Are You A Furniture Or Technology Retailer?

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, retail technology integration is not just an advantage, it’s a necessity for every furniture operation.

Can you imagine starting a business or selling anything today without technology? How would you attract customers and get the word out? How could you communicate with prospects and keep track of inventory? How might you even get people to work for you without innovative tools and techniques in 2024? I propose the notion that most retail furniture businesses are becoming, first, technology companies and, second, sellers of their products and services. It’s true for the fastest-growing companies across industries. It even applies to our traditionally “old-school” home furnishings industry.

The most significant change I have seen in the home furnishings industry in the last 25 years has been the growth of the technology necessary to buy and sell furniture. Sure, there have been some product innovations, but a sofa is still a sofa. However, the systems and processes surrounding selling sofas have evolved. Every process requires technology, from attracting customers to ordering merchandise, managing inventory, informing customers, onboarding employees, fulfilling and servicing customer orders, and communicating with various parties. The better the technology and how it is executed, the more likely retailers will be able to grow their businesses. Whether you realize it or not, like it or not, furniture retailers are becoming technology companies that sell furniture rather than businesses that sell furniture by using technology when needed. Those who embrace this notion and continually innovate will likely capture larger market shares. Those who resist will be late to the table.

Marketing

Segmented Targeting: It is clear that consumers proactively search for products and retailers they feel comfortable doing business with before purchasing online or visiting a showroom. It’s my view that the mass marketing of home furnishings does not turn nonbuyers into buyers. Besides its branding function, it brings a small minority of a targeted group of potential customers into a store to shop. This is why technologies that segment and target people who are already interested in purchasing and engaged in the buying process are valuable.

Website Lead Funnels: For example, website code can automatically capture visitor traffic. This information lets marketers see who visited a site and what items they clicked on. If a customer is searching for a mattress on your website, and is already in your database, and you have permission to contact them, a relevant email or direct mail offer can be sent automatically. When you see a previous customer searching on your website, you could assign this prospect to a salesperson. This way, follow-up calls can be made to warm leads rather than making cold calls. Also, most websites have sign-up forms, item inquiry forms, and register-to-wins that collect lead data.

“Salespeople can’t remember and follow up with every single past customer or prospect. Whether they realize it or not, they NEED technology to assist them in getting be backs and building future business.”

Selling

When a customer fails to buy when visiting a showroom, tech allows messages to be automatically sent to encourage them to come back, rather than leaving them to visit a competitor. These messages can be sent through SMS/text, email, regular mail or voice. The important thing is that the messages are relevant, timely, and value-added.

Next Purchase Follow-up: When a customer does buy, a next-purchase follow-up that is relevant and value-added can build the average ticket per customer. People buy in stages. If you want to serve customers in the most complete way, it’s wise to continue the conversation.

In most regions, not enough new customers are coming into the market every day to sustain furniture retailer businesses without following up with past-purchase customers. Salespeople can’t remember and follow up with every single past customer or prospect. Whether they realize it or not, they NEED technology to assist them in getting be backs and building future business.

Clubs and Perks: Retailers can use technology to segment and market to customers who have signed up for exclusive paid clubs or are receiving extra perks for shopping with retailers. Doing this can increase customer loyalty, producing a greater average sale and more repeat business.

Productivity Tools: It is important to use productivity tools and processes that allow your salespeople to maximize their potential. They must convert as many prospects as possible into sales quickly. They also need to access customers and prospects efficiently and work with them at all stages of the buying process. Sure, some salespeople can live off the door and don’t need to do any prospecting or follow-up. That might be all you need if you have enough traffic and high-performing salespeople. However, if your traffic is insufficient, building larger average tickets, achieving higher success rates, and more return visits to produce the necessary volume requires technology that includes:

• A door-counting system helps sort between those who bought and potential future buyers.
• A prospecting system or CRM/CXM, will help manage the customers in the pipeline and any past relationships you can follow up with.

Sales associates and managers should work with their list of prospects each day and build relationships by providing value.

“The entire customer journey is tracked as part of the CRM/CXM, with the goal of enhancing the overall experience. It starts before customers come into the store and extends beyond delivery.”

Business Operations

POS Systems: In operations, having a POS (point-of-sale) system that allows salespeople to quickly enter quotes, pending sales or sales is essential. Furniture retailers see much more traffic on weekends but are often not adequately staffed to handle that traffic. This often means that the best salespeople must simultaneously serve multiple customers. To do this effectively, good POS software tools are required to help manage the process.

The ERP: A point-of-sale system is always connected to an ERP that helps manage everything, including sales, inventory and accounting. It contains valuable data for analysis and decision-making, such as information on bestselling and slow-moving inventory to maximize sales. Expertise in using these systems and accessing the data can make or break any organization

CRM/CXM: The other essential tech hub is a complete CRM/CXM (Customer Relationship/eXperience Management) system. It is a communication hub containing all interactions with customers and other database contacts. This system should facilitate texting, e-mail, voice, and regular mail. These communication tools are necessary depending on the circumstances. Text is suitable for a fast response and sending short messages, thus the acronym SMS, which means short message service. Email is great for branding, documentation, archiving, and delivering experiences. Voice is best for two-way conversations and understanding. And direct mail is still a solid way to target the right audience.

The entire customer journey is tracked as part of the CRM/CXM, with the goal of enhancing the overall experience. It starts before customers come into the store and extends beyond delivery to encourage repeat customers and long-term growth. Thus, a complete CRM/CXM is part marketing, lead management, selling, operations and service.

Service

Software that enables fast and efficient handling of customer issues is critical for creating positive shopping experiences. Digitization of service forms attached to the website is a start. These forms, which should include images, need to inform the company via email and auto-enter an open service ticket connected to both essential hubs—ERP and CRM/CXM—while immediately informing the ticketing team. Digital services and forms are often integrated into CRM systems which in turn share data with the POS/ERP. This enables the fastest resolution of service issues and eliminates multiple entries of customer information.

Software Architecture

ERP and CRM software platforms usually cover many different areas, and together, form a broad business system. In addition, retailers use complementary software systems that specialize in performing specific functions. The following specialty software must be integrated as well. These typically include:

• Delivery routing, tracking and dispatching
• Communication: SMS/texting, email, voice
• In-store traffic counting
• Process organization
• HR management
• Business intelligence (BI) and analytics
• Loyalty / Rewards systems
• AI (Artificial Intelligence)

The technology connecting all this software is the glue that holds an excellent overall business system together. However, specialized software must use current technology to enable access to data through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and/or low-code integration platforms such as Zapier. If a piece of software does not allow for integration, it is probably a legacy system that will require that its data be accessed by some other means so it can still integrate.

Conclusion

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, technology integration is not just an advantage but a necessity. Becoming a technology-centric company is critical to success in any industry, including those traditionally slow to adopt technological innovations, such as home furnishings. This shift involves leveraging more advanced systems and processes to enhance marketing, sales, business operations, and customer service.