March 11,
2019 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
The category is broad and covers a range of items from coffee tables, bars, chairs, to small writing desks (think laptop tables in the digital age) and more. These pieces may only be used occasionally, but that hardly diminishes their importance in the home and on the sales floor. It will come as no surprise that the category performs well for retailers, who have a wide range of options to choose from for their product assortment as manufacturers continue to ramp up their SKU count.
As the function of occasional pieces tend to be obvious, designers and manufacturers can afford to have a bit of fun in their product designs. Based on a FurnitureCore, Inc. industry model developed by Impact Consulting Services, parent company to Home Furnishings Business, it is clear that style and function are the yin and yang of the category. Those surveyed on their perception of the rank regarding style vs. function of occasional pieces reported a near 50/50 split between them (49.49% vs. 50.51%). BDI’s Bill Becker, CEO and Design Director, honed in on the importance of both the style and functionality of one of the company’s leading products, the Milo Laptop Table, saying, “While Milo is designed to serve a very functional purpose as a laptop table, it also incorporates architectural lines that make it a very beautiful design.”
Most often, the industry immediately thinks of the variety of tables in this product category. There is a traditional option for occasional tables that regularly serves as a great selling point for retailers: the three-pack table group. Manufacturers are able to bundle these tables and, in the end, customers walk away feeling satisfied that they got a great deal. While this is a useful strategy to utilize on the sales floor, only an average of 3.66% of consumers rated this selling point as “very important.” Clearly, it is a perk, but not a consumer demand.
The same survey honed in on what type of tables consumers most recently purchased. A majority of consumers purchased end tables at 50.51%, followed by coffee tables at 40.40%, sofa/console tables at 23.23%, and nesting tables (tables that provide additional seating) at just 7.07%. Multiple options were allowed.
Now that we have a better idea of the product type demand from a consumer perspective, we can dive deeper into the style directions that influence these purchases. By creating pieces that are available in multiple finishes to give the impression of a customizable product suitable to consumer tastes on an individual level, manufacturers can stay on trend and ahead of the curve. When asked about his company’s best-selling occasional pieces, Luke Simpson, President and CEO of Durham Furniture, said of the Cascata Collection, “The modern style and elegant finishes have proven to resonate well with consumers who stay on top of design trends, yet are looking to invest in timeless pieces they can appreciate for years to come.”
Consumers polled on their most recent occasional table style purchase reported the most popular selection was contemporary (35.35%) with traditional closely behind at 32.32%. Country/Rustic followed at 13.14% and Country/European at 11%. Mission/Shaker and Transitional trailed the pack, both with a reported 4.04%. There is truly a style (and finish) for everyone in this category.
March 11,
2019 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry
Shelton holds bachelors and master’s degrees from Furman University, and began his professional career as an assistant football coach there. He joined the textile industry in 1977 in sales with LaFrance Industries, rising to management as vice president of sales and marketing. Following a two-year stint with Doblin, he joined Valdese Weavers in 1988 as vice president of sales and marketing. After serving as COO, Shelton became only the fourth president of the company since 1935.
Shelton is currently chairman of the Fabrics Committee of the National Council of Textile Organization (NCTO). He is on the board of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame is past chairman of the National Textiles Association (NTA) and is past chairman of the upholstery committee of the American Textiles Manufacturers Institute (ATMI).
Shelton recently spoke with Home Furnishings Business about Valdese Weaver’s product offerings, the company’s secret to longevity and issues facing the industry.
Home Furnishings Business: How is the rapid growth of outdoor furnishings and consumer’s desire for performance fabrics impacting your business and what has the reception been to your Inside/Out line?
Mike Shelton: We have been on the forefront in leading the move toward high performance fabrics, primarily for indoor use. We have an exclusive license with Crypton Home in the residential market and we have built that into the initial core of our performance offering to the knit market and high end. It’s the best applied process to generate the most flexible product types and achieve high performance characteristics the market wants using Crypton Home.
We acquired Dicey Fabrics in 2015 and integrated it into our operations. And we have used the yarn manufacturing platform that was part of the acquisition to develop a new product category for our company that we named Sustain Performance Fabrics. That was the primary benefit along with the established business that Dicey had at that time. We were able to take the yarns that Dicey manufactured, and now that we manufacture, and develop this new proprietary yarn system that is the basis behind Sustain Fabrics.
