High Point Premarket Perspective: Furniture buyers ready--Are you?

Earlier this week, High Point’s Main Street was populated by more than the locals as Premarket got underway.

This time around, more than 80 exhibitors turned the lights on for a strong showing of A to Z retailers (Art Van and Zak’s).  In between, buyers from Belfort Furniture, Big Sandy, Cardi’s, City Furniture, Haverty’s, Jordan’s, Haverty’s and a host of others came and worked the venue with passion and determination.

While the retailers I spoke to are realists–nobody’s fat and happy–they were also upbeat, with many of them telling me that the business seems to be picking up.

The thing that scares them most is how unpredictable the business is.  One day, people are in the store, the next day, it’s like a ghost town.

But on the bright side, they told me they are doing a great job closing the people who are coming in to shop.  While they realize that selling the customer is their job, they are looking to their suppliers for fresh new looks that they hope will get the customer off the dime when they come in.

I also got the sense that retailers will be giving bonus points to suppliers that have domestic warehouses and can get the products here quickly.

Lastly, the retailers said they’ve used this downtime to train their sales team so that they are ready when that consumer walks through the door.

Suppliers, you have a few weeks left to make sure you are equally prepared when those retailers walk into your showrooms in a few weeks.

This environment demands everyone’s A-game.     Either bring it, or you may find yourself sitting on the sidelines.

If your company is doing something newsworth for market, comment on this blog and let me know what you have up your sleeve!