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From Home Furnishing Business

Fusion Designs Helps Walker Furniture with Made in America Designs

February 23, 2025  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

According to John Proffitt, managing director of the family-owned, 13-store chain spread throughout smaller markets across Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Northern Idaho, despite the many challenges at retail in the past year, focusing on higher-end product, like American-made solid wood bedroom and dining from Fusion Designs is helping to drive sales and generate significant revenue per square foot. 

“Since 1980, we have been appealing to middle-market consumers, and our shoppers continue to respond to our long-employed strategy of providing the best value to our customers, with a motto ‘where quality just costs less.’ While that continues to be the case, higher-end products, those at the top end of our portfolio, performed incredibly well this past year,” Profitt said.

“We attribute that to a sales strategy tailored to our customer’s needs—inviting them to private one-day events where they (and our salespeople) have more time to work together to design custom furniture, a category where Fusion Designs really excels. It’s a different mindset, because it takes time to move a customer through the wood and finish they want and requires good training to ensure all the details are ordered properly, but the salespeople are getting a little addicted to seeing those tickets. That boosts their confidence and has boosted our sales and profitability.”

Another key to the line’s success at Walker’s Furniture lay in finding the right mix of products to appeal to its customer base, which skews largely traditional in style preferences.

Displaying the product front and center helped.

“We don’t mix our better-end, solid wood Amish crafted offerings in with other bedroom and dining,” Proffitt said. “Instead, we separate the product in a 500-square-foot area right up at the front of the store to call attention to it when customers first walk in—emphasizing the high quality, craftsmanship and custom capabilities. We found that if you immediately set the bar high and show the top-of-the-line product first, you have more success selling it because the customer perceives it as special.

“We work very closely with Fusion Designs on identifying the top sellers, because at 25,000 to 30,000-square-feet on average, our floorspace is limited,” he continued. “We didn’t think this was our customer at first, but now it’s clear that with the right product, we’re attracting these customers for sure.”