We also have developed yarn systems since the Dicey acquisition that have allowed us to put added attributes into a yarn that we are branding fabrics by the name of Inside/Out performance fabrics. The additional benefit of this yarn system is that it has high UV resistance properties and is engineered and built for high use indoor applications, as well as appropriate for outdoor settings because of the UV properties. We consider it to be the best all-in-one performance story in the marketplace. The reception for the Inside/Out line has been fantastic. I can’t describe it in any more glowing terms. We’ve had tremendous launch the first year into the product. We have secured market placement with certain manufacturers and furniture retail and fabric distributors who are now putting this product in fully curated merchandise programs into the marketplace. Our relaunch of the product at December showtime and the upcoming High Point market in April will have a major impact.
HFB: How is the threat of increasing tariffs affecting your product development?
- It really isn’t. We have a blended strategy of domestic manufactured products as well as fabrics from all over the world, primarily products that we don’t have the capability to make or that we decide not to make. A lot of what we develop offshore in Asia utilizes chenille, which has not been impacted by the tariffs. And we are working with customers and suppliers on other products to minimize the damage caused by tariffs. We see our customers buying more new products from domestic manufacturers as they go forward to minimize the risk.
HFB: What are you seeing internationally in terms of product demand, style, and directions? Are you seeing trends start there first?
- The international marketplace has changed dramatically over the past 15 years. Goods manufactured in Asia, and in Turkey have changed the paradigm for most products. The net result has been a homogenization of sorts in style and color around the world. We are not really seeing as much dramatic difference from a stylistic and color standpoint that used to exist in different markets around the world. Our style and sense of fashion appeals to a very broad segment of the world. The conventional wisdom is that trends start internationally, however I don’t think it is altogether true as it might have once been. Some of the finest Italian fashions come from descendants of Italian companies that have located in the states such as Valdese Weavers. We work collaboratively with our customers to develop new fashion and style trends. Quite frankly, those concepts and ideas come from everywhere in the environment and not just geographically oriented perspective.
- What should we look for from Valdese Weavers in the coming markets?
- Our story in all of our residential categories is 100 percent built around performance. We have three performance brands, Crypton Home, Inside Out and Sustain. They have very different characteristics. The definition of f performance varies by manufacturers and the markets they serve. We have been on the forefront of this. The differentiator for the Inside Out fabric is that it was built for what we know is superior indoor every-day use, but it also has the unique ability to have high UV resistance as opposed to other brands that are really made for outdoor use and not for heavy, indoor everyday use that requires abrasion and pill resistant characteristics that all of our fabrics have built into them.
- What has been the biggest change you have observed in the fabric manufacturing sector since you joined the industry and what are your biggest challenges today?
- We are going through some of the biggest changes I have experienced in my 30 years right now. The definition of luxury products and the retail distribution of luxury products has changed dramatically. How you appeal to an upper end buyer has changed. The move toward performance characteristics and the sustainability factors has been a big change. The customers we appeal to have changed dramatically over the years. The natural fundamental of creative destruction has allowed some companies the opportunity to succeed and other have seen their demise. Those things have been accelerating during the past 10 years. The primary change has been tied to globalization. We have been able to survive and thrive in that environment. The challenges we met and how we attacked them has been the difference for us. We are as strong as we have ever been with record sales last year. We are extremely proud of the fact that we have been able to do that in a global environment.
The challenge with all industries for several years has been the supply and being able to attract and retain enough qualified people to run our operations. The unemployment rate in our area is extremely low. We spend a lot of our time and effort attracting labor to build upon the highly skilled artisans that we have. That’s the biggest issue we all face along with the uncertainty of the are always looking at the long-term viability of our markets and the value our products offer. Simultaneously, we are developing products and processes to become more efficient and effective so we can appeal to a broader segment of the market. We have been very successful in helping our customers differentiate themselves. That’s been the core of our strength and one that we have enhanced over the last 30 years.
February 13,
2019 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry
Based on a FurnitureCore, Inc. industry model developed by Impact Consulting Services, parent company to Home Furnishings Business, an unsurprising majority (85%) of consumers reported purchasing furniture and then a rug to pull the room together. Only 13% of consumers purchased a rug before purchasing furniture, and a meager 2% reported purchasing furniture and rugs at the same time. Consumers are clearly looking for pieces that will complete their design style through rug purchases.
With new product introduction cycles every season, rug manufacturers are pressed for fresh designs and methods to keep pace with the ever-evolving nature of consumer tastes and trending styles. They must remain relevant through brand building and by keeping the end goal in mind-—the consumer who will place their product proudly in their home-—all while guaranteeing quality products that can stand the test of time. According to Satya Tiwari, president of Surya, “Designing and bringing top selling rugs to market in a variety of styles and price points is the ethos of our business. Retailers are working with a wide variety of customer types and have to be able to satisfy all of their needs. We keep our edge and ability to bring top sellers to market by immersing ourselves in the design world at large, working side by side with our customers and analyzing our expansive internal data sources.”
