowledgeable people with whom they have relationships. Th ey want to buy experiences. Knackstedt has taught many of today’s leading designers how to build success-ful enterprises. Join author, interior designer and business strategist Mary Knackstedt and learn how retailers can adapt leading designers’ sales techniques for their own salespeople to build sales.


BENEFITFOCUS

Where DoesYOUR

Store Stand?NAHFA’s 2015

Retail Performance Report compares you to your peers

For almost 40 years, the North American Home Furnish-ings Association’s Retail Performance Report was the in-dustry standard for retail benchmarking. After a nine-year hiatus, it’s back by popular demand.

We want to thank everyone who participated to the 2015 RPR. It’s through your support that this project became a reality and you are leading the future of the home furnishings industry through your contribution!

The Retail Performance Report is an in-depth, retail-specific report generated exclusively for our industry. It’s designed to help home furnishings retailers evaluate their performance relative to top performing and average firms in the industry.

This year, NAHFA used cloud survey and reporting technology and top industry financial consultants to compile the survey and interpret the results, which will set the stage for helping you bench-mark and plan for the future.

NAHFA’s 2015 Retail Performance Report represents the results of our survey from 2014 financial and operational data. A diverse cross section of retailers in the industry representing all regions of North America and beyond helped set the bar for the industry.

The report captures the most important and up-to-date key performance indicators (KPIs) for the home furnishings industry, which any home furnishings retailer can use to improve their busi-ness. This report measures performance metrics in several categories:

Percent of sales metricsPercent of assets metrics

Selling metricsOperational metrics

Salary mixAdvertising mix

Liquidity metricsInventory metrics

Participants receive the full results for free, however here are a few brief observations:

Sales are up! On average, organizations reported an increase in volume nationwide from their performance the previous year.

Gross margin is up! Gross margin percent of sales increased both on average and for high-performing businesses.

Operating costs are down! As a percent of sales, all operating costs, excluding cost of goods sold, have decreased as a percent of sales both on average and for top performers.

The Retail Performance Report takes an educational approach in displaying data. For each metric there is an explanation and inter-pretation. You will see the average results of the data collected, as well as the top 20 percent of performers. The goal of this report is to assist you to become more in tune with your store's performance metrics and understand what other retailers are producing.

You can leverage this report to:

• Decide which metrics are most important for you to focus on in your current situation.

• Develop a big picture strategy with realistic goals and a time-line for improvement.

• Set specific actions and tactics within your organization that can help you realize your goals.

• Monitor your key performance metrics monthly.

• Continue the process of improvement, education and upping your performance bar.

If you didn’t participate in the 2015 Retail Performance Report, but would like to compare your business to others in the home fur-nishings industry, NAHFA members can purchase a copy for $299 (non-members can purchase the report for $399).

We would like to encourage you to participate in the 2016 Retail Performance Report and receive the report for FREE!

To get your copy of the report, contact Kaprice Crawford, NAHFA’s membership director, at 800-422-3778.

Kaprice Crawford is NAHFA’s membership director and can help NAHFA members with any questions or problems they encounter in their jobs. Contact Kaprice at 800.422.3778 or [email protected]

By Kaprice Crawford

Always providing members discounted pricing through our national programs.

To learn more about thisNAHFA member program

visit nahfa.org or call:

800-422-3778

NAHFA Program PartnershipsCreate Endless Opportunity.NAHFA provided its members access to exclusive low EVERY DAYfi nancing rates through Synchrony Financial.

• Monthly fi nance rate buy-downs for members only.• Open-to-buy reports & consumer sweepstakes.

Come visit us atHigh Point Market

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Ask about our Black Friday buy-downs!NAHFA Preferred Partner


It All Adds UpWhen done right, professional advertising allows you to sell

furniture at a higher price.

By David Love

Professional advertising attracts new customers.

You always need a steady flow of new customers to keep your business growing.

People leave you for many reasons. They move away. They find a better deal. She takes the advice of a friend to try a different store. The other store has more effective web copy, which is where most prospects go for information after seeing or hearing your ad.

Professional advertising keeps your current clients coming back.

Just as you need a steady flow of new customers, you also need to keep current ones coming back. You can’t afford to let even one get away. This should be done primarily with offers made just to them, but they will also respond to advertising made to the general public. Because they have already done business with you and presumably were happy and want to return to you for their next purchase, they will return if given good reasons to do so. Picture, price and long-term, free financing are not reasons enough. Every store offers these.

Professional advertising helps overcome competition.

This is done by explaining in your ads why you have such great values. Why your current sale is so important. Why they should come see you versus the store across town. This reason relates very closely to building your reputation. In fact, none of these reasons to advertise stands alone. The more you meld together, the better the long-term health of your business.

Professional advertising allows you to sell at higher prices which boosts profits.

When you begin to present one or more of these reasons in your advertising, lower prices becomes less important. Prospects will certainly be attracted by low prices, but lowest price is seldom the primary reason people buy. Don’t believe me? I doubt that when you bought your last car or truck, you walked into the dealership and asked to see the cheapest one. You want the lowest price on the car you choose, but you don’t want the cheapest on the lot.

