january 2014—emerging technology

Vol. 3 Issue 1

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JANUARY 2014

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www.retailerNOWmag.com J A N U A R Y | 2 0 1 4 1

16. What is AR Anyway?20. Case Study Office Depot + One Direction 22. Not All Software is Created Equal26. Don’t Forget Customers Without Smartphones28. Shaping the Future of Retail30. Innovative Mobile On-Ramps 32. Are You Missing Out on F-Commerce?34. Furniture|Today Leadership Conference54. A Picture is Worth 1,000 Sales66. Get Your Glasses Furniture Retail in 3D69. Go Mobile Retail Engagement Survey

Technology's Race to RetailInside: Discover new types of tech and how you can use them in your store.

count onIT

yourVOICE

featuresNOW

14. Roving Reporter High Point Market60. Getting to Know the NextGen56. What's Selling Now64. Community Today Augmented Reality

I N S I D EEMERGING TECHNOLOGY

06. Message from Mary Best Wishes for 201408. From the Association President Brave New World10. From the Editor Emerging Technology 12. TechNOW57. FutureWatch with MicroD 43. Membership Marketplace

66.

16.

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RetailerNOW, ISSN# 2166-5249, is published monthly (except March and December) by the North American Home Furnishings Association, 500 Giuseppe Court, Ste 6, Roseville, CA 95678. Application to Mail at the Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Roseville, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please address changes to: RetailerNOW, The North American Home Furnishings Association, 500 Giuseppe Court, Ste 6, Roseville CA 95678.

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If you would like to only receive an electronic version of RetailerNOW, please send an email to [email protected]. © 2012 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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To have the courage to pursue purposeful dialogues that challenge conventional thinking, to engage and entertain our readers by delivering content that creates a fervent following ready to change the landscape of our industry.

RetailerNOW is the magazine for today’s home furnishings professional. Developed for a specialized community, RetailerNOW brings a unique editorial focus on progressive and relevant issues concerning the home furnishings industry in the retailer’s voice, with a focus on issues impacting retailers NOW.

Magazine of the North American Home Furnishings Association

Published by the North American Home Furnishings Association 500 Giuseppe Court, Suite 6 Roseville, CA 95678 800.422.3778

Publication StaffJennifer Billock Editor [email protected]

Lisa Tilley Creative Director [email protected]

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Michelle Nygaard Sales Executive [email protected]

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Editorial Collaborators

Andrew Tepperman Tepperman's Windsor, ON

Carol Bell Contents Interiors Tucson, AZ

Donny Hinton Colortyme Gaffney, SC

Rick Howard Sklar Furnishings Boca Raton, FL

Travis Garrish Forma Furniture Fort Collins, CO

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As 2014 starts, I had hopes of sharing some encouraging words or profound thoughts or plans that would jumpstart us all to prosperity. Since nothing specifically came to mind (although Jerry Epperson says we have much to look forward to in 2014 and 2015), I’d like to share a store experience that stands out to me.

I don’t cook. My kids are grown so my husband and I use our kitchen for a sort of launching pad for the day. We do eat breakfast at home, however, and an occasional evening meal so we eventually have to buy groceries. Because we aren’t buying in bulk and aren’t overly price-conscious, we shop where I have the greatest customer experience. In our neck of the woods, that’s Tom Thumb, part of Safeway, Inc.

What does Tom Thumb do that others don’t? They make grocery shopping a pleasur-able experience. That’s a difficult concept for me because buying groceries involves so much effort that I don’t enjoy. But at Tom Thumb, delight begins at the door. There is usually a greeter, an older gentleman who acknowledges us. Even when he’s not there, the store welcomes me. It’s clean, smells good and is well lit, with product displayed in the most delectable ways.

But the most impressive thing is their staff. Each one greets you and asks how you are doing, if you are finding what you want or if they can help in any way. If you ask where something is located, they know the aisle number and offer to take you there. If the stockers come close to you with their carts, they stop, apologize for possibly inconveniencing you and ask if they can help you in any way. They are neatly dressed, smiling and seem to think that making sure I’m happy is their job. Wow! The cashier makes sure he catches your name, even asking what it is if you pay with cash, and then calls you by it. Their training has definitely made the point that many customers like to be identified by name to be recognized as more than just a basket full of groceries.

Making sure that every encounter with us is a pleasurable one ought to be the mission and goal of every one of our businesses. It seems to me that home furnishings companies have more opportunities to provide a beautiful, com-fortable and inviting experience than the grocery store. I don’t specifically know what that means for your business, but I bet your employees and your customers know.

Why don’t you start a list of things that make your store and shopping there a great experience? Then, fine-tune those things you are doing and start doing more things like them.

Business comes where it is invited and stays where it is appreciated. Let’s make 2014 a year of great experiences.

From your greatest fan,

Mary Frye

President's Message

Message from Mary

NAHFA sends you best wishes for a Happy New Year!


Mary Frye EVP North American HFA


Recently in Toronto, we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario to take in a David Bowie exhibit. I imagined only a group of pictures but I was surprisingly wrong. The exhibit was an eclectic mix

of photos, digital clips, sounds, words, music and visuals, all bom-barding your senses and sending you into the virtual reality of past moments. What was traditionally a static presentation became an augmented reality.

Later, we were in a museum and took a virtual tour of ancient Meso-potamia and Babylon, complete with flyovers and virtual sets of the totally reconstructed palace. We were there, in the past, learning and visiting an ancient civilization.

The future of technology is happening now. Our industry uses tablets to do any and all of the following: organize delivery routes for drivers, take pictures, get customer sign-offs and deal with customer’s issues all on the spot. In our stores, tablets are hooked up to wi-fi, allowing the customer to see a world of virtual products, sizes, colors, SKUs

and available materials. We run our businesses on servers and back them up in the cloud. When the day is done, we come home and consult cyber menus to create dinner and check tomorrow's weather in 3D virtual layers. We Skype with our family and friends. All of this is happening on our tablet while we are kicked back relaxing—and all without leaving the house!

So what does the future hold? Medicine is moving forward quickly with virtual imaging, giving doctors the ability to see inside their patients in 3D. Now robots are used in surgery to lessen the trauma associated with traditional or old-style operations. We read about cars that can drive themselves. Drones are here to stay and help us in many ways. Artificial intelligence (AI) is mov-ing forward at a blinding pace; soon we will have robots that will be indispensible. It is predicted that AI will soon surpass our capacity to learn and maintain knowledge. And it was all the stuff of science fiction just a few years ago.

The future is bright and full of new opportunities as augmented reality and artificial intelligence converge to give us incredible experiences. We explore this topic further in this month’s issue. Take the stories and dream about the future, and how you can use the technology to your store’s benefit.

Rick Howard

President's Message

from the president

Brave New World

Rick Howard, President North American HFA

Sharron Bradley CEO [email protected]

Mary Frye EVP [email protected]

Executive Committee Chair Howard Haimsohn Lawrance Contemporary

President Rick Howard Sklar Furnishings

President Elect Marty Cramer Cramer’s Home Furnishings

Vice President Steve Kidder Vermont Furniture Galleries

Secretary/Treasurer Paul Sanford Jerome’s Furniture Store

SHFA President Britt Sams Sams Furniture

SEHFA President Wogan S. Badcock III W.S. Badcock Corp.


When I was a child, I used to churn out papers on a typewriter. Not because that was the current tech-nology of the time, but because I truly loved it. I still do—the satisfying pounding of the keys on ink and

paper will always make me smile. In any case, my family didn’t have a computer. It was still a relatively new concept and for all we knew it wouldn’t last. So imagine my frustration when I reached the point in school for submitting essays. I constantly had to scramble, either going to the library or staying late at school to get things typed up in an efficient way. I flirted with the idea of late homework, trying to type things up on the typewriter in the meantime and making so many mistakes from the pressure that I had to restart. (I’m sure some of you know how that feels!) My happy pastime had turned into one big ball of stress. Times had changed almost instantly, and I was behind. We eventually did get that computer, and as I sit here, typing on my laptop and using my smartphone, I’m reminded that technology is an awfully funny thing. It’s good for us and for our business, but miss the boat on the next most popular one, and it can be a major headache.

In this issue, we want to take the worry out of whether you’re making the grade in customer technology needs. We’re introducing the next big thing, augmented reality, which is a way to bring your displays and advertisements to life. We’ve also got the basics of near field communication, a technology that gives users information with just a swipe or tap of their phone. And overall, we show you how to involve every customer in interactive experiences—not just the ones with smartphones. Your website and social media may already be booming. This issue is here to take you to the next level.

This month we have another submission in our “Where are we now” campaign. Here we are scattered across a desk at the corporate offices of Netsertive in Morrisville, North Carolina. Thanks for reading, and everyone keep the pictures coming!

(224) 627-3288 [email protected] @retailerNOW

from the editor

Editor’s Message

What I’m LovingAlright, I know it’s not people furniture, but our furry family needs some love too! Enchanted Home Pet offers adorable pet sofas for fuzzy buddies of all sizes. Ollie, my Boston Terrier, just loves his and sleeps in it every night. The cushion comes with a built-in comfort system of interchangeable layers, and there’s a storage pocket on the back for toys. Only the best for our best friends.

Emerging Technology

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Cool Apps

Tech

TechNOW

Tech-Savvy RetailingMADE.com, an online retailer with one showroom in Notting Hill in London, is creatively solving the “can’t try it before you buy it” problem faced by web-only furniture stores. The company recently signed on with Sayduck, a company that produces interactive experiences from a static “marker” image, to promote its products. All MADE customers need to do is download the marker image or get a printout of it from the showroom, place it on the floor at home where the new furniture piece should go, point the phone at it and voilá! A life-size virtual version appears right above the marker.

Have you connected with RetailerNOW? Like, Tweet or Pin with us and you’ll be able to experience more content and continue the conversations online!

What technology are you using in your store? Let us know at

[email protected]!

Instant Webcam Are you using iPads in your store, but you don’t have security cameras? This is the app for you. You can instantly turn the camera on any Apple device into a

webcam. Just point the device’s camera in the direction you want to watch, start the app, then head home and go to the private URL the app gives you to see what’s happening. Available on Apple; Free

TalkTo Users love this app because it makes it easy to find information about any business. Someone can ask a question on TalkTo and the app will seek out the answer by

either looking through a database of registered stores or calling the stores themselves. Register your store at talkto.com and your info will be right at your customers’ fingertips. Available on Android and Apple; Free

CamScanner

Finally, you can stop relying on bulky paper receipts and purchase orders. With CamScanner, the camera on your phone becomes

a scanner. Everything you scan gets put on a website for you, where you can search, edit, share and otherwise manage the documents. Available on Android and Apple; Free

What apps do you use to help run your store? Let us know at: [email protected].

Hot Site Springwise.com

This site is like candy for business owners worldwide. Every day, London-based Springwise posts three new business ideas or developments to spark your creative energy. Put your entrepreneurial mind to use and find a way to implement those ideas in your business, or put your own unique spin on it. If three ideas aren’t enough, sign up for the weekly newsletter.

Top Tweets @MartinFurniture: @RetailerNOW What a great article about @kathyireland providing solutions for busy moms! http://ow.ly/rpqe6 #busymoms #solutions #home

@LuxuryfortheHom: Kitchen Luxury: Cabinet hardware is the jewelry for your kitchen. Make your kitchen sparkle. #luxuryhome

@MelissaGalt: Are you focused on your mission statement or the #mission of your #clients? Think about it.

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Roving Reporter HANNAH ROWELL

High Point Market 2013

High Point University Student

Your Voice

You know it’s market when the seemingly empty streets of down-

town High Point are filled to the brim with sophisticated business people from all over the world and the crowd in the elevator makes you real-ize that all of these people are here for one thing. Every year thousands of people in the furniture industry congregate to enjoy yet another furni-ture market full of diverse and unique displays in the

“furniture capital of the world.” With this being my first time encountering such an event, I was amazed at what I saw.

As a freshman studying visual merchandising and design at High Point University, let’s be honest—I had no idea what the furniture market had to offer. Not only that, but I hadn’t a clue what I was getting myself into when I signed up to job shadow a professional there. All I knew was that I would get to have lunch with some of the best professionals in the industry, and then job shadow someone. So I said, “Why not?”

My day began with a slightly longer than normal bus drive to the International Home Furnishings Center in downtown High Point, where I had the good fortune of being able to have lunch and listen to a discussion, hosted by editor-in-chief of Furniture Today, Ray Allegrezza, including speakers like Kerry Lebensburger (president of sales at Ashley Furniture Industries), Seth Goldberg (VP of business development at Raymour & Flanigan) and Rod Gordon (VP of technology at MicroD Inc.). They gave ample insight into what it takes to be a professional in the industry and shared their personal stories of how they made it to where they are now.

After lunch, I was able to job shadow Lael Thompson, COO at Broyhill Home Collections in the greater Denver area. Luckily I was paired with the right person. Not only did Lael show me some of the most amazing showrooms including Michael Amini

and Surya, but he also introduced me to some truly unique profes-sionals. Our most memorable stop was at the Nourison Industries showroom, where I met Jeff González, director of furniture and store sales.

As we walked into the chic showroom full of rugs, pillows and other textiles, I must admit I was a bit skeptical. But after a min-ute and a lesson later, I realized why Lael brought me there. There’s more to interior design than just picking out pillows and slapping down a rug. No, interior design is much greater than that. There is a whole industry that devotes its services to creating not just a room, but also a complete and cohesive atmosphere, including textiles, lighting, accessories, furniture, electronics and so much more. It was impressive to see all these industries come together in one place to network and share their ideas.

As the day progressed, Lael eventually led me to Ashley Furniture’s Urbanology display. This quickly became my favorite part of the day due to the displays and outlook on design. It is exactly what I want to do with my career. It was fitting that earlier in the day, one of the panelists at the luncheon suggested we “present a lifestyle, not just a price,” because Urbanology displayed a convenient and unique lifestyle that most Americans can afford.

The displays included elements showing creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. The use of raw materials and upcycled items such as old books, paint-chipped doors and worn-out shutters brought a new and inspirational aspect to the idea of design. Design doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go out and buy the most expensive items on the market. No, design can be created out of almost anything, including items you could find at a flea market or thrift shop.

Taking everything into account, the day was full of new experi-ences, acquaintances and opportunities. I was able to mingle with some of the most inspirational professionals in the industry, including designer Barclay Butera and Satya Tiwari (president and founder of Surya). I got the opportunity to shadow some-one with real experience and wisdom in the furniture industry and I was able to experience, for the first time in my life, what it’s like to go to my first furniture market. Not a bad start to my career.

Are you visiting a show or new market event? Let us know at [email protected]!

16 J A N U A R Y | 2 0 1 4 www.retailerNOWmag.com www.retailerNOWmag.com J A N U A R Y | 2 0 1 4 17

Emerging Technology

What is AR anyway?Augmented Reality: A Retail Marketing Game Changer?

By Sue Masaracchia-Roberts

In every industry, market-

ing and advertising must

adapt to keep pace with

changes in technology trends

and in the ways consumers

digest information. As mes-

sages bombard people from

the moment they turn on their

electronic devices, advertisers

must work to reach consumers

in unique ways they can relate

to. Augmented reality (AR)

does just that, as it injects a

playfulness—an element of

the unexpected—into an ev-

eryday product or experience.

“Augmented reality is a new, innovative technology that provides ways for consum-ers to experience a product like they never have before,” said Ryan Darbonne, market-ing director at AR provider Gravity Jack.

“It packs an extremely powerful, low-risk product experience for customers. It allows them to interact with, experience, share or discuss a product virally with their close networks on social media. This is an ex-tremely rare opportunity to provide a fully immersive and completely new experience. It is a perfect fit.”

To use IKEA’s app, a customer places the open catalog on a spot in their home where they envision a piece of furniture, then points their mobile device at the specific piece on the catalog page. An image will appear to size on the phone in whatever color or fabric the consumer wants to see.


