Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
November 12,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 13, 2012
Home furnishings retailer Conn's Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) has opened its first HomePlus store in New Mexico.
The store, located in Albuquerque, N.M., employs about 50 people. As one of the retailers new format stores, the location showcases furniture and bedding in addition to leading brands and the latest technology in consumer electronics and home appliances.
"We are pleased to open a Conn's HomePlus location in Albuquerque, which represents our first store in New Mexico," stated Theodore M. Wright, chairman and CEO. "Our in-house credit offering gives consumers affordable and flexible programs to purchase brand name consumer products. We look forward to serving the community by providing exceptional customer service, brand name products and affordable financing programs."
Conn's operates 66 stores with 57 in Texas, six in Louisiana, two in Oklahoma and now one in New Mexico.
November 12,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Store Openings on November 13, 2012
Kittles Home Furnishings will open a new, larger Rooms Express store on the South side of Indianapolis by the end of this year.
The new store will be located in a 35,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Linens and Things at 7565 S. U.S. 31; about three miles north of the Kittles Furniture store in Greenwood, Ind.
Indianapolis-based Kittles Rooms Express divisions motto is: Great Looks, Great Prices, In-Stock, Guaranteed, because it features stylish, affordably priced furniture guaranteed to be available for immediate delivery, or customers receive an additional discount off the sale prices.
Rooms Express is all about making furniture shopping faster and easier," said Kittle's President and CEO Eric Easter. "This new, convenient location will increase Kittles penetration in the Market on the Southside of Indianapolis.
The new Rooms Express store will employ 15 new full-time associates.
Kittles Home Furnishings currently operates 11 stores in Indiana and Ohio.
November 12,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Store Openings on November 13, 2012
Home furnishings retailer West Elm will open a new Indianapolis store on Thursday.
Located in The Fashion Mall at Keystone at 8702 Keystone Crossing, Suite 160, the new store will be the first West Elm in Indiana. Through a partnership with Etsy, the store will feature a locally made collection of decorative accessories from artists in the Indianapolis area.
A portion of the proceeds on opening day will go directly to The Harrison Center for the Arts, an Indianapolis-based non-profit organization supporting renewal in the city by fostering awareness, appreciation and community for arts and culture. Additionally, the first 200 customers on opening day will receive a free West Elm Indianapolis reusable tote bag.
"We are thrilled to open the first West Elm in Indiana," said Laura Alber, president and CEO of West Elm parent company Williams-Sonoma. "Our catalog and online customers from Indianapolis have been asking for a store in their area, and we're excited to open in a great location just in time for holiday shopping."
"The store at The Fashion Mall at Keystone is our 8th new West Elm store this year, and caps a strong year of growth for the West Elm brand," said Jim Brett, president of West Elm. "Equally as important, we've made strong local connections with organizations supporting the arts and the environment at all of our openings. We're excited to continue this in Indianapolis with The Harrison Center for the Arts, an organization that shares the same views as West Elm on the importance of supporting local art in the community."
West Elm's signature mix of globally inspired furniture, home decor and seasonally updated collaborations, including holiday trim from ConfettiSystem and bedding from Allegra Hicks, will be available at the Indianapolis store. A wide selection of gifts in shops inspired by open-air holiday fairs includes a collection of Charity Mugs that donate to organizations including ASPCA, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Oceana.
November 12,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Internet on November 13, 2012
New mobile tools from home furnishings retail buying consortium MEGA Group USA aim to help members compete in mobile commerce space.
The move seeks to engage the 85.9 million consumers using their mobile devices to research their purchases--four out of every five smartphone users, according to Comscore research.
New technology trends, like mobile shopping, are one area our members need help with," said Rick Bellows, president of MEGA Group USA, Germantown, Tenn. "We are dedicated to providing members the best programs and tools that are easy to utilize and succeed with
Every member gets a Basic MEGA WebFront Web site paid entirely by the group for one year, which provides a starting Web presence, and now also includes a mobile-specific site with no additional work or cost. Customers accessing the site from a mobile device are taken to the mobile-specific version that is designed to load fast and make it easy to get directions or call the store. Large buttons designed for use on a small touch screen make it easy to view any product featured on the members regular WebFront site.
Members that upgraded to the more robust Premium Plus MEGA WebFronts program also received alternate mobile-specific sites earlier this year at no additional cost, featuring all the thousands of products their regular WebFronts contain and updates automatically. Both the traditional and mobile sites are seamlessly linked to save retailers time and effort.
The new MEGA RetailDeck app goes a step further: Its use helps retailers improve the efficiency and customer experience while in their stores. This web app works on all Internet-enabled devices and is specially optimized for tablet use. Staff members can access full product information, pricing guides, rebates and more for more than 400,000 items from anywhere in the store, on the road or in customers homes. MEGA RetailDeck also effortlessly makes price tags that contain automated QR codes so sales staff or customers can scan the QR code with their mobile devices to pull up more information about the product on the stores own WebFront Web site in seconds.
MEGA WebFronts and MEGA RetailDeck make us more competitive, efficient and most of all, more professional in the eyes of our customers said Jesse Johnson of Rich TV & Home Center in Portsmouth, Ohio.
MEGA Group USA is a national home furnishings buying organization with retail members in the furniture, electronic, appliance and mattress industries. MEGA Group USA has 1,600 retail members in 3,000 store fronts throughout the United States.
November 12,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 13, 2012
Bedding company Spring Air hosted its third international summit in Indonesia in a forum designed for the company's international licensees to share best practices.
Held in Jakarta, Indonesia, and hosted by the Massie family, owners of Spring Air-Indonesia, the summit attracted licensees from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, China, Singapore, India, Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The agenda included a tour of the factory in Jakarta, presentations and updates by the licensees and suppliers in attendance. An open session designed to gather feedback and address needs and questions was also part of the four-day program.
"Our international licensees are a very cohesive group, keenly focused on learning from one another and growing the Spring Air brand in their respective countries," said Eric Spitzer, Spring Air COO. "Being primarily vertical in structure, they pour their own foam and make their own innerspring products. This enables them to be aggressive in their markets while keeping a close watch on quality."
Rick Robinson, president, said the majority of Spring Air companies overseas "are also making a substantial investment in building brand awareness every year. Many are either establishing Spring Air-only stores in their markets or are planning to increase the number of single-source outlets they operate in the future."