Furniture retailers rush to homeyet.com site

Thousands listed as of Wednesday

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 27, 2009

LAS VEGAS — If you were quick to check out the new homeyet.com Web site tied to the World Market Center's multimillion-dollar national ad campaign, you may have wondered where all the participating retailers were hiding.

The store locater results by ZIP code on the site were spotty at best. A Tuesday search, for instance, generated a whopping one store participating in and around Furniture/Today's address.

Wednesday was a different story, with 26 stores listed.

The earlier dribble of results can be explained by sheer enthusiasm for the program, said Doug Kays, chairman of the National Home Furnishings Assn.

"Retailers were so excited they crashed NHFA's servers," he said, noting that the computers weren't up to handing the rush of members suddenly updating their information for a proper listing on the new site.

That problem was solved with new servers, and NHFA uploaded some 3,400 member retailers Wednesday morning. Kays said the number of store locations on the site should continue to grow as more members sign up for the free program, and as some of NHFA's larger retailers update their information to include all of their store locations.

By the time a planned industry-wide in-store sales event begins Sept. 19, Kays said he conservatively estimates there will be 5,000 to 6,000 store locations in the system, and "it could grow to as may as 10,000."

"Members are extremely excited about it," he said of the first National Home Furnishing Month set for September, and the multi-year "Is It Home Yet?" campaign. "They agree the industry needs to come together and have a louder voice as a single unit, and they're very excited to be a part of this initial effort."

Eleven-store Wolf Furniture based in Bellwood, Pa., is among the NHFA members taking part.

"I'm in favor of anything that would raise our profile to the consumer," said Doug Wolf, president and chief operating officer. "For Wolf and for other members of the National Home Furnishing Assn., this is an opportunity to have a cohesive logo or theme presented across the country and get a little attention."

In addition, he said, participating on the homeyet.com site gives retailers a nice small-scale lead in to a more comprehensive Homefurnishings.com Web portal NHFA will launch with members later this year.

If there's one negative to the WMC program, it may be the rush to market. Wolf said he believes "the rapid roll out of this will hinder its overall success." Retailers, particularly large retailers, that work months in advance on their advertising didn't have the time they needed to create a consistent sales message that might tie to the messages of other retailers participating in the program, he said.

"I can run whatever sale I believe will generate business in our markets, and the flexibility this national sale provides is very nice," Wolf said. "But there will be no continuity between what I might be running here and what another retailer might be running in the next community, the next town, or the next state. You may have a little bit of consumer confusion even within a market."

More Las Vegas Market September 2009 Coverage