Emerging Technology

AR enhances someone’s view of the world by using a device, be it an iPhone, a web-cam, any mobile device or even glasses with a camera and/or computing power. The real world is replaced by adding or changing the data about what is being seen.

“Augmented reality is just a technology that allows you to learn something,” said user Troy Dunn, president of Dunn&Co, a Florida-based advertising agency. “It uses something like a mobile device that is a portal into a world that really isn’t there, but it is once you go to that portal screen. Augmented reality allows you to manu-facture an experience for a customer in a way you could never do in the real world space, affordably or any other way. We are now able, with AR, to create a portal that transports the user into this very unusual and unexpected experience space.”

AR’s beginnings and applications

First envisioned by Wizard of Oz creator L. Frank Baum around 1901, the idea of projected reality actually was patented as a

“Sensorama Stimulator” by cinematographer Morton Heilig in 1962. The actual term

“augmented reality” was first coined in the early 1990s, reputedly by Boeing researcher Tom Caudell, for use by workers to show how to separate bolts. From its modest be-ginnings, where it added audio, animation, video or graphic layers, AR has progressed to a time that allows readers to use custom designed software and a webcam to see 3D images and video content.

One of AR’s pioneers, Layar, began in the AR industry nearly five years ago. Co-founder and U.S. general manager Maarten Lens-FitzGerald said the company saw the possibility of a platform where anyone

could create and experience AR through one app: “On one hand science fiction books gave us the idea, as well as Japanese anime. These showed us how the near future reality could be part of our current world. We see it as a way to view the world differ-ently—an amazing way to link paper/print products to their digital experience and their world, to bring people closer and create a better experience.”

Marxent Labs CEO Beck Beseker agreed and noted that in the retail space, AR can be invaluable.

“The whole point of retail is to make ad-vertising actionable,” said Beseker. “That is what AR does.” As an example, this vendor explained, “You get a catalog or a magazine in the mail and you really like a [specific] product. Instead of dog-earing or ripping out the page, you hold your phone over it. It takes you online and you buy it. It is like a big shortcut hyperlink. The greatest benefit to retailers will be to make the entire store actionable.”

But AR is more than just a service that links users to a website. According to Darbonne, stores can base their campaigns on unique user information like past purchases to provide product videos and images of new items they may find interesting—effectively allowing physical stores to sell products to shoppers in the shopper’s own home.

IKEA’s entire 2013 and 2014 catalogs ex-emplify this. A customer can open to a page, put the IKEA catalog on the spot in their home where the consumer may want to place a piece of furniture, for example, and then point their mobile device at that piece on the page. An image will appear to size in whatever color or fabric the consumer wants to see. This allows them to know before ever

going to the store if the piece fits in their space and if they will like it when it arrives.

IKEA retail services communication manager Mattias Jöngard said, “We want the IKEA catalog to be a great source of inspiration as well as a tool to show solu-tions to people’s dreams and needs. We’ve tied [this catalog] to a mobile app since 2011 and started to use AR for the 2013 [issue]. Customers see their portable devices as tools. The [2013] app downloaded 9.7 million times throughout the year.”

Byron Colby, senior vice president of digital commerce at retailer Cornerstone Brands, began to work with Marxent Labs when he realized his customers wanted to meld the impact and inspiration of the print catalog with the benefits of mobile online use, like social sharing, product reviews, images and video and the ability to track favorites.

“Catalogs are inspirational with great imagery, but are static,” Colby said. “We needed to find [a way] to make them more dynamic and accessible while on the go. AR has the potential to do that. Customers are demanding a lot more. What we’ve done using this tool is [allow you to] point your phone at a catalog and instantly see couches, their different colors [and] video.”

AR technology is also effective at trade shows and other events. Dunne explained,

“Our intro into using AR technology had to do with exploring how to make intriguing connections to our customers’ customers at trade shows. A customer will come into our booth space and we’ll hand them a mobile device like an iPad, and we’ll use AR to bring the booth space to life. We’ll actually put graphics around the space at the booth, whereas in the past, a booth was always populated by artwork and messaging. One

“The whole point of retail is to make advertising actionable.”

Beck Beseker, Marxent Labs


‘innovative’ techniques is the lack of a downside,” he said. “QR codes were sup-posed to be a massive overhaul but came with terrible design, requiring space and having extremely high limitations of what can be conveyed through a code. AR is more of a comprehensive upgrade to the complete advertising and retail experience. It brings together location, buyer his-tory, demographic information, analytics, experiences and convenience to create a powerful opportunity for retailers.”

AR drives campaigns and creates consumer loyalty and brand interactivity, said Wright, and a strong AR campaign can enable product visualization before buying, drive traffic to retail locations, support cus-tomer acquisition and retention, elevate awareness and brand affinity and increase downloads, leading to sales and brand engagement.

“Two years ago when we first started,” said Beseker, “one out of 1,000 people had heard of augmented reality. Now about 10 out of 1,000 have heard of AR. It is still very early. The ability to hold your phone up and see digital content in 3D space—that is effectively what AR is. Within the next five to six years, when you see a magazine or a poster or an ad or billboard, anything with an image, you will hold up your phone and if it doesn’t do something interactive, you will be irritated. When that happens everyone will understand what AR is, but it’s a few years out.”

“Right now,” added Darbonne, “retailers have an extremely rare opportunity to captivate consumers in a way they’ve never experienced before through augmented reality.”

of the things we envision is to make that booth into anything you want it to be. In the future, it could be a different booth space for different audiences. Rather than having a theme or one key message, you could have multiple pathways of key messages. We can program something in such a way that when you hand an iPad to somebody, they can select where they are from (country or industry) and that will automatically give them a different booth experience from somebody else.”

Finding the right vendor to create an effective experience

“Custom software, including augmented reality, is perhaps the truest example of ‘you get what you pay for,’” Darbonne explained. “The right vendor will bring three critical things to the table: experience, vision and comprehensive delivery. If you select a team that doesn’t [understand these capabilities], you run a very high risk of gimmicky campaigns with low impact and high attrition.”

Hollis Murphy, the webmaster and graph-ic designer for industrial manufacturer Sumitomo Machinery Corporation of America (SMA), contracted with Gravity Jack to help develop its application and transform it into a mobile version. “What this has done,” Murphy said, ”is pull back the curtain and reveal what we have to offer rather than distract our customers. It’s gotten the industry excited. Our sales reps, customers and people can really see and engage with products instead of flip-ping through a catalog. It gives a memo-rable experience.”

Colby further suggested that a partner company should help educate people how to use it and make it as simple as possible. It needs to pass his mom test: “If you cannot explain it to your mom, it’s not going to fly.”

Before looking for an AR partner, Lens-FitzGerald encourages businesses to know their objective and how much time they have to reach their objective, and ensure those objectives are smart. Consider how much budget you have and who your target group is. Are your users mobile savvy? See what is best for you based on marketing basics.

“Begin with a small project, like an event,” said Beseker. “Keep it focused and learn from it. Then you will learn what is really possible. You can take a little bit of a risk with an event and get immediate feedback. The biggest mistake we see is trying a very broad plan that takes 18 months to com-plete. After you are two months in, you want to start over.”

Pontus Sjöberg, the product manager for the digital IKEA catalog, noted the impor-tance of finding a vendor who can make the functionality work in varying light condi-tions. If the technology isn’t built to work in less than optimal light, users with those issues will see the experience as a failure.

AR vs. Quick Response (QR) codes looking forward

Of those interviewed, most agree that AR seems to hold more promise than the more static QR codes (the small square-shaped codes, read with a phone’s barcode app, that bring you to a specific website).

“The two are very different,” said Jay Wright, vice president of product management at vendor Qualcomm Vuforia. “QR codes offer a quick and easy portal to product details. On the other hand, AR delivers a highly immersive, sophisticated and com-pelling level of customer engagement that goes far beyond what QR codes can offer.”

Darbonne explained further. “One of the real reasons AR stands out from past

AR is more of a comprehensive upgrade to the complete advertising and

retail experience. It brings together location, buyer history, demographic

information, analytics, experiences and convenience to create a powerful

opportunity for retailers.

An AR shopping experience by Ballard Designs.

Emerging Technology

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Emerging Technology

How Office Depot Used Augmented Reality to Shift Transactions into Interactions by Megy Karydes

Background Information: Office Depot provides office products, services and solutions for every workplace environment. Its goal is to be a single source for everything customers need to be more productive, including the latest technology, core office supplies, print and document services, business services, facilities products, furniture and school essentials.

Today’s Retail Challenge: Delivering an integrated shopping experience across all channels

Being a brick and mortar and e-commerce retailer isn’t cutting it anymore. Smartphones are becoming increasingly important as a retail marketing channel. More than 70 percent of consumers use a smartphone in-store to help them shop and more than 75 percent are likely to take an action after seeing a location-specific message.

Realizing this retail dynamic, and in an effort to appeal to a younger audience and create a more interactive shopping experi-ence, Office Depot created a partnership with popular boy band One Direction to create the campaign “1D+OD Together Against Bullying.” It used augmented reality to bring the campaign to life.

Goals of 1D+OD Together Against Bullying Campaign According to Emery Skolfield, senior director of marketing for Office Depot, the goal of the 1D+OD Together Against Bullying campaign was to increase interactivity, interest and share-ability.

“We wanted it to be something people used, were delighted with and told others about,” he said. Here are the main directives of the campaign.

• Build a full-scale plan to expand awareness of exclusive 1D + OD products and the campaign, which should be available across platforms (owned and external), devices and media to support physical touch-points

• Appeal to One Direction fans and influencers through exclusive content, unique experiences and #hashtag-driven actions

• Keep audience engaged by creating mobile-friendly interactive experiences that are easy to use and inherently shareable

• Influence spending by reaching key customer segments (young students) and affinity groups (fans) through targeted marketing efforts

1D+OD Together Against Bullying Campaign


Emerging Technology

Office Depot’s partnership with One Direction was about develop-ing an exclusive, limited-edition product collection that differenti-ated Office Depot from back-to-school competitors. “The collection delivers teens something they can’t find anywhere else—beautiful supplies that tie back to Office Depot’s ongoing anti-bullying ef-forts,” said Skolfield. “We added augmented reality to the product as a layer of interactivity to make it even more interesting and to enhance the exclusivity. We want to create experiences with the product, moments that are inherently share-able and, thus, social.”

Approach Reaching that younger audience was crucial for this campaign to succeed.

“The idea was to appeal a younger audience, knowing they are highly influential on the parents’ purchase decisions,” said Skolfield.

“Exclusivity was critical. Again, create something they can’t get anywhere else, make it highly interactive and create an emotional connection with every touch.”

Office Depot’s limited-edition back-to-school offerings included items such as 3-ring binders, spiral notebooks, a 5-pack of pens, composition notebooks and memo pads, as well as other collect-ible items like decal sets, wristbands and nail polish in the custom campaign colors. All products were appropriately priced under $10, with most under $5, making it accessible to any student to participate and support the anti-bullying messaging in school. A percentage of the products’ sales would be donated to support anti-bullying education.

Campaign Support “Aurasma created a technology kernel that was embedded into Office Depot’s smartphone app through partnership with their IT team,” Skolfield said. Office Depot marketed the program on products with trigger images and off a special fixture in Office Depot stores.

An interactive store fixture, with a life-sized image of the One Direction boys, also triggered a video and engaged the key audience.

Another example AR in use included a notebook, featuring a pic-ture of Harry Styles from One Direction, which triggered media simply by placing a smartphone over the image and activating the technology.

Office Depot also brought awareness to the campaign by sponsor-ing a 70-second video message by One Direction, encouraging fans to join the campaign and help end bullying in schools. The video was played at each of the band’s U.S. concerts.

How Augmented Reality Brought the Campaign to Life “These products are about way more than utility,” said Skolfield. “When you look at a normal notebook or binder, it’s for the most part one-dimensional. With our 1D+OD products, users can ac-cess exclusive video content like interview footage triggered off of never-before-seen imagery of the guys from One Direction. Bring it to Life simply refers to the transition from still image to moving picture, from photo to video. That’s what Aurasma enabled for us through image detection technology embedded into Office Depot’s smartphone application.”

Results Initial results are promising. Since Skolfield doesn’t have a bench-mark or any history with augmented reality, he admits it’s hard to pinpoint any specific successes or challenges throughout the campaign. He and his team were impressed, however, with the level of use within only six weeks of the campaign’s launch:

• 150,000 video views triggered off product

• 300 percent increase in app usage

• 65 percent click through rate

• 30,000 store fixture scansIn fewer than two months since Office Depot launched the “Bring It To Life” experience on its app, which housed the exclusive One Direction content, daily usage of the app doubled.

Watch a video from the campaign here! http://youtu.be/0Fr6eIUoB6I


Emerging Technology

Not All Software is Created EqualWhat You Need to Know

by Shelley Parlin

We carry smartphones and iPads, and have the internet at our disposal. But how has all of this affected the retail game? Recently I had a layover at La-Guardia Airport. I could eat at a restaurant in the airport, use the restaurant-provided iPad to shop any of the airport’s stores, make a purchase and have it delivered to me at my specific table. Now THAT is a great use of technology.

Retail home furnishings isn’t the same thing as selling trinkets in an airport, but it does show what kind of service customers are becoming used to. How can you compete with that in your operation? While many retailers have adopted iPhones, iPads and even online banking into their personal lives, they are reticent to do so in their professional ones. They struggle or give up entirely in their efforts to really embrace technological advances and the efficiencies that they bring.


Custom purchase tracking with options in the hundreds if not thousands

Customer sales history

Inventory turns

Gross margin and GMROI at the SKU, category and vendor levels

Reorder level recommendations based on lead times, in/out of stock, recent sales trends and more


Emerging Technology

One of the most important aspects of technology in a home furnishings retail store is the enterprise software system. The ques-tion is, are all software packages created equally? The answer: A resounding NO! Buying an off-the-shelf package is really doing a disservice to your business. Off-the-shelf packages just don’t hit the needs of the home furnishings industry for one main reason: They weren’t designed to. These are designed to be as general as possible to accommodate the largest possible customer base.

If you look into the wonderful world of industry-specific enterprise software, what will you find? Packages specifically created to meet the needs of the home furnishings industry. First, you are in the retail business, not just any ‘ole business. Retailers need to track product more in-depth than just what is carried and how many items are sold. You will need much more detail if you want to cre-ate as much sales volume and gross margin as you possibly can. A few of these details are:

Inventory is pretty much the only way retailers make money. Every other department in the store is an expense. By utilizing software that will help you get the highest gross margins and turns achiev-able, your profitability will soar.

Technology to make things easy is so prevalent in everyone’s daily lives; customers have expectations that need to be met. They are accustomed to scanning a QR code or buying with ease online or on a mobile device. Even though it probably won’t cost you a sale if a ticket is handwritten, it will leave a perception that your business is behind the times.

An effective customer relationship management (CRM) system is necessary to manage today’s customer experience. CRMs can be found in most software designed for our industry. You will not only be able to help your customers in a more modern and professional manner, but you will also be able to get reports on the customer experience. Imagine how useful it would be to know what advertising medium brought them in and why they didn’t buy today—reasons like price, selection or spousal approval. Even information about the sales team will be at your fingertips. You will know their closing ratio, average sale size, average gross mar-gin and even revenue per up. This information can help you buy better, more effectively coach the sales team on where they could improve, and help build repeat business through quality follow-up.

The point is, when you utilize software created with the unique needs of your industry in mind, you will get far better tools and resources than if you go for a more basic version thinking it will be good enough. Just because you can get basic accounting or point-of-sale doesn’t mean you have anywhere near the power you need, or that you can build processes into your business that will save time and money.

Another great advantage to using software for the home furnish-ings industry in your store is that most integrate with other industry-specific programs. By combining the power of your enterprise software with other powerful software, you can create a better customer experience and streamline your operation. Picture a world where your customers can visit your website, pick out product and create a wish list or even make a purchase. Then, have that purchase integrate directly into your software for delivery scheduling. Prices and availability will match what you have in the store because your website and software share information.