Why should your store advertise? Of course, we all know the simple, off-the-top-of-your-head answer: to get more business, right? But there are many other residual benefits to a store that comes with professional advertising.

You might be saying, “My advertising is professional, what’s he talking about?”

I like the definition of professional advertising I heard a long time ago. “Professional advertising is salesmanship multiplied by media.” The key word here being “salesmanship.” Your advertising may be prepared professionally, but benefit- and information-starved advertising is not professional advertising.

The primary function of professional advertising is to sell. It doesn’t matter if it’s print, radio, television, web, emails, social me-dia or whatever. The primary function of advertising is to sell. Sell your merchandise. Sell your services. Sell ideas. Sell your store. Because as flattering as they are, you can’t take “likes” to the bank.

Many stores, however, advertise as habit or because the com-petition does it, or for such vague reasons as keeping their name in front of the public. Or because they feel compelled to do something this month. Or because the ad sales rep comes in the door with a hot deal. Or, worst of all, the manufacturer is paying for part or all of the ad.

Besides the immediate effect of a good weekend or a good month, professional advertising has cumulative, long-term, spin-off benefits important to the long-term welfare of your store.

Now let’s have a look at some of these reasons you advertise. Keep in mind, when I say “ad” I mean any means by which you communicate with your prospects and customers. It’s just easier to say “ad.”

Professional advertising builds your reputation.

Here’s your opportunity to tell your story; to share the way you do business and how you treat your guests. It’s your chance to talk about your store's philosophy, the work you do in your commu-nity, and the quality of your people, products and services. All this takes copy.

Contrary to most furniture industry retailers’ opinions, copy written to proven standards will be read.


I’ve been driving Lexus cars for more than 20 years. Sometimes friends make fun of me, saying I’m just driving an expensive Toyota. Th ere is some truth to that, but the service Lexus provides is head and shoulders above any other. Th at’s why I buy them. If price was the only reason anyone bought a car, everyone would be driving around town in a Kia Rios.

Professional advertising helps your salespeople close more sales more easily at higher margins.

Because readers of your ads see all these reasons, they become less price sensitive. Th ey come into your store more pre-sold, ready to buy. Put another way, they are less price resistant.

Professional advertising informs in order to persuade.

Buying decisions are many times made emotionally, but they need to be justifi ed rationally with facts. Your prospect may buy a new sofa for $999. She knows there’s one across town, very much like hers that she could have bought for $799, but she bought from you instead for several reasons.

As she’s showing off her new sofa to her best friend, her friend, (who saw the same ad for that same $799 sofa) being the good friend that she is, reminds her of the $799 sofa. What does your customer do? She gives her friend all the rational reasons she bought from you—reasons like you have it in stock, you have next-day delivery, the salesperson was helpful, and so on.

Professional advertising reduces your total selling costs.

When more people respond to your ads, your sales and profi ts go up at no additional ad expense. Let’s say you’re selling $5 million. You’re spending $250,000 on advertising, or 5 percent of your sales. Let’s say that, because of running content- and benefi t-rich ads, by the end of the next year you’ve sold $5.5 million. Th at’s a 10-percent increase.

You have spent the same $250,000, but now your ad expense has shrunk to 4.5 percent. We all know your expense to deliver that $799 sofa is the same as it to deliver the $999 version. Your costs go down, your profi ts go up. Very simple. Professional advertising can do this for you.

Professional selling is done in your store, one on one.

Doesn’t it make selling sense to do the most professional selling possible where you reach thousands at once—in your ads? What other store function is as eff ective in positioning your store as the logical place to buy? Learning to make the same ad dollars produce additional profi t dollars and long-term benefi ts is vital to your survival.

You can’t do any of this without copy.

Th e erroneous opinion, most destructive to your profi ts and income, is that no one will read copy. If you still think this way, I urge you to put that long-held belief aside and give selling copy a chance.

To fi nd out more about how benefi t-laden, content-rich professional advertising can pull more buying traffi c, cut advertising waste, and make you more money, contact David at lovefurnitureprofi [email protected] or 707-580-3415.

Building upon the roots of

WhyNotLeaseIt™, the mission

of TEMPOE is to be an emblem of

trust by putting retail within reach for

our retailers and their customers.

TEMPOE.com© 2015 TEMPOE, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Market BASHSaturday, 10/17Starts at 5:00 pm

Location:FurnitureDealer.net Hangout311 South Elm Street, HPM

Lunch with LeadersSunday, 10/18By Appointment 11:30 am

Next Generation 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.

NEXT GENERATION NOW ACTIVITIES AT HIGH POINT MARKET

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Visit the website for more info

Lee David FautschSenior VP Sales, Home FurnishingsFlexsteel IndustriesSee all featured leaders online


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There’s Gold in Those

ShoppersThe power of prospecting starts with

building sincere, meaningful relationships

with your customers.

