Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
DreamFit VP Encourages Focus on Accessories and Essentials
August 23,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
At a time when foot traffic is down across the industry, many retailers are increasing advertising spends, or rethinking their current mattress assortment, or are cutting costs wherever possible in order to weather the challenging times.
But in a presentation to the attendees at Nationwide’s Prime Time, Chris Taheny, senior vice president of sales at DreamFit®, told the group that instead of these tactics, they should be focused on attaching accessories to the sales they have to drive up average tickets.
According to Taheny, “During difficult times throughout the years many mattress retailers have overlooked their existing accessories program as the means to hold the line or even grow. Mindset is step one. It’s high time that retailers look at sheets, protectors, and pillows not as add-ons, but as necessities that are essential to a good night’s sleep.
In fact, the key to driving business now is to think about your accessories program as one of the top three mattress slots on your floor and treat it as such. This means that you analyze and track your average unit selling price (AUSP) and attachment rate, just as you do on mattress and adjustable bed tickets, and you set KPIs or goals to increase your sales.”
As part of his presentation, Taheny encouraged dealers to begin with a thorough assessment of their current accessories program. For too many retailers, he said, accessories are treated as after-thoughts, with buying decisions frequently made out of convenience (the consolidation of the number of vendors a store buys from) or simply the lowest price.
“Stand back with a critical eye and look at your floor and ask yourself whether you’re currently offering a sleep essentials program that reflects how exciting you want your store to be,” Taheny encouraged the Nationwide attendees.
“We’re talking about a home fashions category that can add color, texture, and theater to a store floor to elevate the overall shopping experience, a category that reduces the risk of comfort exchanges, and offers repeat business with shoppers returning to purchase products again and again.”
“But all this is true only if the products are displayed in ways that attract, engage, and excite your customers. And here’s the thing: Your display not only should excite shoppers; it should also excite your retail sales associates.”
Indeed, the executive noted that best practices among leaders in the category often includes designating a “captain” on their sales teams to distribute training tips, lead skills practice and training drills.
“Just as you do in the mattress category, talk about the sleep essentials category at staff meetings, share performance stats, provide coaching and mention the stats in reviews,” he said. “And certainly, require your vendors to provide program-specific training meetings as part of the services they offer. With high probability, the retailer will treat these products as afterthoughts if they’re buying from a vendor that does the same.”