Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Hooker Launches Consumer-Centric Web Site Design
August 6,
2014 by in Designer Weekly, Industry, Internet 
Hooker Furniture has launched a new state-of-the-art website to communicate its brand story, showcase its products and promote its retailer network.
“We are extremely excited about this new consumer-centric “face” of Hooker Furniture,” said John Albanese, vice president of corporate marketing.
“With 90 percent of consumers now using the Internet during the furniture buying cycle, we believe that this provides a compelling way for consumers get to know our brand and product line and be directed to our dealer network to connect and finalize their purchase. As an innovator in home furnishings, we want to offer a superior online experience for the consumer.”
The website solution provided by MicroD promises to significantly raise the company’s level of engagement with consumers and collaboration with its retail partners through such advanced capabilities as Live Chat, a Room Planner and the ability for consumers to save their product selections to a personalized Wish List that they can share with select retailers.
To design and develop the new website, Hooker partnered with MicroD Incorporated, the global leader in integrated web-based home furnishings merchandising and eCommerce solutions.
“From every perspective, the new Hooker Furniture site raises the bar for all furniture manufacturer websites,” said Manoj Nigam, MicroD CEO and president. “We applaud their vision and industry leadership in directly engaging consumers and integrating their dealers into the process. Working with one of the industry’s true innovators challenged and inspired us to build what we believe is a best in class website. We applaud Hooker Furniture on this outstanding achievement.”
State-of-the art digital technology and design features of the new website include:
• Responsive Web Design. MicroD crafted the new website with the very latest in responsive web design, which provides visitors fast response times plus an optimal navigation experience across all devices including desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. The site instantly “responds” to whatever device the consumer is using, automatically re-sizing and realigning to provide an optimal view of the site on that device.
• An advanced Dealer Locator, which also adapts to screen size, is integrated into the site, mapping out local stores that carry Hooker Furniture products and providing detailed listings, directions and links to the retailer websites.
• The latest in Google Locator technology, which instantly locates the visitor without them having to enter any information, and provides the closest authorized retailers in order of distance.
• An innovative Find it Now tool that empowers visitors to immediately locate specific product selections within the Hooker dealer network.
• Consumer-Centric Navigation that incorporates imagery and photography into drop down menus.
• An integrated Live Chat feature, not commonly found on manufacturers’ websites, that encourages consumers to directly engage Hooker Furniture product experts to get information on products and help in finding dealers.
• MicroD’s Room Planner technology is also available to empower consumers to visualize and confirm the fit of selected items in a simulation of their own rooms.
• A Wish List feature that allows consumers to save their selections to a personalized wish list that they can also share with select dealers. These and other convenient tools on the site serve to not only enhance the shopping experience, but drive more business for Hooker Furniture dealers and shorten the purchasing process.
Hooker also is currently working on the development of similar sites for Sam Moore and Bradington-Young, which will feature product draping as well. They will launch later this year.