How Tough is business this summer? It’s so tough that even Jerry Epperson, the consummate furniture cheerleader, is having trouble finding anything good to say about retail sales. In his June newsletter he reminds us the first half of the year is generally less than the second half due to the fact that people have become accustomed to buying furniture on holidays and there are several coming up including Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. He gives a number of demographic concerns about the population base age and interest in furniture purchasing which we have covered before in this newsletter. But the hope is that as new home sales creep up, eventually the need for furniture will as well.
Our business tracks closely with our retailer customer base because if you don’t sell something then neither do we. Epperson suggests several items to help get through the tough times. Most surround looking at your operation, advertising, personnel, and merchandise mix with an idea towards cutting out the low performers. I think that is important , but more important may be to look at new avenues for growth.
For example a strong performer for us has been Cozzia Mas-sage Chairs. Last market they introduced a new massage chair retailing for $5999. We are currently oversold on that chair. On many sales floors I traded a $3000 retail spot for a $6000 retail spot. The customer gets the best chair on the planet for the money and the retailer and the sales person has now doubled their average ticket. A win win for all.
So this market Cozzia has partnered with the Homedics brand and instead of going higher priced, they are now introducing some low end massage products starting as low as $699 retail. I expect this new product line will also be successful with an entirely different group of customers. I have seen a lot of stores grade up their merchandise mix when times were good. But when times become sluggish it’s good to have some fodder to draw people into the stores. Since everyone uses Ashley for advertising, consider looking at other vendors like Hughes (see Emmet back page) so you don’t end up offering the same look in your ads as every other retailer.
With Las Vegas market right around the corner, now is a great time to make changes when business is slow. You will find our market information in this newsletter. Be sure and stop by and let us show you things you won’t find elsewhere.
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