But what exactly are these consumers searching for? Like all savvy consumers, they are looking for items that stand the test of time with versatility, quality, and most important, utility. According to Moe Samieian Jr. of Moe’s Home Collection, they create products for the person who wants to integrate luxury and utility. Speaking of his company’s Charleston rug he said, “The great thing about this rug is its change in texture. We love rugs that are made to last and can easily hide a stain. This rug does just that while seamlessly pairing with many of our favourite designs."
Drilling down further into consumer tastes, the FurnitureCore study analyzed consumer preferences in color, design, and material composition. 51% of consumers reported that the dominant color of their most recent rug purchase was neutral (this includes black, white, and beige shades). Next was red at 18% followed by blue at 16%. Green was a popular selection as 9% of consumers chose this shade, with all other color options fading into the distance.
While hue is a clear frontrunner, selected design elements are spread more evenly amongst those that participated in the survey with solids leading the pack at 20%. Traditional, geometric, and floral prints are tied amongst consumers with each at a reported 18%, stripes at 11%, contemporary at 9%, and zig zag coming in last with 7%.
According to the same study, a surprising 29% of consumers reported that they were unsure of their most recent rug purchase’s composition. Natural fibers remain popular with 22% reporting wool, 7% cotton, and 20% a natural fiber blend. Synthetic fibers came in at 20% as well, and animal hide at just 2%.
With many different materials come many different manufacturer production methods. When surveyed, 38% of consumers reported that their most recent rug purchase was machine-made, followed by hand-made at 18%. A surprising 44% did not know the production method. To clear the ambiguity, Cameron Capel, president of sales and marketing at Capel Rugs, said, “We're starting to see more demand for our step-up, hand-knotted, and hand-woven designs. They offer retailers an opportunity for higher margins, while still delivering a strong value to consumers."
Some manufacturers are integrating machine-made and hand-made methods to produce unique, durable designs at a better margin. According to Larry Hedrick, VP of business development at Rizzy Home, “When we show our rugs to extremely experienced rug experts it is very common to hear them say, ‘this looks just like a hand knotted rug’. Artistry is the collection and Artistry is that good. See it, touch it, scratch it, and sniff it. It looks like the real thing but at a fraction of the cost.”
Consumers are willing to pay a wide range of amounts depending on what type of product they are searching for and for the length of time they expect to utilize it. Referring again to the FurnitureCore study, most consumers (36%) are spending $100-$399 for their purchase, followed by 22% at $400-$799. Only 16% reported their willingness to spend upwards of $800 for their rug purchase. 27% of consumers are willing to spend only $100 or less for their purchase.
February 12,
2019 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry
We have lost the merchant class.
Reflecting on this, it was true. A generation ago, there was a personal relationship between the consumer and the supplier of goods and services. When the need for or budget for furniture occurred, the thought process was a visit to the local store to discuss the pending acquisition. Yes, price was a consideration, but trust was the reason. How long has it been since we heard the comment, “my parents and grandparents bought their furniture from x retailer?” What we, the consumer, and us, the industry, have lost is personal.
The merchant, at one time, was the arbitrator of taste when it came to furniture within the community. Yes, many will argue that the consumer has changed and wants to make their own personal style. It’s hard to argue with that until you see the results of that approach to decorating.
However, whether the consumer will admit it or not, they need help to define their style. In our technology age, we are using artificial intelligence to match consumer desire with product attributes. We provide virtual reality to allow consumers to visualize the products within their environment. However, we still have over 30% of consumers leaving the store or the e-commerce site without purchasing and agreeing with this statement: could not find what I was looking for.
If we recognize that this is the barrier consumers have to acting on their desire to purchase furniture, isn’t that what the message should be in our advertising?
While the decline of brick and mortar retailers has been well documented, the number of designers has increased significantly. The majority of this increase is not with design firms employing more than 5 designers, but with individual practices. I hate to use the term “kitchen table designers” because they are as well trained as graduates of major schools. What they are can be best described as personal shoppers. Willing to do the “needs analysis” with the consumer and shop for the time-starved two household income family.
Today with furniture retailers struggling to maintain retail sales associate staffing levels, this is the opportunity to join forces within the industry instead of spending our advertising voice shouting price and financing. Let’s attract this cadre of talented individuals that have figured out how to make it personal.
As can be seen from the statistics below, we are not exciting the customer either with our advertising message or our retail experience.
We are just a commodity product for the prime furniture buyer—Generation X.
