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April 25,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Display on April 26, 2012
Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea's Portland, Ore., store has completed a redesign of its "Accessories Marketplace."
This redesign updated the merchandising platform in departments such as cookware, bedding, lighting, home organization and textiles to ensure customers are inspired by the most current display layouts and standards, unique to Ikea stores. The store remained open and operational during the design and implementation of this redesign.
Ikea Portland will mark the official completion and reopening of the newly updated Marketplace this weekend with a celebration that includes special 3-day-only product offers, free blue bags for the first 500 visitors each day and a free prize drawing for a $500 Ikea Gift Card. In addition, on Saturday at 1 p.m., the Ikea Portland design team will be holding a free Insider Ideas Seminar on refreshing your home with textiles.
"After several months of hard work, we are thrilled to fully reopen our Marketplace section to customers," said IKEA Portland store manager Alessandra Zini. "They now will find more inspiring, updated displays, new products, a redesigned layout and an even better shopping experience."
For nearly three months, this IKEA store underwent a phased transformation of the store's entire marketplace level (downstairs), requiring department closures, relocated displays, temporary detours, and a reduced product selection. As part of this effort, 100 percent of the marketplace displays, product bins, shelving and merchandise communications were revamped. The initiative also re-shaped the flow of the marketplace and enhanced the customer path to feature new vignette areas and to highlight the increased exposure customers now will have to many of their favorite products available throughout the various accessory departments.
IKEA aimed to minimize any disruption or inconvenience to customers during the renovation process.
"We recognize this project may have required flexibility, patience and understanding by our customers, but we are confident the result will be worth it to visitors looking for home furnishing accessories," Zini said.
April 25,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on April 26, 2012
Buying group Furniture First hosted its general membership and annual meeting at the recent High Point Market and renewed the terms of its board or directors.
Officers continuing their roles on the board of directors through April 2013 include Nick Cardi of Cardi's Furniture, located in Swansea, Mass.; Larry Schneiderman of Schneiderman's, located in Lakeville, Minn.; Art Scholet of Scholet Furniture, located in Oneonta, N.Y.; Jeff Winter of Discovery Furniture, located in Topeka, Kan.
Officers continuing their roles on the board of directors include Larry Smith of Smith Home Furnishings, located in Ponca City, Okla., as the chairman; Mike Kordik of Mike's Furniture, located in Joliet, Ill., as the vice chairman; Beth Barnes of FurnitureLand, located in Delmar, Del., as treasurer; and Russell Blocker of Blocker's Furniture, located in Ocala, Fla., as secretary.
Returning to the board of directors is Steve Kloss, owner of The Tin Shed in Highland, Ill. Kloss, who was among the small group of retailers that founded the cooperative buying group in 1994, will be serving his second term on the board.
Riley Griffiths, owner of Riley's Furniture Gallery in Monroe, Ohio, retired from the board. Griffiths was given a plaque recognizing his contributions to the group during his six-year tenure on the board.
April 25,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on April 26, 2012
City of Hope has been at the forefront of researching treatments for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases for nearly 100 years. One of the world's top cancer research hospitals, City of Hope has treated thousands of patients, including many from the home furnishings industry. Not all of them tell their stories publicly, but a member of the West Coast Golf and Tennis Tournament Committee has become a spokesperson for City of Hope and a passionate supporter.
Craig Staack is a 30-year veteran of our industry and is currently vice president of leasing at the World Market Center in Las Vegas. He has built a reputation as a successful businessman, a hard worker with high ethical standards, and a problem-solver. But Staack would be the first to admit his doctor's diagnosis of prostate cancer in August, 2010 was one problem that seemed to defy an easy solution.
"After overcoming the initial emotional turmoil that accompanies any cancer diagnosis, I spent days researching, networking in the medical community and speaking with other cancer survivors," Staack said. "I coped by staying busy and learning as much as I could about the various treatment options."
His research led him to the decision that surgery was the proper treatment plan for his type of cancer, and when City of Hope kept appearing in his research of qualified facilities, Staack referred himself, was accepted as a patient and then met with the doctor he requested.
"In making the decision to use City of Hope for my treatment also very important was the fact that City of Hope was the leader in the field of robotic-assisted, minimally-invasive surgeries, utilizing the state-of-the-art Da Vinci Robot," Staack said. "My doctor had actually trained numerous other physicians on the use of the Da Vinci for surgery."
The outcome of his surgery was successful, and as a cancer survivor now enjoying excellent health, he further extols the merits of City of Hope.
"When you think of hospitals, 'customer service' usually doesn't come to mind, but I can tell you firsthand that at City of Hope it is ALL about the customer-the patient," he said. "I always felt like a person and not once like a number."
Everyone's lives are touched by cancer, diabetes and other diseases that are at the core of City of Hope's research efforts. Staack's status as cancer free should give his peers throughout the industry cause to support City of Hope.
The National Home Furnishings Industry chapter will once again host its annual West Coast Golf and Tennis Tournament to raise money for City of Hope. Set for Monday, June 4 at the Coto de Caza Golf and Racquet Club in Orange County, California, the event will honor the Levitz family.
To register for golf, tennis or dinner and be part of the West Coast's premier industry event, contact Yolanda Guerrero at 213-241-7168 or e-mail her.
April 25,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on April 26, 2012
Innovations International and Snibbe Interactive have partnered to co-develop consumer interactive sales solutions for rug retailers.
Interactive solutions include Snibbe's SocialTouch platform, an touch table that takes a consumer on a visual journey to select the ideal rug from a large retail collection. In tandem to the table, SocialFloor projection technology can be used to view selected area rugs in high resolution and on various types of flooring or surfaces.
Consumers can also explore a virtual room experience that can be customized specific to detailed criteria of client's needs helping consumers imagine the ideal rug in a designed space.
Innovations International and Snibbe Interactive are collectively developing the sales solutions because consumers want a more interactive and immersive sales experience in a retail space. Having become accustomed to interactive apps on mobile devices, consumers are prepared to be engaged in the sales process in a retailer's space.
Innovations International will power the new sales solutions with its eCatalog engine, which has aggregated more than 30 major area rug vendors and more than 125,000 area rug SKUs into a single retailer management solution. The application is SaaS (software as a service) for retailers who leverage eCatalog to keep up to date with vendor collections, pricing and who use the system to sell more area rugs from a virtual inventory.
April 24,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Aggregated Content in Business Strategy on April 25, 2012
from https://newsdesk4.moreover.com/click/?p=Qy82MzYxOTU0NjU5Jm49TkFQQ08&a=NjM2MTk1NDY1OQ&f=TmV3cw&s=cmljaHhtbA&u=YWNyZW5zaGF3QG5hcGNvLmNvbQ&c=TkFQQ08&i=MA&e=QUwuY29t&d=1989&t=1
A regional distribution center for Turner's Ashley Furniture HomeStores will open June 1 in Loxley, Ala., company officials said.
The new facility will service the Turner-owned Ashley Furniture HomeStores in Alabama and Florida.
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