1.  Use Social Media
Make a resolution in 2011 to create a personal profile on Facebook and Twitter. The only way for you to understand the impact social media can have on your business is for you to understand it, digest it and implement it personally. Follow your friends – and your competitors. Click here and here and here to see what other furniture retailers are doing with social media. While you’re at it, click the “Like” button for R&A Marketing for daily industry news. You don’t have to tell the world what you ate for lunch, but spend some time listening to the online conversation.

2.  Buy Online
Online holiday sales were up 13% last month according to the Wall Street Journal, more than experts expected. Nine percent of all home furnishing sales were made online in 2008, and this number is also climbing. As you decide how to implement eCommerce in your business, make 12 personal purchases from various industries and online sellers in 2010. Study the strengths and weaknesses of your personal shopping experience , from the product catalog, ease of checkout, delivery options, follow up and customer service.

3. Get Ready for Y
Generation Y is coming of age. Born between 1982 and 2000, this is the largest generation of consumers ever (bigger than the Baby Boomers) and they will be the dominant consumer force for your future. As these Millennials begin to enter the marketplace as both consumers and employees, be poised to capture their attention. Study up on Gen Y personality, media, lifestyle, buying habits, pop culture and work ethic.

4.  Find someone YOUNG to do YOUNG things
You’ve got enough to do without trying to figure out to update your Facebook page, post a blog, send an email blast and create an online store while learning the buying habits of Millennials. Hire someone young to manage these young technologies. They intuitively understand social media and can aptly share your vision with a massive audience.

5.  Know your market
Market research is an expensive investment, not an expendable expense.  The Ms. Jones that bought from you five years ago is gone, and a new woman has taken her place. Do you understanding her wants, needs, desires and media choices?   Use this down economy to envision the customer you want to buy from you buy doing your homework utilizing ZipSkinny.com or by Meeting Ms. Jones.

Make 2011 a year to remember and turn this economy upside down.

What do these facts mean?

Three important factors:

1)      Ms. Jones expects you to have an image and an appeal. Although advertising, store layout and design are lower on the list does not diminish their value—it is not an expectation of the consumer.  Have advertising collateral that is hip, understandable and in today’s atmosphere is important and Ms. Jones knows when your walk does not match your talk.

2)      Value is important—it always has been. Yes, value and price are number one on the priority list.  These two terms have been molded together in today’s economy.  A few years ago value would have been higher than price and not seen as one in the same.  However, a few bad days in the stock market and a foreclosure make both value and price seem hand in hand.  But, the same principle holds true:

a.       Value=when price is < personal experience or when personal experience is > price

3)      Ease of shopping is not just about a friendly staff. This factor hits deeper than the environment you have in your store.   It involves everything at the fingertips of Ms. Jones.  Whether it is OFFLINE or ONLINE she wants her shopping experience to be easy and user friendly.  Making her search through your store without a sales person does not help her personal experience but neither does sending her to a manufacturer website to look at product.

We know what Ms. Jones is looking for in her shopping experience.  We also know that things that needed to be improved three of four years ago are expected to be running in tip top shape and things that were not top of mind even today are expected to be running in tip top shape.

So, what do we do now?

It’s time for a tune up.  Identify your weaknesses, your strengths, your customer profile now, your future customer profile and how you are speaking about your brand in the marketplace.

How do you do this?

• Step outside of your comfort zone and truly evaluate yourself in the marketplace.
• Join a performance group and see how other retailers are talking about themselves to today’s customer.
• Hire an outside consultant who will work with you step by step to make sure this new plan is implemented effectively and efficiently to maximize impact.

Changing is not just changing because everyone else is.  Change solidifies the legacy your brand has and can have moving forward.

The number 42 is a significant number in culture and history.  Here are some examples:

1. The jersey number of Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in baseball.
2. The jersey number of Pat Tillman who defines country over profession.
3. In Douglas Adam’s book a “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” the number 42 signifies the answer to the meaning of life.

In furniture the number 42 is not as significant until you take a look at the Retail Planning Guide edition of your Furniture Today (page 20 in the print edition).  According to retailer statistics, “58% of all furniture stores according to 2008 data have a website” (see below).  That means that 42% of all furniture stores according to 2008 numbers do not have a website.  That figure is down 8% from the year prior and 4% down from the 4 year average.

Another significant number that does affect furniture is that 75% of consumers shop online before they even head to the retailer.  At any given time, there is only 2% of the consumer base that is in the market to buy home furnishings of any type.

What does this all mean?  42% of all furniture retailers are limiting their opportunities to reel in 2% of the market in a weak economy because they cannot satisfy 75% of the target consumer.

Recently, Amy Lively, of The Lively Merchant, wrote in the Word of the Week the delight she received from a Christmas present.  The present took something she had done for years and now would have someone else do it.  This task was to clean her house.  She posed the question:  What does Ms. Jones absolutely hate to do that you can eliminate for her?

I pose a similar question to you—what can you add to Ms. Jones shopping experience that will help make her life easier while gaining you more new sales?

I can give you a hint at the answer:  It doesn’t involve being a part of the number 42.

To receive more information about website development or strategy contact our website development partner The Lively Merchant.

Call:  740-415-3192

Or

Click:  info@thelivelymerchant.com