Is the End Of Summer A Great Time For Your Furniture Business?

With Labor Day holiday this weekend, mindsets of business people and consumers begin to shift away from summer vacations and back to work. Traditionally this spells a better selling season for the furniture industry than the summer season. But we are fighting some headwinds:

• Kids head back to school and parents realize they have extra expenses due to books, tuitions, or clothes and less discretionary monies for important things like new furniture.
• The recent August consumer confidence numbers were low indicating that people are not going to be excited about spending any money on discretionary purchases.
• Consumers continue to cut back on their credit either by choice or because they lack the equity to get the credit, thus limiting the pool of people buying big ticket items.
• Natural disasters across the country from floods to hurricanes to wild fires and more with a government that is not as willing to be the insurer of last resort means that the claims potentially will take longer to get paid if at all.
• Wild gyrations in the stock market are making many people very conservative with their money.
• Prices for furniture are going up from most every supplier due to inflation in many countries who supply furniture along with the weakness of the dollar.

But don't for a minute think I am all doom and gloom. Here are a few positives to consider

• People will be moving from outdoor activities to indoor activities as the weather turns (at least in the Northern states). They will realize some of the furniture is really horrible and needs to be replaced. They will be having family and friends over for the holidays and need to redo certain rooms. Whatever their motivations, the more you can tailor your advertising message to what they are thinking about, the more likely you will be successful. And as a rep, if you walk your retailer's floor and see that his furniture offerings are even older than his customers, you might get the opportunity for a placement of something new that will sell.
• The fourth quarter gives retailers several outstanding promotional opportunities starting with this weekend and running through January 1. People love an excuse for a sale and the holidays are a great time for retailers to get customers attention when they are actually in the mood to buy. And reps should be looking at the calendar and helping their retailer plan out those upcoming holidays -- Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years followed by Martin Luther King, Valentines Day and Presidents Day -- with appropriate product and ideas to sell it. Big retailers are working on Thanksgiving or Christmas ads right now because they have to plan containers 90-120 days in advance so make sure you take advantage of the calendar and plan accordingly.
• There is less competition in the industry due to factory and retailers closing. The ones that remain are doing the right things to survive and grow. People are still looking for furniture, and if you are a survivor, then the next step is to keep expanding on that niche. Figure out how to be more valuable to your existing customers (whether they are consumers or retailers), and figure out how to find others just like your current customers. In order of importance, your best customer is an existing customer, the next best customer is a referred customer, and the next best customer is a previous customer. What are you doing to talk to each one of these customers? Send me an email at meroot@mikeroot.com if you need some ideas.
• Above I indicated that the natural disasters could slow the economy down for a step. But for our industry and the home improvement industry we actually have an opportunity for replacement whether by insurance or government handouts. If you are in an area that has been affected, don't wait for it to start. Plan for it.

As a business owner, whether you are a retailer or a rep, you can either take what the economy gives you or you can go out and create your own robust economy. In my humble opinion, hope is only a campaign promise. In our business, we go out and make things happen every day.

Summer is over. It's time to look at the calendar and figure out how to convince the consumer that purchasing new furniture is one of the very best investments they can make right now.