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Ray Allegrezza

F/T Web site adds features

In a recent column, I mentioned the growing impact that the Internet is having on all types of retail transactions, including home furnishings.

So much so, in fact, that at a time when traditional retail transactions are inching along, retail e-commerce last year shot ahead 23% over 2006 e-commerce sales.
Even so, I’ll bet that some of you think this trend doesn’t apply to retail sales of home furnishings.

Well, think again.  According to my friends at Comscore, a global leader in measuring the digital world, furniture/appliances represents the sixth-fastest-growing e-commerce category.

Specifically, furniture/appliances sales in 2007 rose 25% over comparable sales for the prior year.

Even more surprising, at least to me, was that this category grew faster than music, movies and videos, which grew 24%, and computer software, which grew by 23%.

Clearly, with the Internet representing such a vital opportunity, I hope you are paying careful attention to your Internet strategy and, in particular, your Web site.
Here at Furniture|Today, we’ve done just that and you can see the fruits of our labor in our new and improved site.

In the event you haven’t visited www.furnituretoday.com for a week or so, I urge you to look around and see first-hand all the enhancements that have been made.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice we look different.  In keeping with our mission to be your one-stop-shop for news, we’ve reconfigured our home page to bring you more of what you come here for — news and analysis of this ever-changing business.
You will find our site has greatly improved navigation. Simply put, our home page holds much more news and more interactive features and information, including links to related stories.

We also enhanced the search function with Zibb technology.  As a result, our search feature is now more prominent on the home page and also allows you faster navigation and quicker archive access.

By clicking on our TalkBack section, you can easily join in any of our online discussions and share your opinions.

In today’s competitive market, you are either a leader or a follower. Furniture/Today has been the leader for 30 years and we have no intentions of slowing down!

Check out the site, then send me an e-mail at rallegrezza@reedbusiness.com to tell me what you think. As always, I am anxious to hear from you!