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National Home Furnishings Assn. to launch consumer Web portal

Furniture retailers can take part in Homefurnishings.com

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 9, 2009

HIGH POINT — The National Home Furnishings Assn. will launch its new consumer Web portal Homefurnishings.com with an online sweepstakes promotion to initially attract consumer traffic.

The retailer organization will hold six informational seminars during the April High Point Market to explain how retailers and others can join NHFA's program, which is designed to both educate consumers and boost sales for U.S. and Canadian home furnishings stores.

The seminars will be held at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 2 p.m. April 26 and 27 in a conference area in the NHFA's new Retailer Resource Center on the first floor of Plaza Suites.

The Web site will be launched with a furniture giveaway sweepstakes this fall. A national media and online campaign promoting the portal will begin next January.

NHFA Chairman Doug Kays said the Web initiative will help consumers determine what they need to furnish their home to fit their tastes and lifestyles. It also will help them find a "Certified Homefurnishings.com retailer" that has the products they want and the level of service they expect.

"Our goal is to influence consumers to view home furnishings as a necessary part of their lives and spur business for the whole industry," he said.

Net revenues from the Web site will be used to promote home furnishings to the consumer in a nationwide ad campaign focused on directing consumers to homefurnishings.com and to retailers designated as certified retailers, the NHFA said.

Revenue is expected to come from several sources, including advertising from suppliers, services and other businesses, said Karin Mayfield, NHFA senior director of industry promotions.

Retailers with micro-Web sites within the new Homefurnishings.com site will pay a fee based on store count, with the money used administer the program. Certified retailers, and also suppliers, would pay a small percentage of their sales volumes for use in a national media campaign.

Mayfield wouldn't disclose the fee schedules or percentage of sales, saying that this will be explained during the market meetings and at a press conference. But she did say it will be less expensive than a similar "Preferred Retailer" program announced last year that was to be co-branded with HGTV. That plan fell through as HGTV backed out and NHFA had trouble securing firm industry support.

"We've tried to keep (the new initiative) very, very affordable." Mayfield said.

Trisha McBride Ferguson, president of Idea Garden, is heading the new portal's editorial and "rich content," emphasizing consumer education, tips and other information. Todd Kinley, president and executive creative director of Crobar Creative, is developing the brand identity, sales collateral, trade advertising and consumer advertising effort. Susanne George Crihfield, principal of Methodfuel, is designing the look and feel of the Web site.

For more information, contact Dianne Therry at NHFA at (800) 888-9590, ext. 6126, or at dtherry@nhfa.org.

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