Don’t let some website steal your customers.
Perhaps the biggest advantage that internet only furniture retailers have over multi channel brick and click furniture retailers is that they don’t have a bricks and mortar mindset. That’s right. While your successful brick and mortar retail store business provides you with many really important advantages over those website only retailers, you will need to introduce change into your organization, and change is not easy.
The internet changes the dynamic of furniture retailing.
-If you have a great website, how will it impact your business? How will it change the way you interact with consumers?
- Worse yet, if you do NOT have a great website, how will it impact your business? How will it change the way you interact with consumers?
FurnitureDealer.net can help your company integrate your powerful new internet capabilities into your showrooms, into your selling processes, into your marketing and advertising programs, and into your merchandising processes. We will help you use the internet to show off your offline services and strengths.
We see a three-stage transformation. Phase I is when a successful bricks and mortar furniture retailer makes a commitment to a winning internet strategy. Phase II is when that bricks and mortar retailer implements a successful website. Phase III is when that retailer learns to think and act like a multi channel retailer and is committed to serving its customers both online and offline. Long-term success occurs when the Internet becomes an extension of your store, your sales people, your advertising, your merchandising, and your services. It becomes integrated into these critical aspects of your business.
We will help you think through how best to assist customers by telephone and email. We will help develop capabilities and train your salespeople to communicate with customers over the phone, online and by email. We will provide tools that transform your company's ability to interact with, communicate with and serve your customers - even when they are not physically in your store. We will provide tools such as the ability to instantly send digital photos from your showroom, show detailed product information and special order coordinating items. Search, compare, build floor plans, render fabrics on custom upholstery. Our team has a deep understanding of furniture retailing, furniture sales and the online furniture opportunity. We are not just a website provider. We are 100% committed to online furniture multi-channel opportunity. We have more than a decade of experience working in this niche, and today work with more than 40 of the best bricks and mortar furniture retailers in North America. Don’t make the mistake of trying to run your internet strategy completely in house, don’t make the mistake of hiring a company that does not understand the retail furniture business, and don’t make the mistake of hiring a company this is more focused on selling websites than on helping you achieve multi-channel success. We are committed to learning and helping transforming your business.
Telephone and email training for your salespeople. FurnitureDealer.net will provide your stores with tools to effectively respond to customers, engage them and get them closer to purchase. We will help transform your company to best serve today's time strapped customer.
Play to Your Advantages
The three secrets to online furniture retailing success.
- Great website with large product selection, great product photography and detailed information, user friendly site navigation.
- The site must be search engine friendly and search engine optimized so that it gets found by people from your local market who are using the internet to search for the products and services that you offer.
- Expert telephone and email sales assistance. When customers call your store, your salespeople must become very good at converting leads into store opportunities. If they fail, the consumer is just a quick click away from all the other websites. The internet will commoditize products and companies who sell those products. You (and more specifically, your salespeople) must differentiate your company. You need great salespeople. They must be well trained. They must have the tools and know how to assist customers who are visiting your online showroom and calling over the telephone. If your salespeople do not have a positive impact, many of your customers will simply visit another website, and if they come in contact with a salesperson who knows how to have a positive impact, you will probably not get a second chance. Don’t get your pocket picked. With a great website, FurnitureDealer.net will put you in a position to win, but you must become a multi channel retailer.
Play to your advantages. Your company has a lot of overhead compared to those website only furniture retail competitors. Don’t let them hit you over the head with your high overhead. The customer values your local services, but if you are not prepared to service him or her online as well as offline, the online etailer will steal your business.
It is important to note that not all online sellers are succeeding with low price only. The biggest and best online furniture retailing successes are not undercutting your prices. They are actually charging more than you do. They are simply out-competing you online, and they are capturing the customers in your market by offering better sales assistance than your company is.