By Marty Grosse

W hat would you do if you discovered a gold mine in your back yard? Presumably you’d immedi-ately start digging. Every customer who walks through your store’s front door represents a

potential gold mine that’s often ignored by most salespeople. It takes considerable time and expense to drive customers to your store. It’s easy to measure selling success by monitoring close rates and average invoice size and certainly this is important to the im-mediacy of covering overhead and turning a profit. However, the customer who purchases or walks out represents a deeper potential for additional sales now and well into the future.

Successful sales prospecting is not to be confused with cold calling. Customers who have visited or called your store should be viewed with a buying pattern far beyond the immediate sale. Home furnishings purchases are generated by life experiences like buying a new home, starting a new job, kids leaving home, marriages, divorces and retirement, just to name a few.

The ability to prospect customers and maximize sales opportuni-ties includes three basic tenets.

Gathering Customer Information

The first step in building a relationship with a customer is foun-dational to the entire prospecting process. Successful salespeople tell me they become friends with their customers. Dale Carnegie gave us a road map for making friends and getting people to like us. When customers become friends with a salesperson, there’s a natural flow of helpful information. He suggested the following for building a friend relationship.

• Become genuinely interested in other people.

• Smile.

• Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

• Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.

• Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely.

If you simply focused and trained sales people to befriend customers, then sales and close rates would improve by default. However, there’s more to be gained.

When we learn why a customer is buying today it opens a trove of useful information. As an example, when purchasing a new home, most customers don’t purchase all of their furniture and accessories at once. Research shows that new home pur-chases create a prolonged buying process. Finding out what the customer is doing now and what they plan to do in the future provides a road map for creating an ongoing friendly sales rela-tionship. Knowing when a customer’s children might be going to college or when a couple is planning to retire is powerful stuff. The list of scenarios for learning more about a customer goes on and on.

Of course all of this is predicated on a genuine and sincere interest in the customer. When customers sense that the salesper-son is genuinely interested and sincere about meeting their needs then the long-term selling potential begins.

Seeking Permission

Step two is simple. After building rapport and a relationship with a customer, gaining permission to reach out to the custom-er for future needs is logical and expected. Permission may be gained by asking questions along with making statements. “May I have your permission to contact you if I become aware of new products or promotions for that next room or project you will be working on? I promise to be respectful of your time. What is the best way to contact you?” Reaching customers today is easier


than ever. Asking a customer how they would like to be contacted is the way to cement the process of permission-based follow up. Whether they prefer email, texts, phone calls, regular mail or social media, technology now makes it easier than ever to stay connected with a customer.

Track and Monitor

Th e third step is using a system for systematic (yet sensitive) contact with previous customers. Some of the best prospecting sales profession-als I know do not have a fancy system. Often it’s note cards and tickler fi les and sometimes it’s the dreaded sticky note process.

A system is only good if it’s used and accepted by the whole sales team. As a manager or store owner, the notion of having multiple sys-tems in a store confl icts with a desire for standardization and effi ciency. Today’s technology makes it easier for the individual salesperson to track and contact customers. Online calendars with built-in reminders are natural for the process of staying in touch at the appropriate time. Face-book pages, Twitter accounts and even Pinterest boards allow salespeople and their new prospecting friends to stay in touch. Does your point-of-sale system help salespeople identify customers that bought a recently discontinued collection?

Imagine the impact of calling a customer and off ering them the din-ing room armchair or night stand before it’s gone forever.

Study systems that your sales people may currently be using and take the best ideas to share with the other sales people. Establishing mandatory and rigid systems for the entire sales team may not be a

good idea. After all, customers are all diff erent and salespeople are all diff erent too. Th e key to prospecting success is teaching salespeople why it’s important and how to eff ectively build relationships with the customer. Look for ways to provide salespeople the tools they need to prospect customers. Suc-cessful individual systems will emerge and sales people will recognize they work then you can standardize a proven system for all.

Prospecting is developing long-term relationships with customers, and, more importantly, understanding their needs today and into the future. It then becomes a process of stay-ing in touch to strengthen the relationship.

Of course there’s more to it than just prospecting. Your store must provide relevant and stylish merchandise along with good customer service. Marketing and advertising are needed to get them to the store in the fi rst place. Prospect-ing is an extension of all the other aspects of running a store. Mining for gold and running furniture stores is not easy work. However, when properly done the rewards are mean-ingful. So grab a shovel and start digging.

Furniche.com founder Marty Grosse has 35 years of home furnishings experience. You can contact him at martygrosse@furn iche.com.

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www.AnchorIt.gov

For them, the home is a

playground. However,

many parents are not

aware that unsecured TVs

and furniture are hidden

hazards lurking

in every room.

CHILDREN LIKE

TO CLIMB ON FURNITURE

The Anchor It! campaign is the U.S.

Consumer Product Safety Commission’s

call to action to help ensure parents and

caregivers learn about these dangers in

the home and take simple, low-cost

steps to prevent these tragedies.

a child is injured

from tipped

furniture and TVs.