February 12,
2019 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry
This growth, while positive for the industry, indicated performance was outstanding when compared to other retail sectors. Achieving the status of outstanding growth has caused the financial community to focus on what is happening in home furnishings. This has brought attention to the potential investment opportunities in the industry.
While much attention has been focused on the e-commerce sector of the industry, this juggernaut is slowing, achieving only a 13.1% growth in 2018.
This growth has been in total home furnishing and initially improved the performance of home furnishing stores (those that merchandise the total product) as compared to furniture stores that primarily sell furniture and bedding (70% by definition). However, this comparison has changed with furniture stores regaining the momentum.
But with all this clamoring, many furniture retailers are facing declining traffic and the resulting sales decline. The result is owners challenging their advertising strategy.
Let’s focus on what is the right advertising strategy. By definition, advertising is the attempt to influence the behavior of customers with a persuasive selling message about the product.
First, we must have receptive consumers. Based upon research, the industry has that. As is typical in a good economy, a quarter (29.74%) of the prime furniture purchases are on the sideline. Another 15% have just made a purchase. The remaining fifty percent plus are our targets.
Furniture is on the fringe of satisfying a basic human need. Home furnishings is not a necessity in terms of basic needs, but instead provides comfort and for some consumers, a sense of presence. Insight form FurnitureCore, the research arm of Home Furnishings Business provided some perspective.
From the research, we see that our advertising effort must be a dual focus, communicating prestige as well as practical need. Considering the current advertising effort by the traditional retailers, we skipped these messages and are addressing price and the ability to finance. In fairness to the industry, the manufacturer sector is typically involved in communicating prestige/need in the process of establishing brand. In today’s residential furniture arena there is a lack of established brands. The Broyhill, Thomasville, and Lane brands have been allowed to deteriorate. With consumers under 50 (Generation X) and definitely under 35 (Millennials), there is little brand awareness. There are some exceptions with Brown Jordan, Eckornes, and Stickley who have presence with the more affluent consumer.
Why are brands missing from today’s communication with the consumer? First and most immediate, there is little brand advertising. As an example, in the most recent issue of Southern Living (Feb 2019), there was no furniture advertised even though there were several home decorating articles. In fact, there were few “call outs” to the product shown—a true indication of the magazine publisher’s perspective of industry support. If we go past the immediate and ask manufacturers why the immediate response is lack of margin to support consumer advertising. This addresses a decades old question: Can the industry afford not to advertise directly to the consumers the reasons to buy furniture? Are we destined to race to the bottom in terms of price? When we compare the consumer price index of furniture to all other consumer products, we get the answer as illustrated in the graphic.
Even with bedding included, the industry is declining even in the good economy we have enjoyed since the 2008/2009 comeback. In fact, we are 12 basis points below where we were in 2008.
Should we consider again an industry program to promote furniture as was done in the 80s/90s with Haven Magazine? Where would the industry be if we had cooperated—manufacturers and retailers—in the effort? Only the manufacturer-verticals, such as Ashley and La-Z-Boy, have created a brand presence at the consumer level. Was that the strategy that should have been executed in the manufacturing sector?
It is not to say that the industry does not spend to attract/motivate the consumer. In fact, 56% of the gross margin dollars are spent doing so. However, only a portion is spent in pure advertising. The graphic illustrates.
The statistics shown in the Expenditures graphic is for traditional furniture stores. Obviously, these percentages vary by volume level and individual retailer strategy.
In the last decade, retailers have abandoned a real estate strategy (owned) and leased buildings within established shopping areas with higher occupancy costs. The assumption is that traffic would increase and therefore lower advertising costs. The result is where advertising in total would be 5-6%, now occupancy and advertising combined with the goal being 12-14%. Interestingly, Julius M. Feinblum, president of JMS Real Estate, Inc., a firm that specializes in real estate for the home furnishing industry, cautioned against the use of rigid guidelines, saying each situation is different. The decision to open an additional store should take into consideration the incremental revenue that would absorb existing fixed costs.
New distribution channels into furniture retailing take a different perspective. Lifestyle stores, such as Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, while selling all home furnishing products, relies on stores in proximity to the consumer and less on advertising. For this distribution channel, reliance is on more stores and targeted direct mail campaigns and catalogs. The table presents some statistics.
As can be seen from the table, lifestyle stores have 353 stores per thousand households. This compares to a third of that for FurnitureCore’s Top 100 regional chains/large independents/independents. Another approach is the fast growing e-commerce channels. E-tailers, for the most part, eliminated occupancy and minimal expenditure in presentation (except for online chat), a new financial model was created. However, this model has not been successful to date. Even with competitive pricing, the savings are not enough to offset increased delivery/returns expenses. While still less than 20% of total industry sales, the growth rate is significant. Recently, many of the e-commerce major players are exploring brick and mortar.
