Web Summit: Furniture industry needs to connect
Do you Twitter? Better start, say panelists
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 9, 2009
LAS VEGAS — If there was one takeaway from the Industry-wide Web Summit here, it was that furniture customers are now connecting online in a multitude of ways.
And if industry players aren't doing the same, they'll soon be left behind.
 Taking questions during the Web Summit are panelists David Lively, left, of The Lively Merchant, Mark Phelps of Partner Marketing, David McMahon of Profitconsulting and Rick Doran of R&A Marketing. |
David Lively, president and CEO of consulting firm The Lively Merchant, showed images of a going-out-of-business sale and said he's concerned that could be the result "for those who do not embrace a digital footprint."
About 90 people registered to attend the Summit, held in a Harrah's meeting room Sunday, the eve of the Las Vegas Market. Speakers broke topics down to basics — from search engine optimization strategies, to e-marketing and e-commerce, to the rise in popularity and importance of social networking sites such Twitter and Facebook.
 Retailers, manufacturers and other industry participants listen to presentations Sunday during the Industry-Wide Web Summit held at Harrah’s Las Vegas. |
Mary Frye, president of Home Furnishing Independents Assn., emceed the event, which was sponsored by HFIA and others who made presentations — R&A Marketing, Partner Marketing, Profitconsulting and the Lively Merchant.
Rick Doran, president and CEO of R&A Marketing, said he often urges clients to be active in their community and join civic groups like the Kiwanis Club. With social networking sites from Twitter to Xanga to Linked In, they essentially are doing the same thing, he said.
But just signing in isn't good enough, he added. "You've got to be part of it and using it."
Doran discussed ways of reaching out online, from organic and paid search to opt-in mobile marketing, blogs and viral videos that include posting furniture commercials on YouTube. The most popular furniture spot today is for a credit-oriented store called Frankie & Johnnie's, which ends with the offer of a 10-piece box of chicken with a $1,000 purchase. Click here to see the video.
Most would agree the spot is not one of the industry's finest moments. Doran said he's not against the use of viral video, but warned attendees to "use it wisely."
Mark Phelps, president and CEO of Partner Marketing, talked about search engine optimization. That included the pros and cons of organic, or free, search listing and pay-per-click advertising, which generally shows up at the top of a search listing in a shaded box and off to the right among sponsored links.
Phelps leans toward pay-per-click for its quick results, ability to level the playing field and measurable return on inventory. He said an organic listing has the benefit of being free, but the time and possibly money consumed to keep a store near the top of the vital first page of search results can be daunting as search engines such as Google and Yahoo are always changing their algorithms to ensure the best results.
The value of analytics that come back from these searches is immense, Phelps said. He noted one client who was getting a lot of hits from the keywords "country furniture," even though his selection of the style was limited. That information led him to expand the look.
David McMahon, director of e-commerce for Profitconsulting, discussed "The Power of e-Marketing" and the importance of making opt-in e-mail messages as specific as possible to individual consumers. Retailers can do this, he said, by tying their e-mail publishing software to their customer relations and retail management systems, so that pertinent information about customer purchases can be used to tailor messages.
For example, maybe a customer who recently purchased a bedroom group but not a mattress should receive a tailored offer about a bedding discount.
On the other hand, McMahon said e-blast type e-mail is "borderline spam" and probably does more to annoy consumers and cause opt-outs to e-mail subscriptions than anything positive.
Lively presented fresh e-commerce research that surprisingly showed that it's not 25- to 44-year olds who are dominating online furniture buying, but rather consumers ages 45 to 64.
Retailers need to remember this when they're planning their Web strategies and make sure they're not slicking up their sites to the point that they become difficult to understand or navigate, he said.
All four presentations will be available on the presenting companies' Web sites.
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