EVERY24 MINUTES

GOVACTION

The Tipping PointRetailers should understand the standards in place for safer furniture

By Lisa Casinger

A child is killed every two weeks when a TV or piece of furniture falls on them, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Another 38,000 Ameri-cans, mostly children, are injured due to tip-over

incidents. Earlier this year the Commission launched its Anchor It! campaign to educate consumers about the importance of anchor-ing their furniture.

For nearly 15 years our industry has had a voluntary furniture tip-over standard. As a retailer it’s your job to know if the product you’re selling meets the standard and to educate your customers on the importance of purchasing compliant furniture and installing tip-over restraints once they get that furniture home.

Th e voluntary standard was adopted by the furniture safety subcommittee of ASTM International in 2000 and was updated in 2004, 2009 and 2014. It applies specifi cally to clothing storage units, 30 inches or taller. Th is spring the CPSC’s Commissioner Marietta Robinson said the standard is “insuffi cient” and added the industry must work toward “broader compliance.”

To meet the standard the piece of furniture has to meet all of these performance standards:

• Th e empty piece must remain stable with all of its drawers open and all doors open to 90 degrees; it cannot tip over.

• It must remain stable when 50 pounds of weight is gradu-ally applied to the front edge of each drawer (individually), opened to the stop. (If there is no stop, the drawer must be opened two-thirds of its operating length.) Th e 50 pound weight is meant to simulate the weight of a 5-year-old child in the 95th percentile of weight.

• Th e tests are conducted without the use of a tip restraint but tip restraints “shall be included” with each item of furniture covered. Th e tip restraints also have to meet testing require-ments of a separate ASTM standard, F3096.

• A permanent warning label must be attached in a conspicu-ous location that’s visible when the product’s in use. (Most manufacturers put it in the bottom of a drawer.) Th e warning label must include the following information:

- WARNING: Serious or fatal crushing injuries can oc-cur from furniture tip-over. To help prevent tip-over:

- Install tip-over restraint provided- Place heaviest items in the lower drawers- Unless specifi cally designed to accommodate, do not set

TVs or other heavy objects on top of this product- Never allow children to climb or hang on drawers, doors,

or shelves- Never open more than one drawer at a time- Use of tip-over restraints may only reduce, but not elimi-

nate, the risk of tip-over

Who made the standard? ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) is the international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a range of goods and services. Th e furniture safety subcommittee is chaired by Bill Perdue, vice president of regulatory aff airs for the American Home Furnishings Alliance.

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There are about 130 voting members of the subcommittee, in-cluding furniture engineers from many major manufacturers, representatives of consumer groups, testing labs, and parents. CPSC staff advise the committee but do not vote.

The subcommittee has jurisdiction over four standards. Aside from the furniture tip-over standard, there is an ASTM standard for furniture tip restraints, one for horizontal glass used for desks and tables, and one for cedar chests.

How was the standard developed? The subcommittee con-sidered accident data collected and analyzed by CPSC staff. This data led to the focus on clothing storage pieces, as well as the height specification (30” or higher). It also revealed that the majority of accidents involve children age 5 and younger, hence the use of the 50-pound test weight.

The subcommittee can modify the standard based on data supplied by CPSC staff, but also based on changes in the marketplace. For example, media chests—a relatively new cat-egory—were specifically added to the list of covered products in the 2009 revision.

This spring AHFA hosted a symposium to discuss the voluntary standard and review the CPSC’s suggestions for revisions. ASTM and AHFA staff gave presentations and CPSC’s Robinson addressed representatives from UL, national child safety organizations, NAHFA, furniture manufacturers, the American Society of Furniture Designers, the Consumer Electronics Association and manufacturers of tip restraints.

An unofficial task group from the ASTM subcommittee also met to discuss and set priorities based on the day’s presen-tations and discussions. The task group agreed to review the introduction to the tip-over standard to eliminate any possible legal loopholes.

Another update to the standard as a result of the sympo-sium could be an increase in the standard 50-pound weight required for the performance tests. Arthur Lee, an engineer on the CPSC staff who worked with the appliance industry on a tip-over safety standard for freestanding ranges, pointed out that 50 pounds was the average weight of a five-year-old in the 95th percentile of weight in 1977. The CPSC is now updating its data using more current weights. The task group agreed it should obtain the CPSC’s new data and update the tip-over standard if necessary.

The task group also discussed furniture anchoring systems that wouldn’t require tools to install or putting holes in the wall; making tip restraints more conspicuous to the con-sumer, including making them a brighter color or having the furniture side of the tip restraint bracket “pre-installed” on the back of the furniture; an industry label that distinguishes between compliant and non-compliant products and getting more involvement from the TV ind ustry, including the pos-sibility of having tip prevention information included in the remote control set-up tutorials on new televisions.

The task group will report on these measures during its meeting this month. AHFA’s Perdue will give a seminar in NAHFA’s Retailer Resource Center on October 19 at 11:30 a.m. to demonstrate the standard and how retailers can in-form their staff and customers about its importance.