When you utilize software created with the unique needs of your industry in mind, you will get far better tools and resources than if you go for a more basic version thinking it will be good enough.


1. 2.

3. 4.

6.5.

Is the productivity of you or your team reduced by ine�cient processes?

Are you lacking key information to help you make informed decisions?

Do you have manual or slow reporting processes?

Are you missing industry-speci�c requirements?

Does your system lack �exibility?

Do you need to automate core business processes?

Emerging Technology

Let’s take it one step further. When you schedule the delivery, that information might go to another software package to optimize the route, saving 10 to 15 miles per day per truck. This mobile application allows you to capture job completion details such as status, pictures, notes, signatures and customer surveys. At the end of the day, it uploads the delivery data back into your enterprise software and you can finalize deliveries in a snap. All of this will give your customer the most professional level of service you can provide.

So how do you select the right system for your business? Start with one designed for your industry. It will provide metrics, analysis and process specifically with your needs in mind.

Clarify what key areas are automated in your current software.

Identify what works in your current solution that you cannot live without.

Record all manual operations that should be automated.

Detail current challenges that need to be solved.

List what information is currently available in your software and what else is required.

Determine the level of accounting and computer experience that is needed for potential users.

The most important thing you can do when looking for software is to be willing to change your current processes! Often people will look at the various software packages available because their current system just isn’t cutting it any more. Then, totally frustrated, they give up and stay with a bad solution. Why? Because the new ones don’t do things in the exact same manner as their current one. If your current system isn’t working, don’t try to replicate it elsewhere. Doing the same thing with different software won’t work either. Yes, it will take time and effort to switch to a new system but ultimately the benefit that you will receive is worth the effort.

If you answer yes to any of them, it is probably time to see what our industry has to offer you. A key element to consider when looking at new business management software is not simply operational, but strategic. It is important to ask whether your current system can deliver the kind of competitive market advantage you need. At the end of the day, that may be the single most important decision you make.

Right now you might be wonder-ing if you even need a new solution. Ask yourself these six questions:

Shelley Parlin has been with PROFITsystems since 2007 and is currently their Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining PROFITsystems, Shelley gained 21 years of experience as a storeowner and general manager in her family-owned furniture business, making her intimately familiar with the ins and outs of running a home goods retail operation.

continued from page 23

Members of The North American Home Furnishings Association can stop by the Retailer Resource Center during the Las Vegas Market and pick up a copy of the 2013-2014 Retail Furniture Software Comparison guide, or call us at (800) 422-3778 to find out how we can help.

software | consulting | performance groups | freight savings | e-solutions

800.888.5565www.profitsystems.com

If you find yourself without the crucial information required to make important decisions about buying product for your showroom, like which manufacturers, categories, and items that are your money makers, then your current software hasn’t kept up with your company’s growing needs. The main purpose of a great business management software is to provide you with real time information that is easy to access.

You should be able to depend on complex analysis of your company’s unique sales trends to help you forecast what to expect in the future. Without knowing what has sold, what advertising brought customers in, and maybe even why they didn’t buy during a visit, you are left making “seat of the pants” guesses rather than informed deci-sions. If you are ready to look at a more robust system give us a call.

Is your current software taking you nowhere fast?

Problem Solved.

We have found the single most important benefit we’ve gotten from using RETAILvantage is the ability to gather metrics quickly on a variety of different areas of the business. You can easily pullthe reports you need and take that data and information and move with it.”

Laura CrowleyCrowley FurnitureIndependence, MO


Emerging Technology

Don’t Forget Customers Without SmartphonesStore interactivity should involve everyone, regardless of equipment

by Duncan Clapman

We are now in a retail environment driven by smart shoppers who want value for their money. To help them make the best choices, shoppers want easy ac-

cess to more information about products, promotions and prices from both online sources and stores. These smart shoppers are using technology and a variety of information sources and new services, in whatever ways and mixes they choose, to research and buy products.

To complete the picture they also want shopping to be an easier and more engaging experience. By implementing an omni-channel strategy, retailers will be able to respond quickly and easily to shoppers’ current and rapidly changing needs by implementing joined-up technology and using consistent data online, in stores and beyond.

Customers want everything—they want the advantages of online, including a wide range of products, rich product information and recommendations plus customer reviews and ratings. They also want the benefits of physical stores, where shopping is an experi-ence and comes with personal service and the ability to touch and feel products. And of course, they also want the best value, good prices, great offers and the new processes and technology that make shopping easier, quicker, less risky and more interesting. It’s not unreasonable if you are a customer, but it’s pretty challenging to deliver if you are a retailer.

It is not necessary for people to have the latest smart devices to ben-efit from interactive technologies in retail stores. When properly deployed, interactivity should be all about creating an experience.

Therefore, retailers should be striving to create experiences in-store that enhance or improve on what can be found online and in other shopping environments.

Fantastic experiences can be created with smartphone or tablet devices, but in-store experiences using larger displays and PC- or similar-based solutions allow for greater processing power and greater visual and interactive impact. It is also worth noting that, with the use of video content analytics, laser cameras, touchscreens and other new technologies, you really can take these experiences to another level.

At the same time, these experiences are enabled for use by everyone and therefore, everyone is able to engage with the experiences—not just smart device users. However, we must remember that when merging technology into existing retail environments, the technology and solution has to fit within the setting and not the other way around. Technology doesn’t have to fill every empty space. Many retailers, in the early deployment of digital technolo-gies, simply distracted customers from the purpose of their visits to the stores: shopping. A real “wow” is generated as much by the subtle and unexpected as by the excitement of the interaction.

By creating an interactive experience you are allowing the customer to become immersed in an engagement that feels spellbinding, so make sure that your experience really connects with the vital message you are trying to push across.

The new omni-channel environment ensures that, even without a smart device, a customer is likely to have researched the prod-uct they want in some way before they come to the store. This may have been done through a website, social media or even a magazine. The customer has entered the omni-channel ecosystem. In turn, this means that a path has been taken to reach a retail destination. Retailers need to grasp the importance of conver-gence across all these engagement points, enabling customers to better flow through their interaction and transaction journey. If a customer has engaged with a retailer online, the retailer should know this and every effort should be made to connect with that information in-store. This is where the integrated world meets retail to complete the customer experience.

Duncan Clapman is the founder of C-Instore, a unique ‘innovation consultancy’ focused on helping retailers realize the omni-channel experience. Duncan is a thought leader in the fields of immersive experience, augmented reality and disruptive technology.

ONLINE

MOBILE PRODUCT EXPERTS

IN STORE

OMNI-CHANNEL


How People Will Shape & Be Shaped by by Rick Liebling

Perhaps more than anything else, the 21st century has been marked by its ability to disconnect long-held paradigms from what were previously perceived to be sturdy moorings.

Many of the things we’ve long held as truths—be they in relation to work, family, religion, media or technology—have been blown apart by cultural upheaval and scientific advancement. The result has been that people—let’s do away with terms like ‘consumers’ for now—have been thrown into a new reality. (Or, depending on your viewpoint, emancipated from the old one.) This sort of disruption inevitably benefits some and hurts others, especially in the short term. But as equilibrium is achieved, people learn how to maneuver the system.

Online business publication PSFK’s Future of Retail report, not unlike a William Gibson novel, provides a provocative peek into the very near future. As Creative Culturalist at Y&R New York, it’s my job to observe and, ideally, directly experience these trends to help our agency and, by extension, our clients, make sense of them. Having digested an executive summary of the FoR report, I’d like to propose a sort of macro-macro trend. One that speaks to the larger societal evolution we are experiencing, manifested within the retail category. I call it: untethering.

As retailers slough off the physical back end of manufacturing via off-shoring and outsource other soft-cost functions such as tech support, we’ve seen the retail industry ‘untether’ from local communities in many ways. I think we’ll see this continue and, combined with other advances in technology, the untethering will also appear at the front of the store as the very notion of ‘store’ itself changes.

We’ve seen the dramatic effects on retail as the way people buy products has changed, first from home computers and more recently from their mobile devices—the showrooming trend. Now as content becomes a sales channel via mobile and second-screen technology, the very nature of the storefront changes. Is a shoppable music video a piece of content, an advertisement or a digital shop? The answer is “yes.” Omni-point-of-purchase, as the report refers to it, blurs lines and removes friction from previously discreet interactions.

An intriguing knock-on effect of this could be how it alters the roles of employee, customer and brand advocate, that elusive yet highly sought after superfan that has been the Holy Grail of corporate social media efforts. You could also easily throw in ‘producer’ to the salesperson/customer/advocate mix. Sites such as Etsy now allow virtually anyone to become their own retail brand, further untethering individuals from the systems of last century.

5 RULES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

Have a purposeMobile, social and digital platforms can help you accomplish many objectives, but success hinges on understanding which of those goals you are aiming towards.

Know what success looks likeBe prepared, in advance, to measure your efforts. Set concrete goals and stay laser-focused.

Don’t fear trial and errorYou may be surprised by what your audience is interested in or responds to. Don’t be afraid to alter your plans as you receive feedback.

Engage in cultureBelieve it or not, people are more interested in what’s happening in pop culture than in your semi-annual clearance sale. Figure out how your brand is relevant to what’s happening in the world, but don’t force things!

Don’t broadcastRetweet, share, like, follow, pin, favorite. They’re actions you want from others, but are you doing it? You should. Show how much you appreciate your community and it will grow strong.

… And Two Tips About Content

Use high quality photographyDon’t use stock photos from your catalog to showcase your products. Invest in professional photography that is artistic, stylized and has a personality. That’s what stands out on Facebook, Instragram and Pinterest.

Showcase personal storiesWho makes your products? What sort of craftsmanship is involved? Where are your products made?

Emerging Technology


Can a retail brand exist purely in the digital world? If so, what does it mean to be a salesperson of such a venture? Does that role cease to exist? Or does that person become untethered? Could there be a new role, in the vein of an Avon representative, where you become affiliated with a number of brands, earning money for selling and promoting products? Now a person can use the entire arsenal of social networks and tools to act as a salesperson, customer service rep and brand advocate—and it could be done anytime, from anywhere.

Retail brands have long courted influencers with large networks, but the efforts usually lacked real strategy and it was difficult to track success. Now, the tools exist, from real-time big data dashboards to personalized customer profiles that recall purchas-ing histories, to allow a new type of employee to really drive the bottom line for retailers while providing retail value.

We’ve seen the rise of the curator in recent years, those clever and resourceful folks with impeccable Pinterest boards and finely appointed email newsletters. In an untethered world these people will become retail consultants—perhaps getting paid a commission from a company, but perhaps also benefitting from a customer subscription service. The purchase funnel is now a purchase network and those savvy enough to understand the game from all sides will surely figure out how to benefit from it.

The untethered retail environment opens new interpretations and opportunities for loyalty programs as well, another trend noted in the report. We’ve come a long way from the ribbon-cutting ceremonies of old. Ramified social experiences disconnected from a retailer’s physical space, if they even have one, will encourage new and novel partnerships. There will be an opportunity to re-imagine the loyalty program from the individual to the com-munity—especially in an untethered world where people will have a greater need than ever to connect.

The role of advertising and the advertising agency will—and must—evolve. The same pressures weighing on retail will also be evident in the world of marketing. Communications will need to be further customized, personalized, relevant and delivered in real-time. But the nature of the message will need to change as well. Instead of a brand sponsoring a movie, perhaps a movie will sponsor a brand? Young directors will offer to make films about a retailer or their product, imbed sales opportunities directly within the film and receive a percentage of the sales.

All futures are possible at this time, but this we know for sure: Those who don’t embrace the future, be they retailers or not, will find themselves in a world in which they struggle to succeed.

Rick Liebling is a marketing consultant, frequent speaker at industry events and guest columnist. You can read more of his social media insights at RickLiebling.com.

Emerging Technology

INNOVATIVE MOBILE ON-RAMPSin the Retail Environment

by Sydnee Seites

Near Field Communication (NFC), geofencing and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) are technologies that are built in to smartphones and used for communication between mobile and other devices. While they probably do not sound familiar, they have most certainly been around for a while, and are worth the attention of retailers now more than ever.

Near Field Communication (NFC)NFC functions as a much-improved QR code—instead of scan-ning a QR code, simply tap or wave the smartphone over an NFC tag to access information, no app necessary. NFC is also more secure, can carry more data and, most notably, is two-way, allow-ing an NFC-enabled device to both send and receive information, in turn allowing you to track information to a specific person or account.

Mobile payments are the most widespread and well-known use of NFC technology, but there are a great deal more uses for it in retail. Retailers can communicate product information, reviews, availability and delivery options for products embedded with NFC tags/labels. The tags start out at about 10 cents apiece. Marketing, ad campaigns, promotions, discounts, customer loyalty or mem-bership benefits are almost endless including coupons, fixed-time special offers, lotteries or feedback channels via NFC tags or terminals. Read on for resources that can help you implement some of these ideas:

Augment your merchandise tags: use NFC tags or labels to com-municate product information, discounts or ratings—NFC label manufacturers like MPI Label System, atlasRFIDstore.com, Tappinn and RapidNFC can customize NFC labels to deliver simple promotional offers, encode labels to perform specific func-tions like request assistance, or create inlays to connect the user to reviews or enable check-ins and sharing on social media.

Reward your customers: Deliver offers to your consumers at check-out—Point of sale and payments specialist Merchant360 has in-troduced a software plug-in for Ingenico and VeriFone terminals that enables merchants to send marketing messages and coupons to customers via NFC, without the retailer needing to partner with wallet providers like Isis and Google.

Emerging Technology


Emerging Technology

Enhance existing ads: NFC inlays & smart posterss—An NFC smart poster, offered by companies like Web Evolved or Tapinn, can contain coupons, information about a product, or loyalty points without the customer having to even enter your store. It can also help customers find your business by linking to online directions, make a purchase, or instantly “like” or “follow” you with the simple tap of their phone.

Geofencing

Geofencing is also a technology that allows retail stores to com-municate with consumers, the idea being to target those that are nearby. A geofence is a predefined virtual boundary around a physical location, like a two-block radius around a retail store. It can be any size or shape, and when a shopper enters or leaves that area, stores can send text or push notification on an opt-in basis, offering a geo-targeted ad, coupon or marketing message about the store or specific products.

Although only big names like Best Buy and Kmart have made head-lines trying versions of geofencing, small business owners should not assume that this is accessible only to major retailers. There are multiple mobile advertising platforms that offer geofencing tools aimed directly at small businesses:

1. Moasis (moasisglobal.com) The Moasis Smart GridSM offers “a better way to connect businesses and consumers in local spaces.” Moasis specializes in helping businesses to target consumers in a certain neighborhood, city, or even in the street blocks near their stores. Business owners bid for ad space just like they might with Twitter Ads or Google AdWords, making it easy to stick to a campaign budgets. Moasis ad rates typically run at $40 CPMs.

2. Thumbvista (thumbvista.com)“Thumbvista offers mobile mar-keting services for small business,” reads thumbvista.com, and their range of no-contract services including “Do It Yourself ” Texting, “With or Without App” location based services and geofencing services start as low as $100.00 per month. Custom projects and strategy consulting services are also available.

3. AdLeads (adleads.com) AdLeads is a service for geo-targeted in-app mobile ads. Retailers choose the neighborhoods, cities, states, or countries where they want their mobile ads to appear and use the ad builder tool to create their own ads in minutes. AdLeads funnels those ads to top mobile apps and businesses

pay only when consumers elect to hear more about their deals and promotions. Pricing varies depending on industry and geo-targeting criteria, however most merchants pay about $1.00 per signup—far less than the cost of click in a search advertising campaign.

