High Point — When it comes to buying and displaying accent furniture, retailers find that teamwork is often the best approach.
And as more stores continue to focus on this area of their business, they find the more buyers and merchandisers know about the products, the better.
Regardless of whether they cluster items in a small gallery or mix them in different room settings, product training and communication are the keys to moving goods off the showroom floor. That's especially true given the infinite number of vendors and items in the marketplace.
At Sunrise Home, a 30,000-square-foot store in San Rafael, Calif., communication is especially important to store owner Annie Bowman. She works directly with several staff persons who set up and maintain the showroom floor.
"They are very connected to the buying process," she said. "As I buy, I usually have a vision of how I anticipate items are going to be used. I rarely buy something if I am not clear on that, because I will not be effective.
"It will not be sold if it is not done well."
At Minneapolis-based Gabberts, Specialty Merchandise Manager Larry Olson works with an in-house procurement team to determine the type and number of items to buy from shows in High Point, New York, Atlanta and Dallas.
Some accents are stocked in the retailer's 60,000-square-foot Minneapolis and Dallas distribution centers. But most end up on the floors of its three main stores in Dallas, Fort Worth and Minneapolis. One- to three-member visual teams work in those stores with a coach to effectively display those items.
A constant balancing act
For the buyer and those visual teams, the process is a balancing act between having too much and too little. It is also important to have a wide variety of product, price points and finishes.
"The key is to keep fresh new merchandise arriving so that you have a lot of complementary pieces flowing in and out and it's constantly changing," Olson said.
In the past, some stores didn't pay as close attention to the selection and display of accents. But as accents and accessories have come to represent a larger percentage of sales, retailers realize the need to more fully understand these categories.
That is the case at Gordon's Furniture, a single-store retailer in Statesville, N.C., where employees often wear several hats. For instance, its staff includes both interior designers and showroom designers who help shop for accents and accessories and then place those pieces in the showroom. Hence, the role of buyer and designer is often interchangeable.
"It's more recent to have people who specialize in this type of buying and designing," said Gordon's President Rex Bell. "It used to be more of a carryover of your traditional buyers, but I think the designer element has come more into play."
Involving designers in these decisions make them more knowledgeable and effective in their selling, Bell added.
One-stop shopping
"When they get involved with the customer, they work with the overall look," Bell said. "That means everything from pictures, accessories and accents to lighting, floor coverings and carpeting. Customers these days don't want to have to deal with multiple people in multiple places to find what they are looking for."
At Los Altos, Calif.-based Design & Interiors, design typically comes into play during the selection and display of accents. Eight of its 16 employees are on the design staff. The company added two more designers recently because of increasing sales.
Again, communication and teamwork are key, as both the store owner and the general manager work with designers on what to include on the sales floor.
"We consult with the designers as often as possible on product selection, which makes sense because they are the people who are selling the product," said Thad Mirt, general manager. "They should have a say in what we show."
