Year-End Clearance
Clever Retailing Ideas on Special
By Lisa Casinger -- Home Accents Today, 12/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
Giving thanks
Before I jump into all the retail tidbits I have to share, I want to thank our Retail Advisory Board 2004 for all their efforts in answering my never-ending questions and giving me story ideas. And I want to thank them for their time; these people are just like you, hard-working retailers who bust their buns on a regular basis to have fabulous stores. Thanks to John Clements and Bill Fortson, BJ's Home Accents; Ashton and Dave Harrison, Shades of Light; Margaret Cohen, Elegant Clutter; Bo Huge-Jensen, Bowhe & Peare; Chrysteen Braun, Designing Whims; Thompson Lange, Homescapes, Carmel; Jan Hedrick, Jordan's Furniture; Lynni Megginson, L&M Designs; Lyn McNeil, Marshall Field's; Anna Maas, Robb & Stucky; and Carla Greenblatt, Havertys.
Like many of you, they've had a busy year with seemingly no end in sight as we head into the holidays. Lynni took time from her schedule this year to write several columns for us, Anna is getting ready for four Robb & Stucky store openings in the coming months, Jan just came off a Jordan's store opening and Carla also has been busy with Havertys' openings. Based on conversations with our board and other retailers this year, it's been much better than 2003.
Store stuff
Provencal Home, Austin, Texas, celebrated its 10th anniversary this fall with a customer appreciation party. More than 250 guests attended and one lucky couple won a $5,000 gift certificate. That's one great big Thank You!
Provencal Home is 9,000 square feet of French and French-influenced furnishings and accessories for the home that owners Sue and Don Norris describe as a place where "the South of France and the Texas hill country come together." The store carries everything from linens, beds, tables and clocks to furniture, lotions, bath accessories and more.
Zeba, Indian manufacturer of coordinated home textiles and fashion accessories, opened its first retail store in Manhattan's SoHo area with a gala event in October under the watchful eye of design director Krsna Mehta. The 6,500-sq.-ft. store is two floors with the first floor featuring Zeba merchandise like bedding, table linens, pillows and throws, dhurries, kilims and more and the second floor featuring a design studio with a full-fledged salon for the art community set to open in the spring. Mehta's designs are featured throughout.
Weeks before the opening, Zeba staged groups of students from New York Institute's Fashion Business Association at key commuter locations to promote the event. The night of the event, the students clad in "exotic chic" garb carried Zeba signature umbrellas to generate excitement and handed out promotional cards offering one-time purchase discounts. The store contributed 10% of gross sales for the opening weekend to Children's Hope (India).
Washington, D.C.'s tony Georgetown has created a 25-page home furnishings shopping guide with a map highlighting 50 stores just in time for the holiday shopping season. The complimentary resource directory gives shoppers an alpha listing of merchants from Adlon to Waterworks, along with a description of each store's specialty.
"Georgetown is the new center of design in the nation's capital and we decided it was time to give the public a comprehensive directory showcasing what is currently available to them within a 10-block radius," said Ken Gray, the executive director of the Georgetown Partnership.
Bloomington, Minn., recently got a new furniture store, Start to Furnish, based on the tag line "Designed By You, Signed By You." The store, owned and operated by Schneiderman's Furniture, one of Minnesota's largest furniture retailers, enables customers to custom design their own upholstered Flexsteel furniture piece that comes with an attached tag "Custom Designed By" with the customer's name. The piece is ready in 6–8 weeks.
During the grand opening weekend in October, the store joined forces with local school groups to raise funds for public school programs. The "Take a Seat for Your School" event had the store donating funds to those school groups who took shifts sitting on and performing around a couch located in the store parking lot. The weekend also featured a book signing by Christopher Lowell, Flexsteel spokesman and Emmy-award winning TV host of his eponymous show.
Miscellaneous
I subscribe to a lot of e-newsletters, one of which is Quick Bites from Sam Geist, (www.samgeist.com). Quick Bites is just that, snippets of thought-provoking information on just about anything business- or trend-related. These follow no particular rhyme or reason, and are not necessarily focused on retail, but they're interesting and may just plant a seed that turns into a great idea for you.
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Marketers have good reason to look at Boomer women, a demographic they have been ignoring. The 40+ age group is now 45% bigger than the 18–39 group; by 2010 they will be 60% bigger; Boomers control more than 50% of the nation's discretionary income; Boomers control more than 75% of the nation's financial wealth; by 2010 spending by people 40+ will be a trillion dollars greater than spending by people 18–34. — Mature Marketing & Research
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Replacing an employee costs about 1.5 times a year's salary. — Watson Wyatt Worldwide study
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Seniors are surfing the Web in ever-increasing numbers. (Do you have an ecommerce or at least informational Web site? If not, you should.) Online seniors estimated at 7.6 million in 2003 are expected to reach 16.3 million by 2007; 95% use email; 66% do product research; online buyers (age 50+) will account for almost 25% of online retail spending by 2007. — U.S. Bureau of the Census, National Center for Health Statistics and Jupiter Research.
Lisa Casinger, Retail Editor
Left photo, Zeba generated buzz with students carrying signature umbrellas during the grand opening; Design director Krsna Mehta, right photo, with a sampling of the company's exotic textiles.
Mary Kane, left, operations manager, Don and Sue Norris, Provencal Home owners with the store manager David Davis celebrate a decade in business.
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