The major question in furniture retail is what should the message be? The predominance of messaging in traditional retailers is low price – long term financing. Research by FurnitureCore indicates other ways to break through, including product information and humor. A good example of humor is represented in a recent television commercial created for Bernie & Phyl’s in Boston.
Bernie & Phyl’s advertising agency, DeVito/Verde, had to address the iconic advertising platform that had served the retailer for decades to increase awareness.
Ellis Verdi, president of DeVito/Verdi explains. “We do talk about value in the campaign, but we’re doing it in a way that is far more memorable, and doesn’t look like typical category advertising. Humor is effectively used as a means to increase recall in a cluttered environment because like any good joke, we want people to remember it. Otherwise it’s a total waste of money. Secondly, we’re actively seeing more younger people, those who are inclined to appreciate a smart, witty humorous approach. We understand not everyone has a sense of humor because we’ve already received a few letters. They’re affected by the humor, but it seems they all want to talk to someone, which is great because when you speak with them they end up being convinced to visit the store, or at least they’re no longer as upset with the advertising. Also, we picked up increased engagement and interest from those who did find these campaigns funny.”
Verdi continued, “One challenge we had was to convince the owners not to be in their own commercials. It’s extremely difficult to take owners out of their own commercials. But the proof is in the pudding; they have been extremely successful. There is a competitor in Boston called Jordan’s that suffers from the disease of wanting to be the star of the ads. We measure success on comp store sales. Prior to our new campaign we were seeing negatives. Post: we’ve seen significant positive comps for the past several years.” The swing has been “substantial”, according to Verdi, “What made it so effective is that all the campaigns are inexpensive to produce, and allow us to have flexibility in messaging and maintain the disposable quality of production that the rest of the industry has fallen in love with. “
As important as the message is, the media used to communicate. According to FurnitureCore research, television for traditional retailers represents the largest share of advertising expenditure. The graphic illustrates the breakdown.
From a consumer perspective, the internet/email has the most influence on their intent to purchase as can be seen from the following graphic.
While the Internet is important even Wayfair, has turned to print. Bob Sherwin, Wayfair’s head of North American marketing confirms, “The [Wayfair] catalog offers an incredible opportunity to deliver a rich, tactile shopping experience to our customers. We send it to high-value target customers, people who have moved to certain neighborhoods—it’s for targeting prospects as well as existing customers.”
Home Furnishings Business’ custom publishing division has had similar success with their hybrid magalogs (magazine/ catalog format) when combined with consumer targeting. According to Bob George, publisher of Home Furnishings Business, and president of Impact Consulting, the parent company of HFB, a documented purchase of over 9% of a retailer’s customers and 4.5% of profiled customers has been achieved with this high quality content rich piece.
We know the consumer is attracted to digital and there are many vendors jumping on the opportunity. The retail experiences can be classified as extended reality (XR), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). Augmented reality in the furniture industry has advanced the furthest.
According to Richard Sexton, chief product officer at MicroD, the focus is AR. “For our industry, let’s settle on AR, since this is the most simplest application and is defined by the mixing of digitized assets and some reflection of reality, such as a customer’s home scene.” Sexton says the biggest challenge right now is the degree of realism not meeting expectations. “You need significant computing power to use high polygon models in a dynamic environment, let’s say, pacing a sofa in a customer’s living room. You can do this on a desktop effectively, but its certainly not mobile, its not dynamic, and its not convenient. You can’t walk around the sofa to see how it looks, but you can generate a high quality rendering of the room scene. If you want to make it a mobile or tablet application, then you sacrifice quality of the image and degree of realism, and end up with a somewhat cartoonish experience due to the low poly count of the models. However, it is dynamic and you don’t need the use of markers to define the room dimensions, this is determined through the application itself.”
While many furniture retailers have announced AR applications over the last year, most have not resonated with the consumer. What does the future hold? Sexton says, “…as computing power continues to escalate and the native AR capabilities continue to evolve with ARKit and arCOre, we will definitely see new apps that better reflect mixed reality, there is no question. Virtual reality will certainly become more meaningful once the hardware is streamlined and the experience less jarring. You can imagine the in-store applications that will evolve with VR.” In the meantime, Sexton says, “hybrid solutions, such as out 2D/3D experience (360 spin with 4k resolution on 2D models) are the ideal gateway experience to bring customers into the 3D world. We will be deploying this platform over the next few months.”
While exciting in concept, neither AR/VR will replace advertising in the short term as a motivator to purchase.