Lisa Casinger is ReailerNow’s editorial director and NAHFA’s government relations liaison. You can reach her at [email protected] or 916-784-7677.


NAHFACOMMUNITY

All Fore OneMore than 50 North American Home

Furnishings Association members, industry reps and associates showed up for a little (OK, a lot) of golf and even more learning and networking at the 11th annual Inland Empire Furniture Dealers’ Golf Tournament at Circling Raven Golf Club in Worley, Idaho in August.

The event brought together NAHFA members who otherwise might not have the time to talk about their business and the industry in a relaxed environment. The day was one of several regional events offered by NAHFA throughout the year for members to connect, learn and grow their business, said Sharron Bradley, the association’s chief executive officer.

“Our members are busy and we know it’s not always easy for them to get away from their stores,” says Bradley. “That’s why we love putting on regional events like these. They’re a great way to get away for a day, share ideas with other members and take a few tips home.”

Members heard from three industry experts at NAHFA’s regional event:

• Rob O’Neill, vice president of product development bedding textiles for Fashion Bed Group, offered NAHFA retailers a few simple sleep accessory selling tips retailers can employ to increase add-ion sales.

• With 3.5 billion Google searches performed every day, Netsertive’s Bob Bradley showed NAHFA members a few secrets they can implement in their advertising campaigns to help convert more shoppers into buyers.

• Larry Shinkle, vice president of sales for Leggett & Platt’s adjustable bed group, showed retailers how custom-ized sleep systems are helping sales associates and retailers gain a competi-tive advantage over their competition.

IN THE BAG Tag it and Bag it winner, Scott

Miller of Howard Miller USA.

TEE IT UP From left to right, Lance Heuscher of Bitney's Furniture, Mike Molitor of Watkins Shepard Trucking and Josh Stratton of Bitney's prepare to tee it

up at the Inland Empire tournament.

CONNECTING IN THE CLUBHOUSE NAHFA president Marty Cramer greets the

more than 50 people who attended the Inland Empire golf tournament.


Do you have something for the NAHFA Community? Send your information and hi-res photos to Robert Bell, [email protected].

NAHFACOMMUNITY

NAHFA Calls for Retailer of Year Nomin ees

27th Annual ARTS Awards Finalists Announced

Th e North American Home Furnishings Associa-tion is accepting nominations for its 2016 Retailer of the Year Awards.

Th e award recognizes NAHFA members who demonstrate exemplary service to the industry and their communities and who provide an exceptional customer experience in their stores. Nominees will be considered in two categories—businesses with sales volume under $10 million and those with sales volume of $10 million or above.

Nominations must be submitted by November 20. Visit NAHFA.org/retaileroftheyear to nominate the association’s next retailers of the year.

Nominees will be announced during the Winter Las Vegas Market in January and winners will be an-nounced during the April High Point Market. Win-ners will be celebrated at a gala event at the NAHFA Networking Conference, May 22-24, in Long Beach, Calif.

Island, S.C.; Dwell Home Furnishings, Coralville, Iowa; Leon & Lulu, Clawson, Mich.; SummerHouse, Ridgeland, Miss.; Bella Casa, Portland, Ore.; Urban Chic Home Furnishings, Las Vegas, Nev.; and Jonathons Coastal Living, Fountain Valley, Calif. Lighting showroom retail fi nalists are: Hermitage Lighting Gallery, Nashville, Tenn.; Pace Lighting Inc., Savannah, Ga.; Progressive Lighting, Duluth, Ga.; Hinsdale Lighting, Hinsdale, Ill.; Passion Lighting, Grapevine, Texas; Th e Collection on 5, Minneapolis, Minn.; Accent Lighting, Lake Oswego, Ore.; and Illuminations, Tucson, Ariz.. International retail fi nalists include: Aaron Stewart Home, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Design Lighting, Surrey, British Co-lumbia, Canada; Robinson Lighting, Win-nipeg, Manitoba, Canada; and Station12, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Sales representative fi nalists include: Greg Lewis, jdouglas; Kevin Gannon,

Gannon Sales Agency; Russ Jones, Ivystone Group; Joann Crawford, In-Detail; Richard Alan, Richard Alan & Associates, LLC.; Charlotte Urban, CODARUS; Andrea Combet, Art & Function; Doug Gould, California Lighting Concepts; and Leslie Taglio, Taglio & Co..

Product designer fi nalists are: Ashley Childers, Emporium Home; Dann Foley, Dann Foley Lifestyle; Jason Phillips, Phillips Collection; Ron McIntyre, Square Feathers; and Sandra Hernandez Yedor, Lili Alessan-dra.

Interior design fi nalists include: Aimee Miller, DTM Interiors; Allison Paladino, Allison Paladino Interiors; Erinn Valencich, Erinn V. Design Group; and Traci Connell, Traci Connell Interiors.

