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Two Trends for 2007
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!
Meisdead commented:
Hi, Yeah aint that some companies doing so allready from a period of time in etailing. But has it been a success story across the board? what about the local store NOT carrying what the customer ordered? Huge costs that goes into setting technology up at the store level, the various exceptions that each region brings to the table? SHIP TO STORE weekly delivery .... well what about time involved, what about customer aggrevation and will she/he come back would such a customer ever become an established customer? Plus lets talk cutting down costs and passing some kind of leverage to the customer. The channel has to shrink if not sink... facts they remain 110 BN industry who is the biggest groccer an individual operator who operates on his own yes we all guessed it right, Amazon. Why and how ? is it economies of scale on his buys and passing on the leverage to customers. As an individual I dont think there can be a sure shot way of success in etailing a lot will remain dependent on who sees tommarrow and acts on it! Peripherals have and will pay a part but to what extent ? Business Dynamics change with time in etailing maybe on a daily baisis a feed, an RSS a choke anything can turns things around for good as well as for bad. In such a circumstance what is required, again individual prespective, a heady MIX of techno savy top management which is willing to invest in risks and research, executioners which act on hard facts, rely on data, trends, etc, a customer service team that works with an agenda to respond and resolve PLUSS every order shipped all such organization should ask them "what was the value added to this order?" An agressive sales team that turns non sellers into sellers and sellers into bestsellers, backed by a thinking advertising team, which will relent more than NOT :). thats what it looks like at the grass root level. It was a wonderful read you article which prompted me to write thanks again for sharing!!! Meisdead
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