Dazzling Displays Delight Customers

April 30, 2006  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Display on May 2006 Cherry House has built its reputation and business on great presentation that runs from the rugs on the floors to the custom-designed floral designs atop the case pieces.

The Louisville, Ky.-based retailer uses a complete lifestyle approach to display, but according to Leslie Whitehouse, executive vice president of sales and merchandising, “it’s the romance of the product that makes it sell.”

The 30,000-square-foot store features a terra cotta roof where a display of Stanley Furniture’s Chanticleer collection is shown. For the Martha Stewart Signature collection from Bernhardt, Cherry House created the look of a home’s exterior.

“We want our customers to feel as if they are in that environment—to show them how it feels and how it looks,” Whitehouse said. “We’re telling them that this is the look we’re creating and that they can have it at home, too.”

Whitehouse said the connection between sales and display is undeniable.

“Good display communicates,” she said. “Women understand that. We try to make everyone get a warm and fuzzy feeling just by looking at a room group. They may not like it, but we want to appeal to the sense that it’s put together well.”

In a store like Cherry House, Whitehouse said it definitely works better to show product as it could appear in a home.

“Women understand that approach, and they understand it a lot more,” she said. “It is a bit of a struggle because the customer has less time for shopping today. There’s no time and that’s the reality that more and more women work outside the home.

“As retailers, it’s our job to come up with creative ways to make the shopping experience better, and to show her how to create a great home,” Whitehouse said.





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Strong visual display that inspires consumers and connects with them tend to pay off in huge dividends, and retailers can almost certainly see real results in sales figures.

Retailers, like Cherry House, that make the extra effort to put together consumer-stopping displays are true believers and said they can’t imagine just simply lining up sofas like soldiers.

Even in small stores, a smart, creative approach to merchandising and display makes a huge difference in consumer response.

Jodi Lyons, co-owner of two-store Bugaboo Moosetracks in Mason, Ohio, reaps the rewards of a well-merchandised floor on nearly a daily basis. The two stores are 1,500 square feet and 4,800 square feet, but both feature completely merchandised floors.

“Absolutely I see a connection between compelling display and the sales that we generate,” she said. “I don’t just plop furniture on the floor. I think the consumer looks at the piece and what’s around it to see how it could work in their home. Instead of just seeing a sofa and a chair, they can envision an entire environment.”

Lyons said she is extremely conscious about putting together vignettes on the floor to encourage consumers to buy. “Furniture sells because of how it looks, not just because of one piece,” she said.

Lyons’ stores are upscale, specialty stores with a European and French Country feel. The stores are warm and feature reclaimed bricks and timbers on the walls and hardwood floors.

Bugaboo floors a lot of wood, a lot of leather and a variety of Peruvian pieces. “It’s very rustic,” Lyons said.

The centerpiece of Bugaboo’s larger store is a dramatic, two-sided stone fireplace that serves as the focal point for two different displays. Lyons said the side that is most visible features a leather-fabric combination sectional from Vanguard Furniture that sells for $12,000. Lyons said the store sells about one a month, usually as it’s shown on the floor.

Another advantage Lyons sees from creative, compelling display is the ability to upsell the consumer. “When you sell a sofa, chair or a table, you always want to try to sell additional items,” she said. “Putting the vignettes together with coordinating pieces and accessories helps us sell additional pieces. It’s easier to convince the consumer to buy if they see it together.”





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Experts in design agree with Lyons and Whitehouse that dynamic display can net sales.

Regenia Payne, creative director at Vanguard Furniture, suggests retailers start with a concept and an overall vision for the space to give it the feel there was a plan.

“You have to set the stage when the consumer walks in the door,” Payne said. “You have to have the wow factor. Sometimes it’s good to step out in style for impact. It’s the jewelry type setting that can have big impact.”

Payne pointed out that consumers’ lives are full of stimulation and entertainment, and the furniture experience needs to keep pace to hold consumer attention.

“We’re so bombarded with images and constant entertainment that we have to be force fed because of the constant images of how to dress, what to drive and where to vacation,” she said. “Retailers need to have the visual impact when they step across the threshold.”

Connie Post, founder and chief executive officer of Connie Post Cos., said throughout the industry she sees “apathy, complacency and lack of devotion to display” that leaves consumers uninspired in the their furniture shopping.

Retailers, she said, seem to forget that consumers are attracted to the latest and greatest, and not the same old things they see time and time again.

“The new things are always the things that catch my eye,” she said. “That may not be what I buy, but it definitely works to get my attention.”

In addition to ensuring the store floor is appealing, Post emphasizes that the front of the store needs to be nearly breathtaking to encourage the consumer to continue shopping.

“The first 1,500 to 3,000 square feet of a store is the most valuable space and should be constantly changing,” Post said, adding that it takes most women less than 10 seconds to size up a store, decide if it connects with who she is and whether or not to continue the hunt.

Making that change, she said, is as easy as a bucket of paint.

At Cherry House, the store floor is in constant motion, Whitehouse said, adding that the something in the store is always being painted and the front of the store is repainted about every six months to every year.

Like Cherry House, Bugaboo pays a lot of attention to the front of its stores—both inside and out, Lyons said. “Our plan was to get the customers through the door,” she said.

Outside there are two huge bronze Elk planters and an old, rustic theme that coordinates with the interior front display of leather sofa, leather-fabric combination chairs and an impressive table. “The front of our store really gets people when they first see it,” Lyons said. HFB