Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Furniture First Utilizes Tools 2B First Data to Share Sales Insights with Members
May 4,
2020 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
National furniture and mattress buying group Furniture First, through a partnership with Tools 2B First, is providing real-time data to its members regarding key metrics for sales made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data tracks the exact percentage change of sales and foot traffic since the President’s March 13, 2020 National Emergency Declaration. This information is extrapolated from the data of Furniture First Members who are open or have been operating, but without regular foot traffic while under closure orders, and are using the exclusive Furniture First version of the advanced analytics program.
While under closure orders, many Furniture First Members have moved to appointment-only selling strategies to take care of their customers. The numbers show the start of a recovery of sales in the last two weeks.
“Every retailer wants to know what other retailers are doing,” said Amanda Daubert, director of services for Furniture First. “Our affiliation with Tools 2B First takes the guessing out of what our members are going through.”
Daubert went on to say that the data provided some pleasant surprises regarding margin and average sale, which reinforced the notion that even if a retailer was under a closure order, they were still making substantial sales numbers.
Other areas of focus in the data were key channels that have been the source of most of the recent sales, including web traffic, Facebook and social media promotions. In a webinar demo for users last week, the Tools 2B First team showed how their system helps retailers identify aging inventory that should be reduced for quick sale as businesses begin to open back up.
Furniture First is excited to be able to share this information with its membership so they can gauge their success at reopening relative to the benchmark report. “This will help our members to know what is working, and what other members are focusing on,” said Furniture First CEO Andrew Kauffman.
Furniture First continues to hold Town Hall calls for members, during which they discuss plans for reopening, marketing strategies and steps they are taking to help their customers feel safe in the store.
Tools 2B First was developed by Jamie and Jeff Winters, owners of Furniture Mall of Kansas. The store has been a member of Furniture First since 1999 and Jeff Winter served as Chairman of the buying group’s Board of Directors from 2009 to 2010.