Underhill Highlights Furniture’s Missed Opportunities

August 28, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on August 2007 Author and researcher Paco Underhill challenged furniture executives to step away from their computer screens and put on some rubber-soled shoes to spend more time in their own stores—and at competing retailers—to seek ways to fine-tune their operations for the 21st Century. Underhill, the author of “Why We Buy,” was the keynote speaker at the Future of Furniture forum at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C., which attracted a crowd of more than 300 executives for a program titled “High Definition Retailing.”

Underhill gained fame for research in which his firm, Envirosell, tracks shoppers through store surveillance cameras to gain insights on consumer behavior. Envirosell’s client base includes about half of the world’s 50 largest retailers, many of which use Underhill’s research to test new store concepts. At the forum presented by The Furniture Foundation, Home Furnishings Business and Lenoir-Rhyne’s Charles M. Snipes School of Business, Underhill said today’s furniture retailers need to realize that they’re no longer just competing against other home furnishings chains.

“If you’re in the furniture business, I want you to go out looking at (retailers) who are pitching the same market,” he said. “I could buy a new living room set or I could buy a new (Harley-Davidson). I could buy a new dining room or I could take the wife and kids on a fantastic vacation.”

Underhill said retailers need to update their selling techniques to appeal to today’s consumers, pointing out that just a quarter of U.S. households are made up of a husband and wife with children. He said retailers who aren’t equipped to serve non-English speakers are missing a key opportunity, as are stores that don’t reach out to older Americans since nearly one-fifth of the population is over 60.

At the close of the speech, he said the most successful furniture retailers will be those who made the effort to understand the changing needs of customers. In addition, he said progressive merchants that provide “good store” are constantly tuning the physical store, products and point-of-purchase information.

Finally, taking off a shoe and holding it above his head, he said, “I believe in rubber-soled shoes. In the 20th century, many of us fell in love with our Excel spreadsheets. We started making decisions staring into our computer screens,” he said. Reflecting on his work in testing new store concepts, he said, “I’ve watched the best of prototypes fail for the stupidest of reasons: No one got out there on the floor” to properly evaluate them. “If you’re operating (stores) and you’re spending every weekend on the golf course, you’re not doing your business or your customer justice. The only way we as merchants can operate effectively is by having some connection to the floors.”

The Future of Forum also included a panel discussion with top industry executives who included Robb & Stucky’s Clive Lubner and Thomasville’s Nancy Webster. Home Furnishings Business will report on that wide-ranging discussion Thursday.