FurnitureDealer.net "Boot Camp" Draws Retailers, Vendors

May 16, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Internet on May 17, 2011

Internet services vendor FurnitureDealer.net held its first "Internet marketing boot camp" before the recent Home Furnishings Industry Conference in San Antonio.

"Over 20 of our retail partners came in two days early to attend our boot camp," said Andy Bernstein, president and founder of Minneapolis-based FurnitureDealer.net. "Our goal in getting these industry leaders and pioneers together was to discuss and share the emerging strategies and tactics necessary to compete in the internet based universe."
 
The event drew retailers with annual sales ranging from $5 million to more than $100 million. The "boot camp" primarily focused on online merchandising, marketing and sales strategies. The discussions centered on how retailers must focus their Internet strategy and tools to engage, inform and motivate today's "wired" customer, with the ultimate goal of creating a transaction at the local store level.

"It's not just a Website anymore; it's a focused integrated online strategy whose end result is to create more dialogue with the consumer, leads and sales for our local brick and mortar retailers," Bernstein said.
 
"The participation level was awesome," said Dan Kennedy of Belfort Furniture, Dulles, Va. "Having a diverse group of successful retailers sharing strategies and success stories was extremely beneficial to all who participated. We plan to use much of what we learned in our 2011-2012 marketing initiatives."
 
"From a supplier level, I learned so much as it pertains to what we need to improve upon so that our retail partners can do more business," said Larry Furinani, vice president of dealer relations for Coaster Co. "As a supplier we must be proactive with our retailers' Internet strategies and supply them with the resources they need to help them grow their business base. I learned a great deal over the two-day conference which will definitely help Coaster to improve with our go to market strategy."

Mike Herschel, executive director of Furniture Marketing Group, agreed.

"Today's retailers must become more focused with their Web-based internet strategy," he said. "The merchandising, product content and the consumer analytics that FurnitureDealer.net integrates into their strategic Web platforms helps our retailers become smarter, more efficient and more profitable. We had several FMG members that attended this conference, and I can say all who attended derived a great deal of insights as to how to utilize all these tools to enhance their marketing strategies."

"Having a Website is not enough anymore. It has to be a full blown internet marketing
plan," said Ira Baer from south Florida retailer Baer's Furniture. "We've had an extremely successful Web site with Furniture Dealer.net for many years. This boot camp further explained and educated us on all of the tools FurnitureDealer.net makes available to us to execute a Web-based marketing strategy more efficiently and cost-effectively than I previously realized."
 
Bernstein said this was the "the first of many strategic sessions we'll hold with our retail partners. The discussions were very interactive and intensive. We came away from this session with a lot more knowledge than we did going into it that will help us continually =improve our services, marketing tools, web based strategies and more. We are already making some great enhancements based off what we learned. After all that is what a partnership is all about ... sharing great ideas and helping each others business to be great."