While geofencing does not require the physical activation of swip-ing a smartphone on a tag or terminal like NFC, it only allows communication on an opt-in basis, meaning a smartphone user has to opt into this “service” on your website or by sending a text message to your promotional number. However, most if not all recent polls and research reveal more than half of consumers with smartphones say they’d trade their phone number or location pri-vacy for discounts. This puts retailers that much closer to seeing success with getting consumers opting in.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) BLE, which is supported on iPhones and newer Android phones, can be used for communicating with devices in very specific locations inside your store, and allows detailed tracking and data exchange without a conscious physical activation (like swiping a phone over a terminal). Bluetooth is nothing new, but the low-energy (LE) standard has been getting a lot of buzz since Apple’s release of iOS 7 along with a quiet announcement of a feature called iBeacon, which utilizes BLE for data transfer between devices. Companies like Estimote (a company which just launched to sell beacons) and Shopkick (a shopping rewards app) have already developed “beacons” for retailers to install in their stores and use to push personalized micro-location based notifications and actions to shoppers. Estimote is taking pre-orders at the price of $99 for three beacons, but has yet to announce any retail trials. Shopkick’s ShopBeacons run $40 per, and have been installed in Macy’s Midtown Manhattan and San Francisco locations for a trial initiative which allows Macy’s to track shoppers inside their store,

“wake” customers’ compatible phones upon entrance and send dif-ferent offers at any given time based on the floor or department customers are in.

Because of BLE’s range, it has been touted as an “NFC-killer” by many, but it’s all a matter of perspective. BLE beacons look like they’ll be a winner for large retailers with already-popular apps, or those that can invest in an app developed with BLE or beacon integration capabilities. If this is you, check it out.

The next frontier of retail is here, but it does not revolve around any one particular technology. Research and polls have been telling us for the past year that anything with the ability to engage a consumer with their smartphone or mobile device will be a winner. In the spirit of the new year, take a calculated risk by implementing one of these technologies into your retail operation…and don’t forget to share with RetailerNOW!



HighTech

ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON

It’s a common assumption that on-line shopping hurts local businesses. However, many local retailers across

the U.S. are proving that assumption wrong and are finding great success at sell-ing their wares via Facebook comments—all while boosting their in-store foot traffic, increasing in-store sales, ironing out sea-sonal lulls and turning their merchandise more quickly.

Selling via Facebook comments is a fairly new form of e-commerce, often called “f-commerce,” where all sales are managed and take place within Facebook, with customers purchasing a product by simply commenting “Sold” below the picture of the item. Sellers often call them Facebook auctions and Facebook flash sales.

“A major misconception is that the internet hurts local retailers and small businesses, when in reality, many stores have found that selling on Facebook actually supports and increases their business,” said Chris Bennett, co-founder and CEO of Soldsie, the leading app that automates the posting, scheduling and invoicing process for these Facebook auctions.

Boosting In-Store Foot Traffic & Additional Purchases Jennifer DeMaria and Kristin Maynard, owners of Jenny Boston, a five-location boutique selling purses, accessories and other women’s fashion apparel in the Boston suburbs, began posting and selling items on Facebook in October 2012. Since then, Facebook sales have exceeded those of most of her physical stores...without cannibalizing their sales.

In fact, DeMaria and Maynard say that foot traffic and in-store sales have increased due

to people picking up their items and grab-bing a few more things while there.

“We’re seeing our customers in person on a more regular basis because they’re buying from us on Facebook. Comment selling has grown our in-store sales by 100 percent,” added DeMaria.

Turning Merchandise More Quickly, Less DiscountingAmy Blevins, owner of Bead & Glass Boutique in Pitman, New Jersey, uses Facebook to help move merchandise more quickly. She posts her newest items first on Facebook, before they’re available in stores.

“Selling through Facebook helps move more products off my shelves in a shorter time frame, leading to a faster ROI,” said Blevins.

“Since adding Facebook sales, I don’t have as much product lingering on my shelves collecting dust as I did before.”

Like Jenny Boston, Facebook flash sales also help drive in-store foot traffic for Bead & Glass Boutique.

“Many of our Facebook customers come into our store to pick up what they bought the night before on Facebook. I’d estimate seven out of 10 times the customer ends up buy-ing something else,” Blevins said. “Even if those additional sales are small or impulsive, it was a sale that we probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

Smoothing Out Seasonal LullsIn the idyllic East Coast summer vacation town of Chatham, Mass., many local retail-ers struggle to manage the seasonal lulls that hit their businesses when the tourists go home. April Cabral, owner of Sundance

Clothing, along with her store manager, Chelsea Edgar, turned to Facebook last year to maintain relationships with summertime customers throughout the year and give them reasons to patronize the boutique from wherever they are.

“Our business really slows down during Chatham’s offseason. We rarely see custom-ers walking through our doors in the middle of winter,” said Cabral. “But thanks to our Facebook sales, that is no longer the case. We are now able to reach and sell to our summer customers year round, which has really helped even out our sales and cash flow.”

Additionally, through the viral nature of Facebook, Sundance Clothing has seen a bump in the number of customers who’ve never stepped foot in the store, because they’ve seen their friends comment or “like” their merchandise.

Adding a New Sales Channel Many local retailers like selling via Facebook comments for the same reason that online-only retailers enjoy it: it makes money. In Houston, Haute Mommies & Bella Babies’ owner Darcy Santala has experienced a 57 percent increase in overall sales since she began selling maternity and baby clothing on Facebook. Like other retailers, she’s also seen an uptick in in-store foot traffic and sales when customers pick up their merchandise.

Can this work for the furnishings industry? It’s worth a shot. After all, a new sales avenue brings just that: sales. Here’s what to do: Post a picture of an accessory in your store and cap-tion it “Facebook Flash Sale – the first person to comment ‘sold’ purchases the item,” along with a price. Then sit back and watch the comments come in. Try it out and go to our Facebook page (facebook.com/retailernow) to let us know what happens!

Facebook comment re ta i l sa les are on the r ise—here ’s how other retai l segments do i t and why you should, too.

Emerging Technology

Locations: Puyallup, WAMira Loma, CA • Morganton, NCFax: 828-764-4461 • Phone: 855-208-6377Email: [email protected]

Please contact Grant Laidlaw VP Sales at 778-549-3188 or [email protected] to review your transportation needs.

The Northwest Furniture Transportation Leader

Eric ClarkePresident

Eric ClarkePresident

Grant LaidlawVP of Sales

Grant LaidlawVP of Sales

www.NWFXpress.comwww.NWFXpress.com


Furniture Today Leadership Conference

NAHFA attends FT Conference with Honors

The 17th annual Furniture|Today Leadership conference in Naples, Fla., enjoyed a record turnout for the show. From December 3-5, 2013, more than 470 industry leaders descended on the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort to enjoy an itinerary packed full of panels and presentations, all following the theme of “Mastering the Game.”

NAHFA held a strong presence among the attendees, with several of the association’s members being honored with awards. Four out of five recipients of the Masters of the Industry Award are members:

Art Van Elslander; Art Van Furniture; Warren, Michigan Jake Jabs; American Furniture Warehouse; Englewood, Colorado Bernie Moray; Gorman’s; Farmington, Michigan Ron Wanek; Ashley Furniture HomeStores; Arcadia, Wisconsin

Simon Kaplan of Dayton, New Jersey-based Crest Furniture also received this award.

The Masters of the Industry Award is presented to retailers who have been industry visionaries, taking leadership to a new level and acting as ideal role models for the furnishings world.

The next generation of retailers also came out on top, with three out of the five of the Furniture|Today – Leggett & Platt Rising Star Awards going to NAHFA member stores:

Jessica Tubman; Circle Furniture; Boston Will Daughtrey; Badcock Home Furniture; Mulberry, Florida Seth Goldberg; Raymour & Flanigan; Liverpool, New York

Non-member store winners were Becca Sudbeck of Omaha, Neb.-based Nebraska Furniture Mart and Mark Mueller of Bellville, Ill.-based Mueller Furniture.

This award is specifically for young retailers who display exceptional levels of leadership, creativity, vision and innovation.

Congratulations to these shining NAHFA stars!

Words of WisdomThe FT conference panels offered some easy-to-remember tips to success. Here’s a rundown of some of our favorites.

If you take risk out of life, you take opportunity out of life. The magic lies in execution, not in ideas. Be relentless with your quest to change the world. Execute or be executed.

2. Ron Wanek, left, of Ashley Furniture, Bernie Moray of Gorman’s, Art Van Elslander of Art Van Furniture, Simon Kaplan of Crest Furniture and Jake Jabs of American Furniture Warehouse received lifetime achievement awards at Furniture/Today’s Leadership Conference and Masters of the Game Awards dinner.

3. Tackling the subject of attracting young consumers and employees to the furniture industry. Seth Goldberg, left, Raymour & Flanigan; Will Daughtrey, Badcock Home Furniture & more; Jessica Tubman, Circle Furniture; Mark Mueller, Mueller Furniture; and Becca Sudbeck, Nebraska Furniture Mart.

1. Kim Yost, CEO of Art Van Furniture, Warren, Mich., and another NAHFA member, encourages attendees of Furniture/Today’s Leadership Conference to “inspire, grow and become more.”

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Industry News

HOT COFFEE • MOCHAS • LATTES • AMERICANOS.... All day, Every Day

Breakfast and a Break Join us in the Buyers Club for a full breakfast, gourmet coffees to order and cold beer in the afternoon.

Breakfast Stay & PlaySunday - Wednesday Sunday - Wednesday 7:30 - 9:00 a.m. Starts at 4:00 p.m.

IMC Las Vegas Market10th Floor, Building B

AllRetailersWelcome

Join us in theBuyers Clubto network

with industryprofessionals


Access From

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RRC

Access From

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Retailer Resource Center Floor Plan

Reception

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The Social Spot

Seminar

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HFA

Restrooms

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1830

1921 2022

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ADVERTISING/MARKETING/WEBSITES

ACA/ Advertising Concepts of America ..... 11 Knorr Marketing ......................................... 5 MicroD, Inc ................................................. 16 Mail America .............................................. 3 Moso Graphics ........................................... 38 Netsertive ................................................... 12 R&A Marketing ........................................... Social Spot Truckskin, LLC ............................................ 37

BUSINESS CONSULTING

FurnitureCore/Impact Consulting ............... 20 The Furniture Training Company ................ 24 JRM Sales & Management ......................... 7 Profitability Consulting Group .................... 30

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Credit Source Finance ................................ 8 CrossCheck ................................................ 28 GE Capital .................................................. 14 Genesis Financial.... .................................. . 35 NewComLink .............................................. 1 Tidewater Finance Company.. .................. .. 4 Trekstone Financial Corp. ........................... 26

PRODUCTS

Best Buy for Business… ........................... . Social Spot Guardian Protection Products .................... 2 North American Home Furnishings Assoc . 31 Quarz .......................................................... 6 Service Lamp Corporation ......................... 27

SOFTWARE

Custom Design Software ........................... 25 Furniture Wizard ......................................... 15 Genesis Software Systems ........................ 29 FurnServe. .................................................. 10 Myriad Software ......................................... 17 PROFITSystems, inc .................................. 13 STORIS....................................................... 18

WAREHOUSE & DELIVERY

Cory First Choice Home Delivery ............... 22 Diakon Logistics ......................................... 33 DispatchTrack ............................................ 34 DSI Delivery. ............................................ ... 9 Speedy Delivery LLC.. .............................. .. .36 United Steel Storage (USSI) ....................... 21

INSURANCE & WARRENTIES

Association Insurance Services... .............. 32 Credit Source Insurance ............................. 8


Located in B-1050

SUNDAY, JANUARY 26

7:30 - 8:30am The Effective Salesperson’s Checklist Philip Gutsell, GutSELL & Associates

9:00 - 10:00am The Omni-Channel Mandate: What Your Consumer Expects Jeremy Gufstason, Kreber

10:30 - 11:30am The Pros and Cons of Different Sales Compensation Plans Joe Milevsky, JRM Sales & Management

12:30 - 1:30pm 3 Ways to Connect with Customers NOW! Rene Johnston-Gingrich, ProfitabilityConsultingGroup

2:00 - 3:00pm Pinterest: The New Retail Therapy Denise Keniston, Web4Retail

3:30 - 4:30pm Hiring the Best Candidate: Dos and Don’ts in the Interview Pascal Benyamini, Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP

MONDAY, JANUARY 27

7:30 - 8:30am Think Like a Marketer, NOT an Advertiser Douglas Knorr, Knorr Marketing

9:00 - 10:00am Double Down on Your Social Sharing MicroD, Inc.

10:30 - 11:30am 5StepstoProfitableMobileMarketing Tim McLain, Netsertive

12:30 - 1:30pm Best Practices in Retail: One Seminar to Rule Them All! Wayne & David McMahon, PROFITconsulting

2:00 - 3:00pm Instagram…What the Heck is it and Why Should I Care About it? Kevin & Kyle Doran, R&A Marketing

3:30 - 4:30pm Magic Metrics to Move You Forward: a Working Seminar BobGeorge,FurnitureCore/ImpactConsulting

seminar series sponsored by:

NEW this year! Early Riser Sessions to add more value to early mornings at the Market.Not one to sleep in? Want just a few more ideas to keep you ahead of the game? Join us early morning at 7:30 a.m. for dynamic sessions that will awaken your imagination with how to make your business more successful.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 28

7:30 - 8:30am HearCustomers,FocusResources,GrowProfits Alvin Wight, Strategic Decisions

9:00 - 10:00am How to Save Money on Logistics JoshBrown,CEO&NoahBrown,VP, American West Worldwide Express

10:30 - 11:30am Create a Buying Frenzy with a High-Impact Sale JosephConnolly,LynchSalesCompany

12:30 - 1:30pm Reap the Rewards of Advertising with Online Video Jim Knutt, Sheila Duffy-Lehrman and DelaunPetersen,TropicSurvival/CometAds

2:00 - 3:00pm Evolving Your Mattress Department Eric Foucrier, Eric Foucrier and Associates

3:30 - 4:30pm ROMI Wasn’t Built in a Day: Understanding Return On Marketing Investment Graham Farrell, Lift & Shift, Inc.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29

9:00 - 10:00am Mastering Omni-Channel Engagement ReshmaNagpal,DynamicVerticalSolutions

10:30 - 11:30am Improve Your Warehouse & Delivery Operations Daniel Bolger, The Bolger Group

ADVERTISING/MARKETING/WEBSITES

ACA/ Advertising Concepts of America ..... 11 Knorr Marketing ......................................... 5 MicroD, Inc ................................................. 16 Mail America .............................................. 3 Moso Graphics ........................................... 38 Netsertive ................................................... 12 R&A Marketing ........................................... Social Spot Truckskin, LLC ............................................ 37

BUSINESS CONSULTING

FurnitureCore/Impact Consulting ............... 20 The Furniture Training Company ................ 24 JRM Sales & Management ......................... 7 Profitability Consulting Group .................... 30

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Credit Source Finance ................................ 8 CrossCheck ................................................ 28 GE Capital .................................................. 14 Genesis Financial.... .................................. . 35 NewComLink .............................................. 1 Tidewater Finance Company.. .................. .. 4 Trekstone Financial Corp. ........................... 26

PRODUCTS

Best Buy for Business… ........................... . Social Spot Guardian Protection Products .................... 2 North American Home Furnishings Assoc . 31 Quarz .......................................................... 6 Service Lamp Corporation ......................... 27

SOFTWARE

Custom Design Software ........................... 25 Furniture Wizard ......................................... 15 Genesis Software Systems ........................ 29 FurnServe. .................................................. 10 Myriad Software ......................................... 17 PROFITSystems, inc .................................. 13 STORIS....................................................... 18

WAREHOUSE & DELIVERY

Cory First Choice Home Delivery ............... 22 Diakon Logistics ......................................... 33 DispatchTrack ............................................ 34 DSI Delivery. ............................................ ... 9 Speedy Delivery LLC.. .............................. .. .36 United Steel Storage (USSI) ....................... 21

INSURANCE & WARRENTIES

Association Insurance Services... .............. 32 Credit Source Insurance ............................. 8


SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2014

7:30 – 8:30 a.m.