Manufacturer fi nalists include: Gabby; Home Trends & Design; Noir; Selamat Design; Company C; Jaipur Rugs Inc.; Loloi Rugs; Safavieh; GO Home Ltd.; Phillips Collection; Regina-Andrew Design; Ut-termost; Lili Alessandra; Ryan Studio; Bella Notte Linens; Coral & Tusk; Pom Pom at Home; Currey & Company; Fine Art Lamps; Hubbardton Forge; Visual Comfort & Co.; Emissary; Janus et Cie; Palecek; Seasonal Living; Summer Classics; Couture Lamps; Jamie Young Co.; Light & Living; Holtkoetter; Robert Abbey; Annieglass; Arte Italica; Beatriz Ball Collection; Vietri Inc.; Art Addiction; Leftbank Art; Spicher and Company; and Wendover Art Group.

“Every year we have the honor to recognize the abundant talent within our industry,” said Sharon Davis, executive direc-tor of ART. “We appreciate their passion for excellence, and we know the judges will have a very diffi cult task.”

Th e fi nalists each submit a streamlined digital presentation to a panel of distin-guished judges. Digital submissions vary based on category and may consist of prod-uct development, marketing, merchandising or company diff erentiation examples. Next month, the judges will convene in Dallas to review submissions. Once all components of judging are complete, a designated account-ing fi rm will tabulate and secure the scores until the winners are announced at the ARTS Awards gala event on Friday, January. 22, during the Dallas Total Home & Gift Market.

Th e Dallas Market Center and ART, the creative home furnishings network have announced the 27th annual ARTS Awards fi nalists.

“Th is year’s fi nalists exemplify the hard work and commitment that inspires the entire home furnishings community,” Cindy Morris, CEO of Dallas Market Center said. “We congratulate all the fi nalists and look forward to an exciting evening at the awards gala in January.”

Th e single-store retail fi nalists include: 24e Design Co., Savannah, Ga.; Donna’s Home Furnishings, Conroe, Texas; and Palette & Parlor, Chapel Hill, N.C.. Th e multiple-store retail fi nalists include: Interior Illusions, West Hollywood, Calif.; Louis Shanks, Austin, Texas; and NAHFA member, Th e Arrangement, Dallas, Texas. Home accent store fi nalists are: Outrageous Interiors, Suwanee, Ga.; Th e Blue Octagon, Malvern, Pa.; J Banks Design, Hilton Head

Continued on page 51


Joe Quintal (pictured here with wife Pat) of Rotmans Furniture

received the Arthur Adelizzi Distinguished Service Award at the

2014 New England Holiday Bash.


Welcome New NAHFA Members

NAHFA is excited to recognize and welcome the following retailers to

our association:

David BridgesBridges Furniture Company,

Ringold, Ga.

Kenny NguyenDila Furniture, Tracy, Calif.

Adam JordanHanks Fine Furniture,

Sherwood, Ark.

Kelvyn TruongHome Express Furniture,

Sparks, Nev.

Mark DavisHome Stars Inc., Denver, Colo.

John AungstiDeal Furniture, Holdrege, Neb.

Kenny ParkKeystone Furniture,Los Angeles, Calif.

Lixsandro VillafanLa Estella Furniture, Pasco, Wash.

Chris SalmonsenMattress Mart Direct, Butte, Mont.

Jacoba BermudezNIU Urban Living, McAllen, Texas

Larry PhillipsSofas 2 Furnishings, Simi Valley,

Calif.

Howard AdkinsUnclaimed Freight, Portsmouth, Va.

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

Next Generation NOW’s Lunch with Leaders @HPMNext Generation NOW’s Bash @HPM

October 18, 2015High Point, N.C.

New England Holiday BashDecember 3, 2015Papa RazziFramingham, Mass.


Delivering Education Every Month

NAHFA hosts monthly webinars (free to members) on 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.

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Our industry moves at a rapid pace. You need to move with it.RetailerNOW is the only association magazine dedicated to helping retailers like you move and stay ahead of the curve. Each month we bring you expert analysis, industry insight and interesting stories to move your business forward.Subscribe now. Visit Retailernowmag.com.

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INSPIRATION+ EDUCATIONCall Cindi Williams at 916.960.0277


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WayFair pulls plug on Get It Near Me program

Home furnishings e-commerce company Wayfair last month abruptly ended its Get it Near Me advertising program that was directing some of its consumer traffi c to local furniture stores.

Th e geo-targeted ad program was created to direct consumers looking for home furnishings from the Wayfair site to brick-and-mortar stores in their community. Th e NAHFA partnered with Wayfair in a promotion earlier this year.

When the program was created in 2009, the strategy was to give retailers a way to tap into Wayfair’s heavy volume of consumers. At the time Wayfair and other industry experts argued that many consumers preferred to purchase big-ticket furniture items in a lo-cal store rather than online.

Since then local retailers have upgraded their own digital pres-ence and dramatically improved their own online traffi c.

Storis to support EMV liability changes for home furnishings retailers

NAHFA member Storis announced last month that the com-pany will off er its home furnishings clients credit card processing that supports EMV liability changes.

