Learning the key dot-com lessons
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, February 16, 2003
The boom-and-bust cycle among dot-com businesses provided many lessons. Like Amazon and eBay, FurnitureFind.com is among the survivors that have been able to benefit from those lessons, which include:
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Figuring out the last mile. By slowly building a network of carriers, most of them North Carolina-based, and supplementing that network with a UPS-based system for smaller items, FurnitureFind has kept fulfillment costs — the bane of Furniture.com — from spiraling out of control.
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People power. About 85% of all sales involve contact with one of FurnitureFind.com's Certified Home Furnishings Advisors. These are real people answering questions and giving consumers confidence that this dot-com is a real company. People were not eliminated by technology at FurnitureFind.com, where customer service is a core competency. And the CHFAs are helpful, not pushy. They do not work on commission. The analogy: automaker Saturn's low-pressure sales approach.
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What inventory? FurnitureFind.com does not stock. An item is ordered on its site, the order is sent to the manufacturer, and the manufacturer sends the item or arranges for FurnitureFind's carriers to pick it up and deliver it to the consumer. Chalk this lesson up to Living.com. The analogy: computer-maker Dell's make-to-order model.
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Where's Buchanan? By locating in Buchanan, Mich., just a few miles from anchor retail store Bookouts, the company has a good talent pool, a stable local economy and none of the costs associated with a Silicon Valley address. The analogy: Lands' End in bucolic Dodgeville, Wis.
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Partnering. Location lies at the heart of the FurnitureFind.com model. Through an aggressive and savvy affiliate program, the company has established links to and from an estimated 23,000 affiliates. Each link is a doorway into FurnitureFind.com; all the links combined equal location in a Web environment.
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Advertising. No Super Bowl spots, sock puppets or stand-up comedians. The company developed online alternatives to traditional media advertising and continues to rely on opt-in e-mail, its affiliate program and search engine findings to get the word out and traffic in.
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