The Effective Salesperson’s Checklist Philip Gutsell, GutSELL & Associates

When your salespeople can answer all the questions presented in this seminar, thoroughly, they are true professionals. Phil Gutsell, a forty-year home furnishings industry veteran, has compiled the ultimate checklist for your salespeople. Even successful, seasoned professionals need periodic retraining to make sure they are still practicing the techniques that got them where they are today.

Attend this seminar and return to your store loaded with the skills that create selling machines. Yes, it’s really that simple!

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

The Omni-Channel Mandate: What Your Consumer Expects JeremyGufstason,Sr.VPofRetail&DigitalStrategy,Kreber

Today’s consumer expects to be able to engage a brand whenever, wherever, and on whatever device or medium they choose.

Most businesses, including retailers and furniture manufacturers, have not cracked the code to fulfill what we term "the omni-channel mandate".

Jeremy will provide insight on today's consumer and what you can do to become truly omni-channel. He will also share success stories from key industry retail clients including Sears, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Macy's.

10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

The Pros and Cons of Different Sales Compensation Plans Joe Milevsky, JRM Sales & Management

Every retail outfit is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all model for sales compensation. During this seminar, we will cover:

• The different ways of compensating• The pros and cons of each system• How to determine if your method is effective• How to determine the amount a

salesperson should earn• Stress-free ways to change the way you compensate

12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

3 Ways to Connect with Customers NOW! RenéJohnston-Gingrich,VPofTrainingDevelopment, ProfitabilityConsultingGroup

Customer connection is multifaceted to say the least. This seminar will explore connecting on three levels: store image, marketing message, and the personal connection brought about by your sales team’s expertise. Learn how to connect the dots so you can build the ideal environment with a winning team that will help you capitalize on every opportunity and boost your bottom line.

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Pinterest: The New Retail Therapy Denise Keniston, Web4Retail

Pinterest exploded on the social media scene three years ago. Currently boasting more than 70 million users, the popular platform surpasses Facebook in dollars spent, with the average social shopper spending $140-$180. Denise has developed her first-hand experience managing many popular fashion and design boards into a comprehensive 60 minutes of how-tos for the furniture retail store owner. Learn how to gain an audience, start a conversation, drive traffic and—most importantly—convert your activity on Pinterest into sales at this #pinterestseminar.

3:30 - 4:30 p.m.

Hiring the Best Candidate: Dos and Don’ts in the Interview Pascal Benyamini, Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP

As more companies join the hunt for the best candidates to build up their workforce, recruiters and hiring managers should be aware of the dos and don’ts in the hiring process.

Hailing from a firm that has been awarded the highest national recognitions in the areas of Employee Benefits and Employment Law by the U.S. News & World Report (2013), Mr. Benyamini will present a best practices seminar that will provide specific tips concerning the hiring process, including:

• The actual job posting• Proper interviewing• Questions interviewers can and cannot ask• The use of social medial in the hiring process• Screening candidates legally

Your management team is sure to come away with invaluable tips on how to conduct an effective and legal interview.

Las Vegas Market


10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

5StepstoProfitableMobileMarketing Tim McLain, Netsertive

You’ve been asked hundreds of times, “Is your website mobile-friendly?”

While you may have addressed that question, have you addressed whether your mobile site is optimized to convert mobile shoppers into buyers? Mobile shoppers that land on your website are likely to buy from you within the first 24 hours. One of every three clicks to retailer websites now come from mobile devices.

This session offers you the rundown on mobile marketing from start to finish in five steps that cover everything from strategy and concepts (like geo-targeting) to effective placement and writing mobile-friendly copy. Stop living in fear of the mobile shopper—this market you will come away with all the necessities for converting local buyer spontaneity into $$$$.

12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

Best Practices in Retail—One Seminar to Rule Them All! Wayne & David McMahon, PROFITconsulting

What are the best operations doing?

Having consulted with thousands of industry and non-industry retailers, and lead several best-practice performance groups, this dynamic duo has seen the best-of-the-best, the worst-of-the-worst, and everything in between. In this seminar they will reveal what the best in the business are doing right in areas spanning the entire spectrum of a retail business, from Internet, advertising, and selling to management, finances, and back-end operations.

Want a leg-up on your competition? Put this seminar on your calendar!

BONUS: All attendees will receive a copy of David’s new book: Field Tips – Retail Business Improvement Writings

Las Vegas Market

MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2014

7:30 – 8:30 a.m.

Think Like a Marketer, NOT an Advertiser Douglas Knorr, Knorr Marketing

Any furniture company can grow IF your key decision makers are willing to think like marketers, NOT just advertisers. Marketing is a comprehensive, core discipline that, when understood and practiced properly, allows you to uncover new pathways and eliminate waste and inefficiencies in every area of your business.

Doug will keep attendees on their toes as he shares key steps and case studies that identify how adopting the marketer mindset can put your business on a path to greater success.

BONUS: 3 early bird attendees will catch the worm—a FREE Market Analysis Overview, valued at $895!

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Double Down on Your Social Sharing Moderated by MicroD, Inc.

Retailer to Retailer Panel Discussion on winning ways to use social media, blogging, and mobile to attract the next generation of consumers to your store. Numbers don't lie: 62% of fortune 500 companies have stated that social media is necessary for business growth, 25% of shoppers are using mobile devices to access furniture info online, and 95% of small businesses view blogging as an effective marketing technology tool–second only to email marketing. Join MicroD and our expert panel as we discuss this essential form of online marketing and answer audience questions.

#NGNLVMkt #millennials #MicroDinc


Las Vegas Market

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Instagram…What the Heck is it and Why Should I Care About it? Kevin & Kyle Doran, R&A Marketing

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks currently in existence, with more than 150 million monthly active users, 55 million average photos shared per day, and more than 16 billion photos shared so far. If you lack a presence on this platform, you can be sure your brand is missing out on thousands of impressions. Learn how best to utilize Instagram in your marketing and website to effectively showcase your store, your business, and your message. The Doran brothers will share tips, tricks, and much, much more.

3:30 - 4:30 p.m.

Magic Metrics to Move You Forward—a Working Seminar Bob George, FurnitureCore/Impact Consulting

This town-hall discussion will showcase the metrics you need to know in order to move your business to the next level and then keep the momentum going.

Bring some numbers and your best pen, because this is a working seminar. By simply giving an hour of your time, you will begin to get a feeling of what it should be like to work on your business, not in your business.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 28 2014

7:30 – 8:30 a.m.

HearCustomers,FocusResources,GrowProfits Alvin Wight, Strategic Decisions

The most important asset your business has is your customer base. The best way to leverage this asset is by letting them tell you what is working and what is not.

During this seminar, the president of industry research at Strategic Decisions will guide you through a process for effectively communicating with your consumers. By doing so you will learn exactly what is going on in your market, how to identify your true competitors, and how to acquire and retain loyal customers.

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

How to Save Money on Logistics Josh Brown, CEO & Noah Brown, VP, American West Worldwide Express

This seminar will cover how furniture retailers and manufacturers can reduce the cost of freight, how new CARB law in California will affect all transportation carriers, and how new nationwide driver hour regulations will change transit times. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of how transportation carriers base their rates. The knowledge gained in understanding this process will save you money.

10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Create a Buying Frenzy with a High-Impact Sale Joseph Connolly, Lynch Sales Company

Are you ready to move your store beyond business as usual? Joe Connolly is ready to help you do just that while also showing consumers you’ve stepped up your game. When done correctly, a high-impact sale presents the opportunity to generate the kind of buying frenzy that can revitalize your business while also reinforcing your position in your community.

Putting it all on the line for one sale may sound risky, but this seminar will cover all of the rewards that make that risk worthwhile, including profits, boosted morale, increased market share, and much more!

12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

Reap the Rewards of Advertising with Online Video JimKnutt,SheilaDuffy-LehrmanandDelaunPetersen,TropicSurvival/CometAds

Research shows a significant increase in brand awareness and brand retention among consumers who have viewed online video ads. US digital video ad spend will rise 41.4% this year and by another 40% next year. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found that much of this new digital video spend increase will come out of former TV budgets, and that video advertising recall is twice as high as TV spot recall.

You will learn how digital video presents increasingly more opportunities for using cross-platform campaigns, maximizing online budget, and attaining meaningful consumer engagement.

The single biggest take-away: never underestimate the power of video! Sight, sound, and emotion have been proven to resonate best with your potential customers.

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Evolving Your Mattress Department Eric Foucrier, Eric Foucrier and Associates

Comfortable is the new word for extinction in retail — even if you’re talking about mattresses! No matter how comfy your bedding products are, attempting to induce relaxation as your customers try them out is an age-old technique that may not necessarily be evolving organically with your mattress department as a whole. Backed by market research with top mattress companies, Eric will share key details of a proven process that, when adopted, will improve closing ratios and average ticket sales, and enhance the customer experience.


3:30 - 4:30 p.m.

ROMI Wasn’t Built in a Day — Understanding Return On Marketing Investment Graham Farrell, Lift & Shift, Inc.

Since the earliest days of advertising and mass marketing, retailers have been confronted with a dilemma that keeps many up at night: “I know half of my advertising/marketing budget is wasted, I just don't know which half.”

Graham Farrell, 25-year advertising and marketing veteran, will discuss the ins, outs, dos, don’ts, tips, tricks, and best practices for planning advertising and marketing spend in a highly competitive retail environment. After attending, you will once again be able to enjoy a full night’s sleep (well, once you leave Las Vegas).

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Mastering Omni-Channel Engagement Reshma Nagpal, Dynamic Vertical Solutions

Omni-channel has become a new buzzword for retail. Great, we must connect with consumers on all levels, but how does one successfully achieve cohesion across all customer touch points? Through discussion of a variety of topics, this seminar will teach you the ways of navigating this tricky new concept.

Subjects will include:

• Current retailing trends across national and international markets

• The key multiple touch points to engage customers today (physical stores; kiosks; PC/tablet/mobile shopping; social media networks; call center support; email campaigning)

• The danger of maintaining a disparate approach• Utilizing each touch point to effectively and correctly

promote your products/services• Synergizing customer engagement across all touch points

– building brand ambassadors through buying behavior, trends, and preference data triangulation

• How to choose and use available technology solutions to effectively execute your strategy

• Identifying targeted reach: predictive analytics and effective cross/up selling

• Taking action: measuring your results and identifying key differences

• Prosperity: how all these moving parts will engage, retain, and delight your customers.

10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Improve Your Warehouse and Delivery Operations Daniel Bolger, The Bolger Group

Enhance your profits and customer satisfaction by attending industry expert Dan Bolger’s program. Achieving a perfect delivery on the order you have is the first step to sell the next furniture on your customer's dream list. Bolger will demonstrate at least seven ways you can achieve perfect deliveries while also boosting productivity throughout the warehouse. Primary focus will be on improving existing operations. He will also summarize considerations for a new or relocated facility.

Las Vegas Market


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Cresent Fine FurnitureHudson is an urban contemporary design in solid wire-brushed oak featuring a cantilevered platform bed with floating pier nightstands. Paired with sleek cases on inset plinth bases, Hudson is available in two textured finishes, a light cerused Sand and a Black Tea with graphite cerusing. Custom T-bar pulls in a white bronze finish complete the look.

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LAS VEGAS MARKET PREVIEW


How internet search and display ads work together to boost salesby Regina Dinning

In an ideal situation, your store would have an unlimited marketing and advertising budget. But we all know it doesn’t work like that. The question you need to ask is, “How do we optimize our limited marketing dollars to produce the best return on investment?”

Emerging Technology


In an ideal situation, your store would have an unlimited marketing and advertising budget. But we all know

it doesn’t work like that. The question you need to ask is, “How do we optimize our limited marketing dollars to produce the best return on investment?”

When considering where to allocate your marketing resources, consider that online awareness of your business, makes, models and services is critical to sales success. A study by advertising expert BIA/Kelsey shows that more than 90 percent of con-sumers research online prior to buying locally, both from their mobile devices and PCs.

Formula for online success My mantra of online marketing success is this: With $5 to spend on marketing you should put $3 into search engine marketing and $2 into display advertising. These tactics will effectively drive your marketing messages in both text and graphical formats to smartphones and PCs.

The combination of search and display is the cornerstone of a successful integrated campaign, but you need to start with search. Search marketers average a 7:1 return on their marketing investment according to recent studies.

In general, purchasing specific local search terms is cheaper than launching right into buying display ads. The key is local since most general make and model terms have probably been purchased by the manu-facturers. Terms like “luxury furniture” or “living room sofa” tend to be more expensive and broad, so start with more specific keyword phrases like “Serta mat-tress Boulder,” “memory foam mattress” or

“Maytag oven Livonia.”

To make sure your store shows up in online searches that have purchase intent, bid on keywords based around your unique product, brand and service lineup. With analytics, you can see what search terms your prospects are already using to find your competition and websites like yours. Leverage this information and be the smart-est bidder for those specific and related long-tail search queries.

Display ads boost results 25%After you’ve established a solid search campaign, layer on display ads. Display boosts qualified clicks and foot traffic by more than 25 percent over just doing search alone.

Think of it as covering both proactive and reactive bases. Search is an active process that prospects undertake to gather informa-tion. Display ads, on the other hand, are more like billboards or purchased online real estate on websites that are relevant to your customers.

Traditionally, people think of display ads primarily for brand/store awareness, similar to image ads that promote brands rather than specific products. These ads are still important, but today display ads also set the stage for the sales funnel—they push prospects down the funnel from awareness to consideration to, ultimately, sales.

Display works at all of those levels to visu-ally represent your product and brands. The key is to run co-branded and localized ban-ners that contain a special offer or imagery from one of your top brands, with your store name, location and custom tracked phone number also inserted. You should direct every click to a conversion-optimized landing (or lead) page on your website.

Display ads generally are available in six primary sizes and also can be sized to show up over relevant YouTube videos (known as InVideo Ads). A good web designer can easily produce correctly sized ads for you.

Purchase display ad placements on con-textually relevant websites, whether they’re focused on furniture, appliances, mattresses or local news and weather. That hits both web shoppers who are interested in your product, and those drawn to popular local websites with a lot of traffic. Your local ads will be served up on national websites but shown only to customers within the local geography (radius) of your store.

Search and display working in tandem Independently, both a search campaign and display campaign can generate results for you, but how they work together can win your local market online. Targeting for both search and display is critical and produces more conversions.

According to iProspect, a leading digital performance agency, 50 percent of all inter-net users react to a display ad by conducting a search related to the brand, product or service described in the ad. More specifi-cally, exposure to display ads may increase the number of relevant search queries by more than 25 percent. Not only can display ads lead directly to your landing page, but they can also trigger search activity that leads the prospect back to your website if your search campaign is active.

There is additional evidence that display ads can impact behavior even if the prospect doesn’t click on the ad. A University of Maryland study showed how consumers exposed to a display ad (even if they don’t click on it) will change their online shop-ping behavior to include searches for the brand featured in the ad.

Although direct click-throughs via display ads provide trackable data, a 2012 study by comScore found that ad viewability and hover time are more strongly correlated with conversions (defined as purchases and requests for information) than clicks or total impressions. In other words, your ad being seen is more important than your ad being clicked.

Selecting the right online advertising part-ner is critical. Work with a Google Premier partner with great technology that offers hand-crafted search and display ads, pro-actively tuning up your campaign 400-600 times per month to deliver a 70 percent share of local advertising voice. The best partners collaborate with retailers, rather than following a script and “setting and forgetting” their digital marketing.

Regina Dinning is a business development director at Netsertive (netsertive.com). Dinning ([email protected]) is a seasoned professional with more than 15 years' experience in marketing and advertising, including several years specifically in home furnishings.

Emerging Technology

Bid on keywords based around your

unique product, brand and service lineup.


What’s SellingEvery month, What’s Selling Now features best-sellers from across the country, in different styles, categories and price points. Here’s what’s selling now.

