As we descend the slippery slope of 2006 with its legacy of store closings and consolidations, I thought it would be interesting to lead my readers on an expedition into the future- a future that is arriving in 2007.

1. There is a lot of work being done to bring the world of home building and the world of furniture sales together.  

Yes, I know, many of you do staging and/or have existing relationships with home builders. A few of you actively pursue marketing to this group. However, the trend is that home builders themselves are considering entering into the furniture business and opening up a new channel of distribution direct to consumer.  Make sure you are positioned to take advantage of this situation by partnering with the home builders in your community. Perhaps the builder doesn’t want to sell direct, but they do want to share in the profits.

Could you find a way to partner with the builder in this desire through cross marketing on your websites,  design assistance from your store onsite at the builders location,  kiosks that you provide allowing the customer to do room planning live at the builders location using your inventory?  The home builder has a captive audience-how can you work together to create more value and save the consumer her most valuable commodity (not money) TIME.  Be on top of this trend and get started NOW-don’t wait!  It’s actively arriving.

2. Manufacturers are looking for ways to strengthen their strategic position in the market without upsetting their existing channels of distribution. 

Enter www.reshare.com. This is a company that was brought to my attention when I spoke at Furniture Today’s Leadership Conference three weeks ago. Jim Gabbert gave a riveting presentation to the audience re: technology and retail and this was, by far, the company that captivated my attention as it solves a problem in a unique way. (Jim is an investor in this company)... It has been profiled before in FT but this was the first time it was explained to me in detail and I thought you would be interested, too.  Here’s how it works: The manufacturer sells direct to consumer on its own website. Don’t panic-read on…. The consumer, once they have made their selection, MUST choose a store with whom they wish to do business in their local market area from a drop down menu that appears on the screen.

Reshare simultaneously transmits the order to the retailer and manufacturer and the retailer gives the order to a sales/design consultant for processing. The retailer delivers the piece, services it, etc. –just like normal.  Everyone makes their margins and the sales person is given a  ”technology up” that they never would have gotten otherwise. Prices are posted on the manufacturer’s website and are slightly higher than they would be in the store. Reshare takes a small piece of the pie but over millions of transactions. Voila! A win/win/win and manufacturer’s love it because it can be tracked. Sligh is on board with Reshare now and others will be coming soon. MAKE SURE to position yourself with your major vendors to be on that drop down menu for your local area.

These are but two of the most important trends that will have a major impact on our business and I will discuss more in the weeks to come. On that note…

My mission in 2007 is to help connect our industry to a fresh vision for its future. There are several thousand  unique readers of this blog every quarter. I say that not to impress you, but to let you know that by leveraging our creative minds together on a public forum, we can get positive information disseminated FAST and work TOGETHER as a group to get a great new  idea or great new company known!

Please, in 2007, post your comments to the blog ( I get many comments directly to my email at leslie@tkpartnership.com ) but hardly any to the blog. Readers, check back frequently and post. Let’s start a magical and public thread weaving our community ever more tightly together. This is our strength!--let’s build on it.   Happy New Year’s!