“Storis wants to stress the importance of changing over to EMV processing and the positive impacts this new technology can bring to retailers,” says technical project manager David Graham, who headed the initiative. “Th e risk of not upgrading to more secure processing methods could be devastating to retailers of any size. Storis has been working diligently to make sure the services we provide to our customers put them in a strong, secure position.”

As reported in September’s RetailerNOW, credit card breaches present a prevalent threat for corporations and small businesses alike in the United States. Th e leaders in the industry, Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, are jointly enforcing new liability policies due to take eff ect in October 2015. Many European nations and Canada have been using advanced EMV technology, commonly referred to as “chip and pin”, for years and soon the U.S. will too.

Retailers will have the responsibility for any fraudulent activ-ity that occurs in their stores if they are not compliant with EMV changes set forth by the major credit card companies. Whichever party, the retailer or the credit card institution, is more liable for putting the consumer at risk will take on the fi nancial burden of the theft. Previously the responsibility would have been solely that of the credit card company.

“As the leading provider of retail software solutions to the home furnishings industry, we have a responsibility to the hundreds of retailers we service and to their customers to deliver the most secure technology in the market,” says Donald Surdoval, Storis’s CEO.

Th e adoption of EMV in a retail store is important, because this sophisticated system helps to thwart security hacks by an estimated 70 percent, according to New Science. EMV is designed to make the process of stealing data much more diffi cult, protecting the account owner from theft.

Continued from page 47

52 OCTOBER | 2015 RetailerNOWmag.com52 OCTOBER | 2015 RetailerNOWmag.com

To become an industry sponsor contact:North American Home Furnishings AssociationCall Cindi Williams @ 800.422.3778 | [email protected]

*List as of AUGUST 20, 2015

Premier SponsorsCoaster Company of America

Furniture TodayNorth American Retail Service Corp.

Titanium SponsorsAshley Furniture IndustriesEmerald Home Furnishings

FurnitureDealer.netFurniture Wizard

MicroD, Inc.Myriad Software

NourisonSTORIS

Synchrony Financial

Platinum SponsorsACA Advertising Concepts of America • Best Buy for Business

DataMentors • Diakon Logistics • Furniture of America High Point Market Authority • Leggett & Platt • Mail America

PROFITsystems, Inc. • R & A Marketing • Simmons USA

Gold/Silver Sponsors

Restonic Mattress Corp • Steve Silver Co. • Why Not Lease It

Bronze SponsorsBanner Marketing • BrandSource AVB • Ekornes • Moso Graphics

Netsertive • Rooms to Go • Rooms to Go Kids • Therapedic Idaho Wahlquist Management

NORTH AMERICAN HOME FURNISHINGS ASSOCIATION’S

2015 SPONSORS

INDUSTRYCALENDAR

NAHFA-hosted events are highlighted in red.

2015

Fall High Point MarketOctober 17-22High Point, N.C.highpointmarket.org

Next Generation NOW Lunch with Leaders and BashOctober 18High Point, N.C.nahfa.org/events

New England Holiday BashDecember 3Framingham, Mass.nahfa.org/events

ShowtimeDecember 6-9High Point, N.C.showtime-market.comhighpointmarket.org

2016

Atlanta International Area Rug MarketJanuary 13-16Atlantaamericasmart.com

Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings MarketJanuary 13-19Atlantaamericasmart.com

Dallas International Lighting MarketJanuary 20-24Dallasdallasmarketcenter.com


Dallas Total Home and Gift MarketJanuary 20-26Dallasdallasmarketcenter.com

Winter Las Vegas MarketJanuary 24-28Las Vegaslasvegasmarket.com

NY NOWJanuary 30-February 3New York Citynynow.com

Tupelo Spring Furniture MarketFebruary 4-7Tupelo, Miss.tupelofurnituremarket.com

High Point MarketApril 16-21High Point, N.C.highpointmarket.org

International Contemporary Furniture FairMay 14-17New York Cityicff.com

Home Furnishings NetworkingConferenceMay 22-24Long Beach, Calif.thehfnc.com

Canadian Furniture ShowMay 28-30Toronto, Ontario, Canadacanadianfurnitureshow.com

ShowtimeJune 5-6, 2016High Point, N.C.showtime-market.com

Dallas International Lighting MarketJune 22-25, 2016Dallasdallasmarketcenter.com

Dallas Total Home & Gift MarketJune 22-28Dallasdallasmarketcenter.com

Atlanta International Gift &

Home Furnishings MarketJuly 12-19Atlantaamericasmart.com

Atlanta International Area Rug MarketJuly 13-16AtlantaAmericasmart.com

Summer Las Vegas MarketJuly 31-August 4Las VegasLasvegasmarket.com

Tupelo Fall Furniture MarketAugust 18-21Tupelo, Miss.Tupelofurnituremarket.com

Casual Market ChicagoSeptember 20-23ChicagoCasualmarket.com

High Point MarketOctober 15-20High Point, N.C.Highpointmarket.org


220 Elm

(336) 884-8220220elm.com

220elm@220elm

Page 5

Bolton Furniture

(802) 888-7974boltonfurniture.biz

Bolton-Furniture@BoltonFurniture

Page 43

Cargo Consolidation

Services, Inc.