Submitted By: Mike LunaStore Name: Pedigo FurnitureLocation: Livingston, TexasManufacturer: SertaProduct Name: iComfort Insight Mattress setsIs the product: Made in America: Yes Container Product: No Warehouse Ready: No Retail Cost: $1,299 for the queen set with standard foundationWhy do you think it is a successful seller? The Insight offers memory foam benefits and Cool Action technology at an affordable price.How soon is the product available from the manufacturer? As soon as the item is ordered.

Submitted By: Carol BellStore Name: Contents InteriorsLocation: Tucson, ArizonaManufacturer: Jatex InternationalProduct Name: Copper Cauldron TablesIs the product: Made in America: No Container Product: No Warehouse Ready: YesRetail Cost: $750-$1800Why do you think it is a successful seller? Arizona is the copper state and everyone likes to have a little copper in their contemporary desert home.How soon is the product available from the manufacturer? Depends on the size.

What's Selling


Future Watch with MicroD

Savvy Consumers Want it Their Way by Mona Nigam

When my 15-year-old daughter recently chose a new bed, I was reminded of the significance of offering greater product options in today’s marketplace. To make it uniquely her own, she personalized the standard bed with her choice of headboard, trim and a finish. What a fun and rewarding experience for both of us!

Today’s consumers are looking for ways to personalize just about everything. It's no longer just picking apps for phones or music for iPods, but customizing everything from the cars we drive to the furniture in our homes. Having greater control over product creativity and functionality ap-peals not only to younger consumers, it also increases perceived value among more mature buyers.

Of course, this is hardly a new trend. Apple with technology, Harley-Davidson with motorcycles, Nike with shoes and many other consumer goods companies have been empowering customers to personalize products to their own tastes for years. The mass-customization concept has accelerated over the past 15 years and continues to gain momentum, quite notably in home furnishings. Resources for designing and customizing your home are more accessible than ever.

Furniture and home furnishings manu-facturers have traditionally developed products based on buying patterns and their interpretation of consumer trends. As shoppers have embraced the use of the internet as an important part of shopping and purchasing furniture, many of today’s leading home furnishings manufacturers are finding new ways to delight consumers by putting some of the design, comfort and functional choices in the hands of the buyer. Importantly, manufacturers are also leveraging this concept to increase profits.

The most common personalization options in furniture and home furnishings include upholstery types, colors and finishes. More and more of today’s consumers are look-ing beyond the mass-produced colors and prints that are available in the stores and are seeking the hottest color, pattern and texture trends that are fresh off the New York runways. This provides manufactur-ers with an opportunity and a direction to meet customer needs.

Other more sophisticated function and comfort customization options may in-clude selection of product dimensions and arm, leg and back styles. In addition to configuring their piece of furniture, buy-ers are also embracing the opportunity to use a website to make accessory choices and plan out the room of their dreams. By providing creative suggestions in the area of construction and accessory matching, furnishings companies can provide an even higher level of value-added service and get closer to their customers. Enabling choice gives customers more creative freedom and allows them to tailor their furniture to their space.

With recent advancements in technology, it is getting much easier and more economi-cal for companies to offer this self-design concept. In the simplest form, this online technology enables customers to drape a variety of fabrics on a product frame or select the finish color on case goods, which ultimately helps convert shoppers into buyers. To make the experience more meaningful to shoppers, sellers must have an online platform where customers can also easily choose from a variety of styling and accessories options using a simple step-by-step process. In addition, highly realistic and real-time visualization of the personalized products is essential to suc-ceeding with online shoppers and buyers.

An online room planner is also a great way to give buyers the ability to arrange furniture and furnishings into their precise room shape and dimensions. This not only empowers consumers with the creative control they seek, it ensures them that their sofa, lamps, rugs, plants and other design elements will look and fit the way they intended and designed them.

In the modern era of e-commerce, home furnishings companies must have cost-effective options to empower customers to visualize fabric on a frame, build a room plan to ensure fit and view other coordi-nating items through a pleasurable online shopping experience. It is clear companies that provide savvy shoppers with the cre-ative freedom and customization they seek in an easy-to-use way will be the winners. Just ask my daughter.

Mona Nigam is executive vice president at MicroD. She has many years of experience successfully driving global demand generation including email marketing, campaigns, field marketing, tradeshows, events, industry marketing and solutions marketing

Straight to the PointYou’ve got the website and social media, and even iPads in your store. Take it to the next level with Nigam’s suggestions in the story for online enhancement.

• Extend customization options

• Outfit your website with accessories

• Provide an online room planner with helpful tips

• Offer self-design options online with real-time images

• Give your buyer plenty of choices


by Walt Bader

At the fall 2013 High Point Market, the High Point Market Author-ity enlisted the help of several Style Spotters to

scour showrooms looking for the latest hot products and coolest new looks. Here, we offer you their expert perspectives as they consider the styles and colors that are de-fining home fashion.

Organic Glamour

Three Style Spotters found a fabulous fusion of natural materials in glamorous furnishings. Janel Laban of Apartment Therapy sees this trend as our desire to protect and nurture nature evolving into an exalted design direction. For Traci Zeller, natural elements in choice pieces satisfy the urban dweller’s need to connect with the outdoors. Offering examples, Michelle Jennings Wiebe cited burled and exotic woods combined with golden and bronze metals, as well as agate, malachite, lapis, onyx, bone and shells displayed in enthralling pieces.

A Full Spectrum of Color Choices

Color trends spanned from strong and vibrant to soft and subtle. Shay Geyer saw the full range in shades of blue varying from stun-ning peacock and cobalt on one end to understated slate and moon-light hues on the other. Lisa Mende agreed that we should look for more blue in spring but also tracked an up-swinging trend of highly saturated reds, pinks, and oranges. Tobi Fairley heard the call of quiet tones in the pairing of a soft amethyst shade with a milky, light jadeite green. Jennings Wiebe offered an expansive view of

cheerful hues bringing smiles in three different color stories: strong vibrant colors juxtaposed in blocks with white or a contrasting shade; vibrant colors in highly patterned or geometric designs; and on the softer side, color broadcast through hue-infused brushstrokes reminiscent of impressionist watercolors. Zeller favored this softer sensibility, calling for gorgeous layers of subtle shades.

The Well-Dressed Man Comes Home

Lisa Ferguson and Jennings Wiebe noted that the haberdasher’s wares are emerging as a design inspiration. Wiebe saw the sharp-dressed man arrive in daringly masculine interiors while Ferguson welcomed collections influenced by polished yet wearable menswear.

Brass and Wood are Back

Fairly feels the trend pendulum swinging back to the classic, like the timeless combination of dark wood grain and softly glowing brass, as well as pieces with jewelry-like brass adornments. Stacy Naquin also saw brass and gold coming on in a big way. Noting that golden hues add a luxe vibe no other material can offer, Mende tells us to expect this trend to continue rising in importance.

Everyday Luxury

Laban identified an embrace of decorations that make time at home a luxurious treat, with subtle sheen, luminous materials, a touch of luxe texture and chic details as this trend’s hallmarks. Ferguson saw the idea expressed in layered pieces whose multiple textures draw you in and then invite you to explore unfolding dimen-sions of luxury. Looking at how pieces were decorated, Naquin loved the way nail heads were used to dress up compositions that might otherwise be plain and found fretwork making bold design statements that served as focal points for entire interiors. If you’re looking for jewelry for the home, though, Mende suggests you look toward lighting, where today’s trends incorporate agate, gold chains, macramé, beads and medallions into exceptionally luxurious looks.

Product Focus

In all, these Style Spotters point to a season of cheerful colors, warm gold and brass finishes, luxurious decorating details, nature made glamorous and a tilt toward the masculine with a nod to classic styling. We can’t wait to see how these ideas evolve yet again at the Spring High Point Market, April 5-10, 2014—and we look forward to seeing you there!

BRAND STRATEGYSTORE PLANNNING

INTERIOR DESIGNCONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

EXTERIOR DESIGNS

MANUFACTURER SHOWROOMS

[email protected]

CALL TODAY

OR MEET CONNIE@FOLIO21 IHFC W-647

About Our Style SpottersMichelle Jenning Wiebe, Studio M (interiorsbystudiom.com, @studiom)

Stacy Naquin, Stacy Naquin Interiors (stacynaquininteriors.com, @stacynaquin)

Tobi Fairley, Tobi Fairley & Associates (tobifairley.com, @tobifairley)

Shay Geyer, IBB Design (ibbdesign.com/blog, @designershay)

Lisa Mende, Lisa Mende Design (lisamendedesign.blogspot.com, @lisamendedesign)

Lisa Ferguson, DecorMentor (decormentor.com, @decormentor)

Traci Zeller, Traci Zeller Designs (tracizeller.com/blog, @tracizeller)

Janel Laban, Apartment Therapy (apartmenttherapy.com, @janellaban)Content provided by the High Point Market Authority.

images ©VanderVeen Photographers


Next Gen NOW Member Spotlight

: Tell me about your industry history.

LT: My parents started the company when I was 5, so pretty much as long as I can remember, I’ve been exposed to the furniture in-dustry. It was everything that accompanies growing up in a family business, from helping assemble and deliver things to cleaning around the store. One of the unique things about our history as a store is that we specialized in unpainted furniture. You could either pick the stains and the materials and complete the project yourself, or we had a finishing department where we would actually finish things for you. It was the original roots of this industry, which was all solid wood, American-made products.

: How have you seen the industry change throughout your life?

LT: It’s changed tremendously. The industry used to have a very deep passion for influencing peoples’ lives at home, and it focused on the end experience that was facilitated through the product. Over time, especially as things have shifted towards imports, the industry really became more about pushing the commodity. The focus shifted from the end experience that would be delivered through the product to just simply focusing on a product at a price. Now it’s kind of become a race to the bottom to see who can make what the cheapest and the industry has lost sight of the role it plays to the end user.

: What do you think needs to be done to get the industry back to where it was, knowing it’s relying on foreign products?

LT: We get so focused on the specific details of running our busi-nesses, and I think we need to focus more on that end consumer and the experience we’re providing. In the welcome video for our website, I talk to the public about how when you buy the prod-ucts, you’re not just simply buying an item to fill a room. These items serve a purpose. Like on Thanksgiving. We’re all going to huddle up around this table. And that table is facilitating these life moments, these lifelong memories. If the industry focused more on the role it plays with the people who are buying the products, then the public would find more value in what we offer.

The furniture industry gets younger every year. In order to embrace the new generation of retailers and welcome them into the business, RetailerNOW features a different member of the Next Generation NOW social network in

every issue. Next Generation NOW is the premiere social scene for the new era of furniture professionals. Join the conversation at social.ngnow.org!

For this month’s spotlight, we introduce 35-year-old Lael Thompson, Chief Operations Officer at Broyhill Home Collections in Denver, Colorado.

Next Generation NOW (NGN or Next Gen NOW) is a community of young, passionate and engaged home furnishings professionals. Next Gen NOW seeks to give a voice to the unique needs of future genera-tions entering the workforce to educate the industry on how to attract and keep young talent. Connect with members online at ngnow.org or on twitter @ngnow.


When you look at the industries that are doing the best or the industries that stayed strong through the recession, they were the industries that had more of a connection to the consumer and what the consumer was going to be rewarded with experience-wise for having bought that product. We have to get back to delivering and showing the customer what it is we’re doing to improve their lives, and then they’ll look at us as a worthy place to spend that dollar.

: Do you think that the furnishings industry is headed back in that direction?

MH: I don’t see the industry as a whole moving that way. The industry, at this point, is still finding its way to race to the bottom. In High Point, Jerry Epperson went through analytical data that showed we’re selling furniture at its highest value proposition than we ever have. We walked backwards in pricing. Our industry defies inflation. So the numbers tell us that we’re not focusing on any other aspect than trying to do it cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. But look at how many retailers it’s put out of business. There are only a certain number of retailers who can survive at such razor-thin margins. So that race to the bottom has actually done a significant amount of damage to the livelihood and value of this industry. For people that have spent decades in or grew up in the industry, we remember times when the relationship aspect was the core driving force of the industry. And on the back end of the industry, we still experience that between ourselves, but I think we’ve lost that connection with the public.

: Do you think those are the biggest challenges facing store owners today?

LT: I think those are probably right up at the top. The challenge is that it’s self-fulfilled prophecy. We drop prices, we run thinner margins and it reduces our ability to do the things we want to do. So what happens is we’re working harder for less. You have to sell more $200 dressers to make up for the one $400 dresser you used to sell. When we drop our numbers, we have to work a lot harder and do a lot more to make the same amount of money.

: What advice do you have for older retailers?

MH: I would remind them that things constantly change and although their past experience is valued and valuable, it’s not the only way to get things done. When times got tough in the reces-sion, a lot of the retailers fell back to what they knew worked in the past, but it didn’t necessarily work as well now. I believe the statistic was that during the recession, the furniture industry lost one out of four stores nationwide. The attrition level through this last recession was the heaviest this industry has ever seen, including the Great Depression. But I think part of what caused that was a resistance to change and the fact that they were going to do what they knew, but not try new things. They have to get out of that “this is how we’ve always done it” mentality. That was based on an old business model. To try and do the same thing in a new business model is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Not everything is going to be perfect all the time,


but we have to learn to try things, but be smart about it so that if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t sink you. They have to embrace the change and welcome the technology and find ways that they can be successful with it.

The other thing is that almost anyone who’s great in this industry, if you ask them if they had somebody who made a difference in their furniture career, someone who took them under their wing and gave them a leg up, or mentored them or gave some advice that changed things for them, almost anyone you talk to is going to have someone that did that for them. So I would urge them to make sure they’re doing that for the next generation coming in. Find a way to contribute into these new people who are going to carry on the traditions.

:What benefits do you see in Next Generation NOW?

LT: The major ones are being able to find a friendly resource to help you get plugged in. There’s this kind of network, and that network shares influence, information and best practices. Those

people stay on top because they stay abreast of what’s relevant and what’s working. What I love about Next Gen is that it’s pro-viding an opportunity for young people to get plugged in and access all those resources. We can provide education, networking, information and best practices. Back in 2004 or 2005, we started the concept of this program, and the gist behind it was that we wanted to see young people who came into the industry stay in the industry. A lot of young people come into the industry and after two or three years, they’ll burn out and go elsewhere. They have challenges and problems and frustrations they encounter, and if they don’t get past them, that’s when they leave. We’re able to help people become successful and rooted and planted in this industry sooner. A lot of entrepreneurs, it takes a long time before they get it right. They had to get out there and do it and fail and find what worked, and there was a lot of energy and time and resource that was lost in that process. So what Next Gen can do is avoid that headache. If you have someone telling you, “don’t put your hand on the stove, it’s hot,” they save you the frustration and pain of getting burned. In this industry, we can come in and basically help people be more successful quicker and avoid the burnout—and hopefully have a little fun doing it at the same time.


New update available NOW!

Las Vegas MarketJanuary 26 - 30, 2014

See us at:


Community Today

Mike Gustin, director of interactive print services for Quad/Graphics (qg.com)

By Megy Karydes

Neal Applefeld, founder and CEO of SeeMore Interactive (seemoreinter-active.com)

Markus Meixner, CEO and founder of ViewAR (viewar.com)

How Augmented Reality Can Deliver A 3D Experience Like No Other

We asked three leaders providing augmented reality (AR) solutions to businesses to help us understand how this new technology can help the furniture industry deliver

a better buying experience for customers while increasing the bottom line.

: Describe AR to those who’ve never heard of the technology.

NA: AR is an innovative technology that enables a user to trig-ger interactive digital content simply by viewing an image with their mobile device. This includes 2D, 3D animation and video. Think about the hologram projected from R2D2 in Star Wars. It’s a little different than that, but just as cool.

MG: AR converts static, computer-generated images into en-gaging, interactive experiences. Those interactive images can be overlaid onto nearly any background canvas, creating additional advertising and business opportunities where previously there were none.

: What types of companies have embraced this technology and why?

