Customers are more likely to buy from furniture stores that employ a design team.

The year is 1985, and Nancy Thomas enters a local furniture store in search for a couple of lamps for her living room. She knows that she needs lighting, and just about anything, in good taste, will work. Soon after arriving, she finds a couple of antique brass lamps with ivory silk shades, and the lamps accept a three-way bulb. Not only that, a small blue cording that adorns the shade will match with the blue plaid sofa that was purchased a couple of days earlier.

Why did Nancy select blue plaid? Because the pattern won’t show dirt, and both Nancy and her husband like the color. No accessories are needed. On the end tables, along with the new lamps, Nancy places the ashtray that was a wedding present and a couple of magazines. Decorating complete. What more could one ask for?

The shopping concept to furnish a new home in 1985 included furniture with the correct size perception and a color that was popular at the time. Of course, perceived comfort was also very important.

Let’s advance forward to 2007. Nancy’s daughter Caitlin is shopping for home furnishings for her new home. Caitlin goes from store to store to find just the right look. This is not an easy task. Why won’t she just settle for the color of the day and perceived comfort? You see, Caitlin has been watching too much TV. If it isn’t a home remodeling show, it is an inspiration-based redecoration show. During almost every hour of the day, Caitlin can tune into a home design show on various cable channels and watch one of these programs.

These shows were not available to Nancy so she just used her own good common sense. With all of the beautiful concepts and styles that flood Caitlin’s head, she becomes clueless as to the right road to choose to perfectly design her own home.  

Some think that these home design shows can improve sales because they promote purchasing new furniture. However, these shows tend to leave homeowners more confused because they don’t know what to buy. Caitlin may end up buy a lamp, after searching for about a month, but somehow, this lamp still doesn’t do what she had anticipated. In fact, Caitlin may return the lamp and just give up. As furniture store owners, how do we help Caitlin?

More Than Furniture
Every furniture store needs to become a home furnishings store. There is more to the home furnishings concept than sofas, tables and lamps. Every furniture store now has to include decorative throw pillows (not the ones provided by the sofa manufacturer), decorative boxes, vases, bowls, candleholders and figurines.

A home furnishings store can never have too many accessories to enhance the large furniture pieces. Is this all way too confusing to Caitlin? You bet. Every home furnishings store must hire interior designers to move furniture and accessories into the home.

When Caitlin is confused about whether the lamp will work, she should be approached by an interior designer who will offer to come to the home and assess what is necessary to make her home as beautifully designed as those seen on TV. The designer has the expertise to bring the perfect furniture and accessory pieces into the home to create beauty that exemplifies the personality of the client’s home.

Caitlin will probably appreciate the personal attention given by the home furnishings store, which will result in greater sales. In fact, Caitlin is likely to go beyond the $250 lamp she originally planned to purchase and instead decide on $4,000 worth of accessories and small decorative tables that the designer brought to her home and arranged perfectly.

Caitlin is now thrilled that her home looks like the homes she saw on TV. Caitlin is also thrilled with the purchase of her new sofa and love seat because the designer brought samples of a few fabrics and helped her select the best pattern. Caitlin isn’t the only one who is thrilled. Most people want this kind of service.

Times are changing, store owners. Why are so many stores going out of business? Yes, the economy may have something to do with it, but some people still need to purchase furniture and accessories. They might as well buy their furniture from your store, and having a design team on staff will make them more likely to do so.  

Advice for Designers
In addition to working with retailers, independent interior designers can also increase their income by investing in warehouse space to purchase the amount of accessories needed to meet minimums. This does take a considerable investment, but the profits are huge compared to the pricing charged by the showrooms.

It appears that many designers are clueless as to the amount of mark-ups given by the designer showrooms. Don’t give up on the showrooms, however. For custom-made furniture with that truly unique look for the discerning client, the showroom has that market all wrapped up.      

The designer can save time, money and energy by warehousing his or her own accessories and small furniture. If this just isn’t possible, all designers should align themselves with the furniture store that exemplifies their personality and work out some kind of buying agreement with the store.

Advice for Retailers
Yes, I know, some stores just won’t give discounts to designers, and this is a bad practice. Every furniture store needs to move product because flooring is so expensive. Not only that, the worst enemy of the retailer is a stale-looking floor. It is important for retailers to move products out and replace them with new styles. Working with designers can help move the products out the door.

Designers have the intrinsic ability to place many accessories at one time. If retailers are willing give the designers a big enough discount to make it beneficial to them, the floor space will clear. A 30 percent discount off the retail price is quite doable for most retailers.

Moving Forward
Times will always change, and we need to keep up with the change. We are all being stabbed in the back by the Internet discounters. This can only be combated by professional service. Give the client what they can’t get from a computer and hire a designer. It is of the utmost importance, especially now, to give the client expert services.

Designers: Warehouse your furnishings or align yourselves with a forward-thinking, designer-oriented home furnishing store. What have you got to lose?

Judith Clark, FIFDA, CID, is the international president of the International Furnishings and Design Association. She is also the owner of Design Elements, a home furnishings store in Danville, Calif. For more information, call 925-837-5839 or visit www.judithclark.com.