(828) 459-3160 cargoconsolidation.com

cargoconsolidationPage 41

Connie Post

(304) 736-7283conniepost.comPage 54

Cresent

(615) 975-4862cresent.com

Cresent.furniture@cresentfurniture

Page 13

Furniche

(210) 473-9508furniche.com

Furniche.USA@Furniche_usa

Page 25

Furniture Wizard

(619) 869-7200furniturewizard.com

furniturewizard@furniturewiz

Page 7

High Point Market

(336) 869-1000highpointmarket.org

http://tinyurl.com/ HighPtMarket

@hpmarketnewsPage 3

Horich Hector Lebow

(800) 878-8989 hhladv.comPage 27

To advertise in RetailerNow, contact Cindi Williams at

(916) 960-0277.

ADINDEXLynch Sales

(616) 458-6662lynchsales.com

lynchsales@lynchsales

Page 51

NAHFA Sponsors

(800) 422-3778retailerNOWmag.com

retailernow@retailerNow

Page 52

NAHFA Products

(800) 422-3778nahfa.org

NAHFA@NAHFA

Inside Back Cover

Northwest

Furniture Xpress

(828) 475-6377nwfxpress.comPage 19

ProfitSystems

(800) 888-5565 profitsystems.com

PROFITsystems@PROFITsystems

Page 9

STORIS

(888) 4-STORISstoris.com

STORIS.solutions@STORIS

Page 21

Surya

(877) 275-7847surya.com

SuryaSocial@SuryaSocial

Inside Cover

TEMPOE

844-TODAY4Utempoe.com

TEMPOEsocial@tempoe

Page 39

Tidewater

(800) 535-4087 x6553tidewaterfinance.com

Tidewater Finance Company@TidewaterMotor

Page 45

Truckskin

(877) 866-7546 truckskin.com TruckSkin

@TruckSkinPage 49

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 mak-ers you want to reach. Ready to connect?

Advertise now.

Call Cindi Williams at 916.960.0277.

CONNECTNOW

INSPIRATION+ EDUCATION

That’s trillion with a T

Worldwide e-commerce salesare expected to reach

$2 trillionby 2016

Source: Acceleration Partners via NRF Retail Library


NOWLIST

A Moving PieceCascade is a sculptural chest of drawers from Irish furniture maker (and surfer) Martin Gallagher.

It’s crafted in ash, fi nished in a white pigmented stain with hand-sculpted channels on the face of the fi ve touch-operated drawers.

The Views Have It

More than 90%of the 50

leading retail brands use at leasttwo social networks.

Source: Yesmail Interactive

61%

of online Millennials...

... get their political news from Facebook in a given week

60%

of Internet-using Baby Boomers get their political

news from local TV

Source: Pew Research

Source: Martingallagherfuniture.com

75%

62%

of people ages 18 to 24 would consider joining one

77% of people ages 25 to 34 would consider joining one

of survey respondents expressed interest in joining a rewards/loyalty program

Source: Loyaltyone

THE WAY WE WERE

Share your old photograph and memory by contacting Robert Bell at 916.757.1169 or [email protected]


This is the first Waldrop store my grandfather, Barney Waldrop, opened in 1952. After serv-ing in the military, my grandfather went to

work for Sears, where he sold furniture in their furniture department. After a while I guess he figured he’d gotten pretty good at selling furniture that he decided to open his own store and give it a shot on his own. He opened the store with a partner, Mr. Miller. The store opened on Avenue D in Lovington, New Mexico, the county seat for Lea County. After a few years they moved things closer to where other businesses were hopping in the county and

that's when business really started to take off for them and they grew.

To be honest, I haven't been out that way in a while, but I’m pretty sure this building doesn’t exist anymore. That doesn't mean I don't think about it from time to time. It’s nice to remember our roots and how far we’ve come as a family business. That first store of my grandfather’s was little, maybe 2,000 square feet. Today we have two stores and 60,000 square-feet of showroom. It's not a really long distance from that first store and where we are today, but, yeah, you can say we’ve come a long way.

Kent Waldrop, President,

Miller Waldrop Furniture, Hobbs, New Mexico

Warehouse & Operations Productsfor the Furniture Industry

EXCLUSIVEMEMBER PRICING*Phone: 800.422.3778 or 916.784.7677 Fax: 916.784.7697Website: www.nahfa.org Email: [email protected]*Non-Members add 25%

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.

Order during High Point Marketin NAHFA’s Retailer Resource Center

$Any order of $50 or more.

Order MUST be placed in the RRC(1st Floor of Plaza Suites) in person

during the High Point Market.

Balance paid by credit card.

MAY 22-24The Westin Long Beach, CA

Save the Date

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

Documents

October 2015 — Going Green Keeps You in the Black