MG: All types of companies have embraced this technology, which is still in its infancy. Its possibilities are being explored by all types of clients we serve, from retailers to catalogers, di-rect marketers, magazine publishers and their advertisers, book publishers, even companies that buy consumer packaging. AR is especially valuable to retailers because they can use it to show product features and options, assembly instructions and more.

MM: There are many companies that already understand the tremendous potential of AR solutions. We are seeing AR activity

in furniture, automotive, print and publishing, advertising, con-struction, real estate, consumer packaged goods and many other industry verticals.

ViewAR’s clients in the furniture sector include BUTLERS, KARE Design, Artelia, Mahler Möbel and Fama, just to name a few. We have also developed an application for previewing fireplaces that is in use by companies like Vauni, Ecosmart and Brunner.

Apps for painting companies like Mantiburi are currently in production, and Leeb, Europe’s largest balcony manufacturer and producer, is offering our AR app to their salespeople to help them show clients how their balconies would look in their homes.

Leeb is finding significant cost savings through use of AR. Prior to using the ViewAR app, their sales people had to visit client sites at least twice before receiving a customer decision. By using the Leeb ViewAR app, they are securing customer orders in a single visit, which reduces their costs and shortens their sales cycles. In addition, multiple styles of balconies can be shown easily with just a few clicks, when in the past, somebody at the office had to design a preview for each balcony option based on the measurements that were taken on the first visit.

: How can furniture retailers and/or manufactur-ers and wholesalers apply augmented technology to their daily business practices?MG: AR experiences are limited only by the creator’s imagination. Customers can:

Take a picture of their living room and, utilizing AR, overlay it with different combinations of furniture and accessories before making a purchase.


Community TodayCommunity Today

Use the actual dimensions of their home to visualize how appliances will fit before they buy.

Access step-by-step assembly and setup instructions.

Review 3D visuals of products, including fabric options, from a printed page (which could be a catalog page, retail advertising insert, direct mailer or in-store signage) before purchasing.

As a retailer, manufacturer or wholesaler, you could link product images to QR codes so that boxes can be scanned without opening to verify contents, or invoices can be scanned to confirm product type or other details.

MM: AR visualization tools can be used to support sales and marketing efforts both in the shop or showroom, or back at home in the customer site.

It is difficult for most people to imagine how different furniture items might look in their living rooms. ViewAR apps help people see how different furniture items would appear in their home or work environment. A furniture company can offer a catalog of an entire collection that a customer can then preview in actual size. Customers can select from different colors, fabrics and patterns, and they can even piece together modular pieces and preview them.

With the ViewAR Assembler tool, modular items like furniture sets can be built, configured and previewed where they might be placed. This is brand new technology, and we are unaware of anyone else being able to do this.

For example, one of ViewAR’s furniture clients is using a ViewAR application in combination with their online furniture catalog. From the catalog, a user scans a QR code, the app loads and they see that piece of furniture in 3D right in front of them. They can see multiple pieces at once and can design an entire room if they like. They can also save a picture of the room they designed with new furniture and share it via email or social media. The app also saves the user’s preferences, and can populate a shopping cart with those preferences should they be ready to place an order.

NA: Apps like this remove stress from the buying process, plus it reduces costly returns and increases the speed of purchase.

We also believe AR technology can help eliminate showrooming, which has become a real threat for some brick-and-mortar retail-ers as ecommerce and mobile technology have converged. In fact, statistics have indicated a 156 percent increase since 2012.

Integrating AR can help retailers re-engage their consumers and turn their in-store displays, point-of-sale materials, direct mail, cat-alogs and other physical collateral into a digital, interactive experi-ence. In addition to browsing and shopping in-store, consumers

can unlock coupons and special discounts, create wish lists, add items to their virtual closet, solicit feedback from their friends and share with their social networks right from their smartphone. With AR, a user can see merchandise in-store, but then re-engage with it at home or see how it would look in their space.

: How can a company use this technology and measure its success? What tools exist to see whether it’s working for them?MG: By overlaying digital buttons on a static image, a company can seamlessly connect print to the digital world and track a con-sumer’s experience once that connection is made. This provides immediate insight. Many of our clients are using buttons that encourage consumers to “buy now,” linking them directly to their website’s checkout function. Others use buttons to “share on social media,” which is great for user-endorsed/word-of-mouth advertis-ing. Buttons can link to AR experiences, such as 3D images of a product, and also to photos, videos, articles, an online shopping portal or website, and more.

The really great thing about AR is it delivers sophisticated analytics, so you have clear, actionable data. You can track and quantify data in real time so you know exactly how your campaign is performing. At Quad/Graphics, we have a secure, dynamic web app that deliv-ers campaign response data in easy-to-understand graphics and figures, with customization and export options readily available.

MM: ViewAR has an integrated user action tracking system. This means that our clients can know exactly how many users have downloaded their ViewAR app and how many objects their customers have downloaded. In addition, our advanced metadata and integration capabilities allow us to integrate with catalogs on the front end, or purchasing processes on the back end, and this allows us the ability to further measure conversion statistics.

NA: When a retailer mails out a printed promotion or coupon, they get limited data back. However, if they integrate those promo-tions and coupons with AR, they can get access to a broader scope of insights, like how long someone looked at an ad or whether they downloaded a coupon. They can also gain invaluable feed-back about their catalogs and other collateral. Shopping is also a social experience, and AR can enable shoppers to share their items or even create comprehensive wish lists that can be shared and tracked on social media.

Megy Karydes is a freelance writer who covers retail, travel and food for outlets such as USA Today, Daily Herald and numerous trade magazines. Connect with her at KarydesConsulting.com.

See ViewAR’s app in action! http://youtube.viewar.com/?video=assembler-sofa&con=CON20082


Emerging Technology

The ROI is clear. As reported by Crate&Barrel in a recent Chicago Business article, the average order size increases 300 percent when using the 3D Room Designer.



It’s time for furniture retail in 3D!by Arjen Jelsma

GET YOUR GLASSES

Emerging Technology

The furniture retail market is a highly competitive one. With the economy climbing again retailers are exploring new ways to reconnect to the customer. E-commerce has taken a big

flight in recent years, and order online/pick up in store is becoming a commodity fast. Conversely retail brick-and-mortar sales channels are flat or have a slight increase and it is predicted that this will be the same in 2014. So how can a furniture retailer get all of their channels moving in the right direction? Think 3D—movies, print-ing and screen. The next step for 2014 in customer connection is 3D visualization of furniture, in the actual room of the customer.

3D is Hot; Personalization is a Must

Does that sound like the distant future? It is not. 3D printing is hot right now. Even though the technology is 30 years old, mass customer adoption is at hand due to technological improvements. Together with the rise of 3D movies and television it is safe to say; 3D is hot. How can furniture retailers benefit from this perfect storm? Wouldn’t it be great for a customer shopping for a new sofa, rug, chair and lamp to see how it will look in their house before they purchase? Not a bad idea right? And wouldn’t it empower the store associate to better personally assist the customer? It would.

Omni-Channel 3D Experiences

3D design tools like AutoCad are very capable in creating com-plex 3D representations of a room or product. However, these are specialist tools for specialist designers and are not suited for the average Jane or Joe. The idea behind these tools is to create a relevant experience for the customer. And the experience is what the customer demands these days, preferably in an omni-channel fashion on all devices, with an integrated and engaging customer experience. If a retailer is able to show a 3D representation of their products, in a 3D rendered photograph of the customer’s room, over multiple integrated devices both online and in-store, then the customer gets the personal experience it demands.


Crate&Barrel and LOFT by NedSenseProviding this ultimate customer experience is a technological challenge. Not many software providers offer the entire package. Either their omni-channel integration lacks, or the 3D rendering of a product isn’t optimal or the room it projects it in isn’t 3D at all. There might however be one or two exceptions. Crate&Barrel is using technology in-store and online to provide an outstanding 3D representation of products, and is able to project these in a 3D visualization of the actual room of the customer, based on one photograph. The company’s 3D Room Designer allows customers to use this technology over multiple channels and empowers the store associate to assist in-store.

Not only does the customer get an amazing and (most of all) relevant experience, the retailer also benefits. By providing the experience over all channels, the customer is able to enter the sales cycle at any point, and continue to stay at the same supplier. These solutions embrace showrooming and webrooming rather

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than fight it by giving the customer the opportunity to do this on solutions provided by the retailer. The ROI is clear. As reported by Crate&Barrel in a recent Chicago Business article, the average order size increases 300 percent when using the 3D Room Designer.

Technologies such as this are changing the face of furniture retail, and will flourish in 2014. 3D software is able to create

a “wow” experience and connect to the customer in a relevant way, anytime and anywhere. For 2014 and beyond, 3D software technology is emerging as the next step.

Arjen Jelsma is Marketing Manager at the Holland-based company LOFT NedSense. LOFT provides 3D software for the furniture retail and manufacturing market.

It’s time for furniture retail in 3D!

Emerging Technology


Copyright 2014 Lynch Brothers Licensing CorporationA Century of Integrity and Results.Copyright 2014 Lynch Brothers Licensing Corporation

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Go Mobile

The majority of the campaigns were directed towards young female shoppers.(All statistics courtesy of Nellymoser, a mobile marketing and technology company.)

According to a December 2012 mobile retail engagement survey of 223 brands in four Boston malls:

One out of every 10 stores contained at least one mobile enhancement to the retail experience. That means one out of 10 stores promoted a mobile campaign like QR codes or a Facebook page within their stores through printed material.

36% of the mobile enhancements offered loyalty programs for customers.

59% of retailers promoted the campaign in the front window of the store through display art or signs.

82% of the campaigns prompted customers to scan a QR code and 23% directed shoppers to text a code in an instant message.

Emerging Technology


ACA/Advertising Concepts of AmericaAICO/Amini Innovation Corp.American ExpressAmerican LeatherAshley Furniture Industries, Inc.AspenhomeAssociated Volume BuyersBecker Designed, Inc.Bernards, Inc.Best Buy for BusinessBest Home FurnishingsBraxton Culler, Inc.Cargo Consolidation ServicesCentury FurnitureCoaster Company of AmericaCory Home Delivery ServiceDécor-Rest Furniture Ltd.Diakon LogisticsDSI CompaniesEkornesElements InternationalElite LeatherEmerald Home FurnishingsFairmont DesignsFlexsteelFurniture of AmericaFurniture WizardFurnitureDealer.netGE CapitalGreat American Furniture ServicesGuardian ProductsGuardsman/The Valspar Corp.

Harden Furniture CompanyHigh Point Market AuthorityHolland HouseHomelegance USA HFB MagazineHorich Hector Lebow Advertising Consulting Services, Inc.Innovative Delivery SystemsJofran Sales, Inc.Julius M. Feinblum Real Estate, Inc.KincaidKing Hickory Furniture CoLane Home FurnishingsLazar IndustriesLeaLeggett & PlattLiberty FurnitureLifestyle EnterprisesLinon Home Décor ProductsMagnussen HomeMail AmericaMassood LogisticsMed-Lift MobilityMicroD, Inc.Mohawk Finishing Products, Inc.Myriad SoftwareNatuzzi Americas, Inc.NetSertiveNourison IndustriesOkinus Credit SolutionsPacific Furniture Dealers

Phoenix A.M.D. International, Inc.PROFITsystemsProtect-A-BedRestonic Mattress Corp.Sandberg FurnitureSAP RetailSerta Mattress CompaniesSimmonsShock WatchSleep-EzzSource International, Inc./4 Sales FinanceSphinx by Oriental WeaversStandard FurnitureSteve Silver Co.STORISSuryaThe TV ShieldThe Uttermost CompanyTidewater Finance CompanyTrendwood, Inc.Tropic Survival Advertising & MarketingTruckSkin, LLCTwin Star/Classic FlameUnited Furniture IndustriesValassis, Inc.Vaughan Furniture Co.Versatile SystemsWahlquist Management CorporationWorld Market CenterZenith Global

Our Association gratefully recognizes all of our supporters whose dedication and committment has strengthened our industry.

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To become an industry partner contact:North American Home Furnishings Association800.422.3778 or email: [email protected]

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Five Retail Marketing Resolutions That Rock For 2014

I’m sure throughout 2013, you have asked yourself about social media, online shopping, the younger generation and knowing your market. These are all things that will affect your company in one way or another in 2014. The best way to learn and grow is to roll up your sleeves and study how these things work.

We encourage you to start today and commit to these five resolutions that will rock your business and personal world for years to come:

Use Social MediaMake a resolution for 2014 to create a personal profile on social media. The only way for you to understand the impact social media can have on your business is for you to understand it, digest it and implement it personally. Follow your friends—and your competitors.

Buy OnlineAs you decide how to implement e-commerce (or if you want to) in your business, make 12 personal purchases from various industries and online sellers in 2014. Study the strengths and weaknesses of your personal shopping experience, from the product catalog, ease of checkout, delivery options, follow-up and customer service.

Get Ready for Gen YGeneration Y is coming of age. Born between 1982 and 2000, this is the largest generation of consumers ever (bigger than the Baby Boomers) and they will be the dominant consumer force for your future. As these millennials begin to enter the marketplace as both consumers and employees, be poised to capture their attention. Study up on Gen Y personality, media, lifestyle, buying habits, pop culture and work ethic.

Find Someone YOUNG to do YOUNG ThingsYou’ve got enough to do without trying to figure out how to update your Facebook page, post a blog, send an email blast and create an online store while learning the buying habits of millennials. Hire someone young to manage these young technologies. They intuitively understand social media and can aptly share your vision with a massive audience.

Know Your MarketMarket research is an expensive investment, not an expendable expense. The Ms. Jones that bought from you five years ago is gone and a new woman has taken her place. Do you understanding her wants, needs, desires and media choices? Use this down economy to envision the customer you want to buy from you by doing your homework utilizing census website ZipSkinny.com.

The new year is for growth and forward momentum. With these five resolutions in action, your business will be poised to thrive like never before.


Government RelationsBy Lisa Casinger

“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”—Vince Lombardi

Lombardi is lauded by many as one of the greatest football coaches of all time; his ability to teach, motivate and inspire was unquestionable.

Individual commitment to a group effort is not only important on sports teams—it’s what transforms grassroots efforts of all kinds into effective change. It all starts with one voice.

The North American Home Furnishings Association’s (NAHFA) Government Relations Action Team (GRAT) is a prime example of individuals who share a passion coming together to make a difference in our industry and for your businesses. Our team calls attention to the issues that affect home furnishings retailers by educating retailers and lawmakers about the ways laws and regulations shape the business climate. We also partner with other industry groups to raise our collective voices in Washington, D.C., and champion the causes—both legislative and regulatory—that influence business.

Anyone can get involved and make a dif-ference, whether you join a group effort to affect national change or advocate on a local level. The biggest roadblocks are thinking you don’t have the time to invest in govern-ment relations, that your plate is already full of other commitments, or worse, that government relations don’t really matter that much to your business.

Getting involved in government relations—or even just paying attention to and using the information available to you—isn’t necessarily about politics.

You Have Time Regardless of the size of your business, average annual sales or number of employees, government affects your business. You pay taxes. You are required to have business licenses and permits and adhere to city, state and national laws and regulations.

Even if you are the smallest retailer in the smallest town in the smallest state you have time to get involved. In fact, you may be

more involved than you realize and taking the next step isn’t as big a leap as you might think.

Do you vote in your local and national elections? You’re involved.

Do you have a personal connection or relationshipwithelectedofficials?Makethem aware of your business and of your concerns as their constituent the next time you run into them at a social event or invite them to a store or town business function.

Are you a member of your town council, chamber of commerce or other local business group? You’re involved.

Do you write letters or call your elected officials, letting them know how their votes on certain bills affect your business and thereby their constituents? You’re involved.

Full Plate? We Can HelpYou’re in business to sell furniture and keep your customers happy. You have employees to deal with and inventory to manage and paperwork to tackle and markets to attend and a million other things to do. Keeping up with what’s going on in Washington, D.C., or your state capitol isn’t really on your to-do list. That’s where we come in. The NAHFA is keeping tabs on all of the issues for you. Not only that, when you do need to take action, we can help. Members receive monthly emails with updates on what’s going on, what’s important and what (if any) action needs taking. Basically all that’s required of you is to take 10 minutes, once a month, to read an email.

