NHFA marketing Show/Pro kiosks
By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, August 29, 2005
High Point — The National Home Furnishings Assn. has endorsed Showroom Technology's Show/Pro retail kiosk system, agreeing to market the system to members at special pricing.
Show/Pro kiosks enable shoppers to quickly and privately apply for credit and/or register for coupons and specials. The kiosks also facilitate advertising by both the retailer and its manufacturers
As part of the agreement with NHFA, Showroom Technology is using the association's preferred promotional credit lender, CitiFinancial Retail Services. ST also is working with the Western Home Furnishings Assn.'s preferred lender, American General Financial.
Pittsburgh-based retailer Roomful Express Furniture is pilot-testing the kiosk in one of its metro Pittsburgh stores and plans to add them to other stores later this year.
Canada's Leon's Furniture chain is expected to begin testing in about 30 days, and Top 100 companies American Furniture Warehouse in Colorado and Big Sandy Superstore in Ohio also are adding the kiosks.
Paul Sanford, vice president and chief financial officer at Roomful Express, said the promotionally priced company is looking to the kiosks to increase the number of credit applications processed through its private-label credit program.
The chain also hopes to shift application processing to earlier in the shopping cycle, achieve a higher average ticket, and entice more customers to make a purchase while in the store.
"The early results of the kiosk pilot are very encouraging," Sanford said. "By leveraging CitiFinancial's promotional credit programs, we see the kiosks driving higher sales performance."
The kiosk system allows Roomful Express to plan, schedule and control the display of promotions on its floors, including accompanying image and video files.
The 12-store Roomful Express has units in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
Showroom Technology demonstrated Show/Pro at the July Las Vegas market and will show in the NHFA Retailer Resource Center in the International Home Furnishings Center in High Point in October.
