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From Home Furnishing Business

Record Turnout at MEGA Group USA Convention

September 3, 2014  by in Furniture Retailing, Industry   

“We always have great attendance in Nashville, but this year we set records, with more dealers attending than ever before,” said Rick Bellows, president of MEGA Group USA. The convention was held at the new Music City Center--a 2-million-square-foot convention center.

“I’ve been a MEGA member for ten years,” said Roger Pickett, president of mattress retailer Murmaid Corp. “This is the first time I’ve participated in all of the different presentations. They’re certainly worth the while, and I’ll be doing it again next year.”

Convention highlights included Mattress University.

“We covered sales training, digital marketing, retail operations, and best practices relating to the mattress industry,” said Jerry Honea, executive vice president of MEGA Group USA. “With the mattress industry changing in recent years, it’s important that dealers understand how best to reach their customers.”

“Our appliance partners showed up ready to provide MEGA Members great deals on fall merchandise specials, but more than that, a tremendous amount of much needed information and sales training about their product to insure profitable sell-through,” said MEGA Vice President Appliances & Outdoor Products Missy Hodges.

Seminars focused on a variety of topics including “Millennials and Retail,” a presentation that keyed in on the impact millennials will have on the retail industry in the years to come.

“We all need to connect with and understand the millennial generation in order to better prepare ourselves for the future,” says Jim Sendrak, Mega Group USA's vice president of marketing.

MEGA Group USA also rolled out its new MEGA Marketing initiative, offering new services including a digital marketing program. As an early advocate of Web marketing MEGA Group, has promoted the use of Web sites, pay-per-click, banner ads, retargeting, e-mail and social media to its members. 

“The new MEGA Marketing division takes all of this and combines its utilization along with viable traditional advertising to produce a balanced approach to our members’ marketing needs," said Sendrak.

Also part of MEGA Marketing is an in-store digital resource called Digital Studios, which allows members to feature promotional messages throughout their store via large LCD TVs and portable tablets. Members can customize content and choose from thousands of vendor provided informational videos as well as creating their own custom promotional videos. 

Also, MEGA Group USA took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from one of its dealers and together jointly raised $25,000 for ALS. The challenge was performed on the Show Floor in the Whirlpool booth and vendors from all industries contributed to the total. Several on the MEGA staff represented the company in the ice bucket challenge for ALS and were drenched for the cause.

MEGA Group USA's next convention stop will be San Antonio, Texas, Feb. 15-18.

MEGA Group USA is a national home furnishings buying organization in the country with retail members in the furniture, electronic, appliance, mattress, outdoor and seasonal industries. It has more than 1,700 retail members in 2,500 store fronts throughout the United States.