Don’t Sit on the Sidelines

HOT IssuesThe NAHFA GRAT and lob-byists are monitoring these issues for its members:

• Marketplace Fairness Act (sales tax for online sales)

• EPA regs regarding formaldehyde and CPSC regs regarding flammabilityinfurniture

• Swipe fees (debit card)

• Tax reform

• Employee/labor regulations

• Employee Free Choice Act (card check; allowing for the formation of unions)

Government Relations

Government Relations

Lisa Casinger is NAHFA’s government relations liaison. You can reach her at [email protected] or (800) 422-3778.

“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” —Vince Lombardi

Government Relations Don’t Matter?

Do you collect and remit the same sales taxes as online/remote retailers?

Are you frustrated with the credit/debit card exchange fees?

Are legislators in your state considering raising the minimum wage?

Are you required to provide access to healthcare?

Do you know how tax reform could affect you?

Navigating just one of these topics would take up valuable time—but you can’t afford not to be informed on any of these issues. More importantly, by taking the time to write a letter or visit with a law maker or join a group to raise your voice, you could actu-ally help influence the laws and regulations that get passed and ultimately favorably affect the business climate we all work in.

As Vince said, “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses or the problems of modern society.” Let’s work together.

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v In RememberanceJack Brisebois, long-time furni-ture advertising executive with Banker & Brisebois Company, died at his home in Plymouth, Mich., on December 4, 2013, at the age of 90.

After serving in the Navy during WWII, Jack joined his father’s advertising agency, Evans & Brisebois, which produced adver-tising slicks for furniture retailers and manufacturers. In the early 1960s, Evans & Brisebois was

bought by R.C. Banker & Company, an agency also specializing in furniture advertising, creating the new Banker & Brisebois agency.

Jack stayed on with the new company as a key account executive working with retailers across the country and developing dealer support advertising materials for many manufacturers includ-ing Flexsteel, Action Lane, Lane, Norwalk, Peters-Revington, Chromcraft, Style Craft (Klaussner), Catnapper, Franklin, Elran, Crawford of Jamestown and Jamison Bedding, to name a few. Jack retired from Banker & Brisebois Advertising in 1992.

Jack is survived by his wife of 66 years, two sons and a daughter, two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and many friends. The family has asked that those wishing to make a memorial dona-tion do so to the benefit of the American Red Cross Blood Bank.

Originally, Jack’s father, Lester Brisebois, and Frank Evans were employees of R.C. Banker Company when Mr. Banker founded the company in 1912. Mr. Brisebois and Mr. Evans split from R.C. Banker to form their own company, Evans & Brisebois. The purchase of Evans & Brisebois by R.C. Banker & Company in the early 1960s reunited the two largest furniture advertising specialists in the industry.

Banker & Brisebois Advertising is located in Troy, Michigan. Banker & Brisebois can be reached at (800) 456-0210 and would welcome hearing from those in the industry who have stories to share about Jack; ask for Harry or Lee Gilmore, or email [email protected].

What’s going on with our retailers across the country

the scoopThe Scoop

vWolf’s Consignment Concept Secures First Licensee

The perceived benefits of pairing furniture consignment and first quality retail are now a shared vision for Doug Wolf and his part-ners at Allegheny Furniture Consignment (AFC). Wolf ’s consign-ment concept has secured its first license agreement with Delaware furniture powerhouse Johnny Janosik Furniture, based in Laurel, Del. Janosik serves customers from Delaware, Maryland’s Eastern Shore, coastal Virginia, and Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Johnny Janosik CEO Dave Koehler said that like Wolf ’s, “We frequently have our customers ask us, ‘What can we do with our existing furniture? Where can we get rid of it? Can I get something for it?’ The consignment business is a perfect companion and provides a competitive edge for first-quality furniture stores. It’s a profitable added service.”

Janosik will use the AFC software, operating system and website for its new store, to be named Delmarva Furniture Consignment. Koehler hopes to be open in early 2014.Wolf also has plans to open a second AFC location in the first quarter of 2014.

According to Wolf, AFC has nearly two dozen other furniture retailers, including six in the top 100, who have shown interest in the AFC license program.


The Scoop

vKurt L. Darrow Receives Home Furnishings Industry’s Highest Service Award

Kurt L. Darrow, chairman, CEO and president of La-Z-Boy Inc., Monroe, Mich., has received the 2013 Distinguished Service Award from the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA). The award was presented Friday, November 15, during the organization’s 2013 Annual Meeting.

AHFA’s Distinguished Service Award has been presented annually for the

past 47 years. Recipients are noted for their contributions to the industry, to the AHFA and to their local communities.

Darrow has served as CEO of La-Z-Boy for the past eight years, during which he has been heralded by Wall Street as a turnaround specialist. Under his leadership the company’s operating platforms were transformed, fueling enhanced efficiencies and industry-leading performance against a backdrop of sales declines and losses that were endemic throughout the furniture industry. He was named La-Z-Boy’s chairman in 2011.

Darrow is known for his keen understanding of global markets, plus his expertise in the development and execution of lean operat-ing practices. Prior to his appointment as president and CEO in 2003, he was president of La-Z-Boy Residential, the flagship brand and largest division of La-Z-Boy Inc. During his 30 years with the company, it has grown from a brand known primarily for its reclining chairs to one of the world’s leading residential furniture producers and retailers.

“He is known as an ardent mentor of rising business leaders and as fiercely loyal to friends and colleagues. Recognized as a dedicated man of his word, he is a champion for his church, community and numerous philanthropic interests,” said Ethan Allen chairman, CEO and president Farooq Kathwari in presenting the award during a gala celebration attended by more than 40 AHFA board members and their spouses.

Darrow is a member of the board and executive committee of Business Leaders for Michigan and served as chairman of AHFA’s Board of Directors in 2008. He has also been an executive board member of the Anti Defamation League’s Furniture Division and first vice president of the American Furniture Hall of Fame.

vGot Sleep? Partners With Nothing But Nets to Send Mosquito Nets to Africa

Every 60 seconds, a child in Africa dies due to malaria, a disease that is often contracted at night. In an effort to protect families from mosquito-borne malaria, Got Sleep? has partnered with the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign. As an innovative new specialty sleep store that assists on-the-go mall shoppers in alleviating their common sleep problems, Got Sleep? aims to help customers achieve their best rest.

Families in areas with high rates of malaria live in constant fear of contracting this mosquito-borne disease. The easiest and most cost-effective method of prevention is by using long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets that protect families from the poten-tially deadly bite of a mosquito while they sleep. For each sleep system purchased in Got Sleep? stores, the company will donate funds to Nothing But Nets for two insecticide-treated bed nets. Each net will protect one family from mosquito bites, allowing them to sleep safely and soundly.

“Giving back is core to the culture of our company,” said Mike Wilson, executive vice president of marketing for Got Sleep?. “We were compelled by the stories of these families who can’t sleep without concern for their health and wellbeing, and our ability to help do something about it. Working alongside the United Nations Foundation and in collaboration with the Nothing But Nets campaign, we are hoping to donate more than 1,300 nets by the end of the year.”

Since 2006, the Nothing But Nets campaign, working with its UN partners, has delivered more than 7 million bed nets and continues giving back by partnering with companies such as Got Sleep? to raise awareness of the epidemic and encourage donations to fund sending the nets to Africa. Malaria deaths have dropped by one-third in the past decade, thanks to the continuous help from such donations.

“Got Sleep? is making sure families sleep comfortably—both here at home on a Got Sleep? sleep system or across Africa under a life-saving bed net,” said Nothing But Nets director Chris Helfrich.

“It is through generous partnerships like this one that we’re able to help those most vulnerable stay safe from malaria.”

Got Sleep? has currently donated more than 690 nets. For more information on Got Sleep’s collaboration with the Nothing But Nets campaign, please visit www.gotsleep.com.


MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THESE INDUSTRY EVENTSCalendar MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THESE INDUSTRY EVENTS

Las Vegas MarketJanuary 26-30, 2014Las Vegas, Nevada www.lasvegasmarket.com

KEM Furniture & Accessory MarketFebruary 3-5, 2014Edison, New Jersey www.kemexpo.com

Stockholm Furniture FairFebruary 4-8, 2014Stockholm, Sweden www.stockholmfurniturefair.com

Tupelo Furniture MarketFebruary 6-9, 2014Tupelo, Mississippi www.tupelofurnituremarket.com

Atlanta Spring Gift, Home Furnishings & Holiday MarketMarch 7-9, 2014Atlanta, Georgia www.americasmart.com

Dallas Total Home & Gift MarketMarch 27-30, 2014Dallas, Texas www.dallasmarketcenter.com

High Point MarketApril 5-10, 2014

High Point, North Carolina www.highpointmarket.org

78

KEM Furniture & Accessory MarketMay 21-22, 2014

Long Beach, California www.kemexpo.com

Home Furnishings Networking ConferenceJune 1-3, 2014

Phoenix, Arizona www.thehfnc.com

ShowtimeJune 1-4, 2014

High Point, North Carolina www.showtime-market.com

Dallas Total Home & Gift MarketJune 18-24, 2014

Dallas, Texas www.dallasmarketcenter.com

UPDATE YOUR CALENDARS AND MOBILE DEVICES NOW!

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Ad Index

ADVERTISER PHONE WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER PAGE#

AWE (571) 293-2013 augmentedworldexpo.com/ facebook.com/augmentedrealityevent @arealityevent 75

Cargo Consolidation Services (828) 459-3160 cargoconsolidation.com 15

Connie Post (304) 736-7283 conniepost.com 59

Cresent Fine Furniture (615) 975-4862 cresent.com facebook.com/cresent.furniture @cresentfurn 53

Furniture Wizard (619) 869-7200 furniturewizard.com facebook.com/furniturewizard @furniturewiz 63

GE Capital (800) 422-3778 nahfa.org 5

High Point Market (336) 869-1000 highpointmarket.org http://tinyurl.com/HighPtMarket @hpmarketnews 7, 9

IAS Training (800) 248-7703 iastraining.com facebook.com/IASTraining @bradhuisken_ias 71

Jaipur Rugs (404) 351-2360 jaipurrugs.com facebook.com/jaipurlifestyle @jaipurlifestyle Inside Back

Kincaid Furniture (800) 438-8207 kincaidfurniture.com facebook.com/KincaidFurnitureCompany @KincaidFurn46 19

Las Vegas Market (702) 599-9621 lasvegasmarket.com facebook.com/lvmarket @lasvegasmarket 3

Lynch Sales (616) 458-6662 lynchsales.com facebook.com/lynchsales @lynchsales 69

MicroD (800) 964-3876 microdinc.com facebook.com/microdinc @microdinc Back Cover

Next Generation-NOW (800) 422-3778 ngnow.org facebook.com/NextGenNow @ngnow 51

North American HFA Sponsors (800) 422-3778 retailerNOWmag.com facebook.com/retailernow @retailerNow 70

Northwest Furniture Xpress (828) 475-6377 nwfxpress.com 33

Nourison (201) 368-6900 nourison.com facebook.com/nourison @nourison 27

Omnia (909) 393-4400 omnialeather.com http://tinyurl.com/omnialeather @OmniaLeather 53

PROFITsystems (800) 888-5565 profitsystems.com facebook.com/profitsystems @PROFITsystems 25

R&A Marketing (888) 225-0776 RAmarketing.com facebook.com/RAMarketing @RAMarketing 72

Simple Finance (800) 742-1789 gosimplefin.com facebook.com/gosimplefinance @gosimplefinance 62

STORIS (888) 4-STORIS storis.com facebook.com/STORIS.solutions @STORIS 11

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

Truckskin (877) 866-7546 truckskin.com facebook.com/TruckSkin @TruckSkin 68

TwinStar (615) 975-4862 twinstarhome.com facebook.com/TwinStarInternational @TwinStarHome 71

Image from Kincade FurnitureCaracole Michelle Wiebe Featured at High Point Market


The Now ListA quick dose of fun facts, random trivia and useful

(or useless) bits of info Learning the Furniture Lingo by Dana Helms

Think you know everything about furniture? Take our vocab quiz and put your knowledge to the test. Good Luck! Question: What is a bergère?

A) French bread served with soupB) An enclosed upholstered French armchairC) A cover for a bedCorrect answer: B. These chairs gained popularity in France during the 17th century. The term bergère means “shepardess” and the furniture was originally designed to move about the house depending on the event.

Question: What is a console table?

A) Where people gather to give comfort to those who are sadB) A table placed in a room to hold accessories, mail, keys, a handbag or other small itemsC) A table that specifically goes behind a sofaCorrect answer: B. Console tables were originally decorative French pieces attached to a wall with an S-shaped bracket¬—aptly named a “console.”

Question: What is an étagère traditionally used for?

A) Hold the roll of toilet paper in the bathroomB) Help you step up into tall bedsC) Displaying ornaments on a number of open shelvesCorrect answer: C. Also called a whatnot, these shelves originated in France in the mid-1800s and were named after the French word for “shelf.”

Question: One of these is not like the other! Which term below is a type of sofa?

A) CrestB) BumperC) KnoleCorrect answer: C. A sofa can have a crest or bumper, but a knole sofa has adjustable sides and can be turned into a bed. The name comes from a 17th century formal two-person throne at Knole House in Kent, UK, which has high adjustable sides so royalty could sit and welcome visitors in privacy.

Question: Did you know, in Canada a chesterfield is a ___________?

A) SofaB) End tableC) OttomanCorrect answer: A. In the UK, a chesterfield is a buttoned leather sofa. Canadians are much more lax on the rule—any type of sofa is called a chesterfield. The furniture is supposedly named after the Earl of Chesterfield in 1600s England.

Question: What do you use a pouf for?

A) Apply make-upB) Dust the houseC) Use as an ottoman Correct answer: C. The word ottoman originated in the late 18th century when the French invaded Egypt (then a part of the Ottoman Empire). The invasion included physical punishment like "pain walks," which led the Ottomans to fashion footstools so they could rest their tired legs.

Question: A fauteuil is what type of furniture item?

A) Open-armed chairB) Rocker reclinerC) Wooden sofa with fabric cushionCorrect answer: A. The word fauteuil literally means “armchair” in French, and gained popularity in the 18th century as light yet ornate chairs, commonly used at desks and tables.

How many did

you get right?

Let us know

on Twitter, @

retailernow,

with the

hashtag

#furniturequiz!

Ottoman SURYA

Pouf by SURYA

Vol. 3 Issue 1

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Online Marketing & Technology Experts for the Home Furnishings Industry

The integrated company for the home

furnishings world.MicroD has 20 years of proven success as a technology partner for retailers and manufacturers in the home furnishings industry. We’re a fast moving, big thinking company that drives business outcomes, builds customer loy-alty, and furthers revenue growth.

For more informationemail: [email protected] or call: 800-964-3876

Discover us.www.MicroDinc.com

Furniture Industry Solutions Websites Interactive Product Catalogs

eCommerce Room Planner

EDI iPad App for Sales Reps

DOUBLE DOWN ON YOUR SOCIAL SHARINGMonday, January 27 @ 9 AM | Retailer Resource Center - Building B, 10th Floor

Retailer to Retailer Panel Discussion on winning ways to use social media, blogging, and mobile to attract the next generation of consumers to your store. Numbers don’t lie: 62% of fortune 500 companies have stated that social media is necessary for business growth, 25% of shoppers are using mobile devices to access furniture info online, and 95% of small businesses view blogging as an effective marketing technol-ogy tool–second only to email marketing. Join MicroD and our expert panel as we discuss this essential form of online marketing and answer audience questions.#NGNow #millennials #MicroDinc #LVMkt

Las Vegas Market Panel Discussion

MicroD-12-2013-RetailerNOW.indd 1 12/6/13 9:37 AM

january 2014—emerging technology

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