Furniture Expertise - Your Competitive Advantage

Competition from mass merchants is leaving traditional retail furniture store owners asking themselves how they can compete. The good news is that you can compete successfully if you focus on the right things. First you have to understand what advantages you have over the competition and those they have over you.

The mass merchant's primary advantage lies in its buying power. It buys in larger quantities and can get better deals, even exclusive deals with manufacturers. As you well know, you will lose if you try to compete with the mass merchants on price.

So how can you compete? What is your advantage? Fortunately, there are several advantages you have over the big box stores - selection, styles, and quality are some obvious ones. A trained sales staff of furniture experts is an advantage that every furniture store owner should have over any of the big box retailers.

A scholar and pioneer in business strategy, Theodore Levitt, argued for a singular focus by businesspeople on the customer and his needs. He observed that, "Customers attach value to a product in proportion to its perceived ability to help solve their problems or meet their needs" (from Marketing Success Through Differentiation - of Anything, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1980, as quoted in HBR, October 2006, p.130). The customer is focused on value for them. What is the value that you are offering your customers? Is it your line of product - the dining room or bedroom set, the sofa or recliner that they find on your showroom floor? Yes, and no.

Yes, because they would not walk through the doors of your store if they didn't believe you had a product that would fit their need. The other part of the answer - no - refers to additional value that you can provide your customers beyond pieces of furniture. Thinking back to Mr. Levitt's statement, does your customer have a need beyond the sofa they came in for? Yes! They want expert help and guidance in selecting the right furniture. They also have a need to feel confident that they made the right purchase. I'm referring to a social-emotional need, not a physical need, but one that is just as real.

In relation to your competitors, this is a value - an important need customers have - which you as a furniture retailer can provide, and which the big box stores typically do not. To determine whether or not you are getting the benefits from this advantage, ask yourself some simple questions: how well do your sales associates share with store visitors useful and relevant information about the furniture that you sell? How often does a visitor to your store know more about the furniture they are looking for than your sales associates? Have you ever seen an associate turn over and read the information on the item's tag when a customer asks a question about it? If so, you are missing an opportunity to provide the furniture expertise to your customers that will set you apart from your competition. In fact, visitors expect this level of expertise from you; that's why they are in your store and not at the mart.

Is furniture expertise a competitive advantage? Absolutely. Your knowledgeable sales staff provides real value to your customers because they will rely on you for furniture expertise. The opportunity to fill the customer's need to feel confident in his purchase should cause us to pay more attention to creating a successful experience with each customer. They will then have the confidence to buy their furniture from you, rather than from someone else. A program and process for training a staff of furniture experts can give you a sustainable competitive advantage over other retail stores, including the mass merchants.