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FurnitureFind aims to meld convenience, personal touch

By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, November 25, 2001

BUCHANAN, Mich. — Just before the October furniture market, one of FurnitureFind's certified home furnishings advisors — called "chafas" — spent three hours on the phone with a consumer from Pittsburgh. A lawyer with no time for store-hopping, she ultimately plunked down $42,000.

"These busy 'soccer moms' have told us loud and clear they are not about to give up the convenience of shopping and buying online," said Steve Antisdel, chief executive officer at FurnitureFind. "We've taken the time to really get to know our customer."

One of the lasting lessons learned in the dot-com fiasco of 1999-2000 is that technology and branding can cover a lot of sins, but only for a time. They do not make a furniture company, for which the bottom line still is people.

FurnitureFind is living proof, surviving and even thriving in the punishing business-to-consumer Internet arena by combining the best of two worlds — the fundamentals of old-fashioned family furniture retailing and the conveniences of online shopping.

Visitor traffic has been running at "historically high levels" despite a down economy and the sea changes since Sept. 11, according to Jeff Antisdel, business development and marketing director.

"The long-term, five-year upward trend (in traffic) is unbroken," he said. "Our visitor traffic is being driven by a combination of search engines, 23,000 registered affiliate marketing sites, paid advertising, opt-in e-mail, some print advertising and word of mouth."

With its roots in 50-year-old Bookout Furniture in nearby Niles, FurnitureFind knew the vast majority of furniture shoppers want to talk to a human being who knows what he or she is talking about.

"The quality of communication we're having with customers tells us their confidence in us as a retailer is going up," said Pam Durkin, named president last month. "They are more often and more quickly providing us with their phone numbers, with information about themselves."

And e-mail inquiries are running at "all-time highs," with backlogs into the thousands, said Steve Antisdel. "We're working hard to get caught up and stay ahead."

Since Sept. 11, Durkin said, e-mail traffic has doubled.

A staff of accredited sales associates has long been a huge advantage to brick-and-mortar stores.

"This is the difference between a bootstrapped business and the typical Other People's Money) model so popular a few years ago," Antisdel said. "Customers are still the center of the universe, profit is not a dirty word and keeping overhead low is a plus."

Among the high-tech techniques FurnitureFind has embraced are search engine optimization and networks of affiliates. Since launching in 1996, the company has sought crosslinks with as many related online businesses as possible, creating a 23,000-link infrastructure that has helped generate over 1 million visitors a month.

Of course, some of the affiliate links are higher profile than others. KathyIreland.com, for example, the high-traffic Internet presence of the former supermodel, is an affiliate of FurnitureFind, which signed Ireland as its "lifestyle editor." FurnitureFind also is Ireland's exclusive online retailer.

A "strategic online marketing" team, led by Jeff Antisdel, brother of Steve, works hard to ensure search engines will find the site. As a result, FurnitureFind gets "targeted site traffic," Steve Antisdel said. "Traditional advertising has a place in the mix to build a national brand, but will not support a sustainable online business by itself."

How high a company comes up in a search — or where the company is "located" — is similar to real estate location for a brick-and-mortar store. Furniture.com, by virtue of its name, was on the 100 block of the Internet's Main Street. Living.com tried to leverage Amazon.com for better "location." FurnitureFind is using search optimization and link infrastructure.

"In spite of all the media doom and gloom about technology in general and e-commerce in particular, the reality is that this is where the customers are," Antisdel said. "And more are going online every day, with or without a recession."

A private company, FurnitureFind does not disclose sales or profits. Don Baber, the company's chief financial officer, said the fourth quarter so far is exceeding projections and that October was FurnitureFind's biggest sales month in a year.

Steve Antisdel

Durkin

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