The home furnishings industry is grieving over the loss of Furniture Wizard founder and president Martin Fischbein, who died last month following complications from surgery. He was 62.
Fischbein was a fixture in the HFA’s Retailer Resource Center over the years and enjoyed talking about how he started his company.
While selling furniture in San Diego in the 1980s and 1990s, Fischbein recognized a need for computer software to automate the day-to-day operations of the business. The need was especially acute when it came to taking inventory. At the time, software intended for other businesses didn’t consider the special needs of a furniture retailer. In 1997, Furniture Wizard was born.
By 2001, Fischbein had quit selling furniture and began selling the software full-time. Furniture Wizard software is used by more than 700 furniture stores worldwide.
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Evan Faller’s family store, Faller’s Furniture & Design is one of those stores. Faller and Fischbein began creating a software package unique to Faller’s store’s needs. He was so impressed with Fischbein that he eventually joined the company.
“Martin had an outstanding vision of what the retail landscape could look like and how important it was that technology stay ahead of the game,” Faller said.
Furniture Wizard released a statement to its clients announcing Fischbein’s death. “Those of you who met Marty know that he was a smart and driven businessman, a trusted and respected colleague, and a good friend,” it read. “His presence will be sorely missed. We will honor Marty’s legacy by continuing to build and service the industry’s most forward-looking, flexible and feature-packed software. He wouldn’t want it any other way.”
