Gabberts offers in-home design
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, September 3, 2001
MINNEAPOLIS — Top 100 retailer Gabberts has introduced an in-home design service here targeting consumers less likely to shop the store on a regular basis.
Gabberts To You features a dozen dedicated consultants and two customized vans loaded with laptop computers, digital cameras, product catalogs, and sample fabric window treatments and wood finishes. Services include at-home space planning, color and fabric selection, and other home furnishings design assistance.
Those who buy from Gabberts aren't charged. Those who don't buy pay a $75-an-hour fee.
The service is designed to fill the gap between Gabberts' basic furniture store business and its design studio — a premier service aimed at clients who "understand what an interior designer does and appreciate that relationship," said Jim Gabbert, chairman and chief executive officer of the four-store company.
"We're taking ourselves to the time-constrained customers who know they need decorating help but really don't think they need the service of an interior designer," he said.
Over the past year, the upscale retailer gradually has built the program and, if deemed successful, it likely will be adapted for the Dallas and Fort Worth stores, Gabbert said. He estimated the cost of ramping up the program at $500,000, including office space, equipment and the minimum salary guarantee provided for consultants during the first year.
The retailer views Gabberts To You sales largely as incremental business and is promoting the service separately. Among other things, Gabberts To You targets consumers in outlying areas who might not want to travel often to the Edina, Minn., store. Direct mail promotes the service to people who have recently moved, and ads are run in community newspapers.
Gabbert said the service is a more economical and flexible way of expanding — as opposed to opening a new store — while reaching out to busy consumers. Customer interest in the service has exceeded projections, he said, and Gabberts To You sales in its first full year are expected to reach about $4 million.
"We think the potential is significant," Gabbert said. "We believe there is a big market that fits in that middle ground between the furniture store and the design studio."
The company hasn't established sales goals beyond this year. "We're leaning as we go," he said.
| Gabberts uses vans like this to deliver design services and samples to consumers' homes. |
