Association Blog

Smaller furniture retailers take heart. Even the country’s top retailers share many of the same staffing problems you have. At the second day of the Home Furnishings Association’s CEO Summit in Pebble Beach,Calif., those Top 100 retailers spent this morning discussing ways and days to better use their staff. Mark Schumacher, executive vice president of the HFA, and Keith Koenig, CEO of City Furniture, led a lively morning discussion with Scott Hill, CEO of PERQ, and David Kain of Kain Automotive, exploring ways retailers can better use employees on the showroom floor and, more importantly, in their customers’ living rooms.

The country’s top furniture retailers say they’ve given away too many sales to big, online vendors, and it’s time to win them back. That was the consensus reached during the first business session today at the Home Furnishings Association’s CEO Summit in Pebble Beach, Calif. The event attracted 50 owners, presidents and chief executives of Top 100 furniture retailers, who collectively operate thousands of brick-and-mortar stores. The CEO Summit was convened to address challenges that impact HFA members of all sizes, with the intent of finding solutions all can implement in their own stores. Participants shared a remarkable determination to

The Home Furnishings Association today convened its inaugural CEO Summit in Pebble Beach, Calif. The three-day event brings together owners, presidents and chief executives of 50 of the Top 100 home furnishings retailers for discussions about significant industry issues. The setting is an iconic golf resort on the Pacific coast, but the agenda is focused on business. Participants will share ideas about best responses to international trade challenges, eCommerce and other industry disruptions. The goal is to generate knowledge, and potential actions, that can be shared throughout the HFA membership. The topics addressed at the summit “will have ripple effects

Social media is like a digital superhero for furniture retailers, a powerful tool to connect and share your brand with consumers. But with that power comes great responsibility, says author and digital influencer Erik Qualman. What does it take to be a successful furniture retailer in the digital era? Part of the formula is understanding when using technology is effective, and when to hold back, says Qualman, who brought his high-energy sermon to about 250 retailers at last week’s High Point Market. “Digital leaders know there’s a balance that needs to be struck between online and offline,” said Qualman, the