Consumers today have many more retail choices when it comes to buying furniture for their homes. Of course there are still the large national chains like The Brick or Leons, but to many consumers they don’t offer the unique styles that are available in boutique retail stores. Many people are moving away from the matching sets that were so popular with previous generations. With so many people choosing condominiums a lot of the more traditional furniture is either too large or not styled appropriately for this very modern housing choice. Also given the popularity of television shows, blogs and magazines devoted to interior design, it is evident that consumers today want their homes to be unique and to reflect their personality.
A New Type of Furniture Store
These factors have given rise to an increased number of retail stores that are dedicated to marketing to this new breed of consumer. This is a good news story for these retail stores especially since first time entrepreneurs own many of them. However selling the furniture is only the first step. Getting the furniture delivered to the customer, having it positioned to their satisfaction, getting it set-up or assembled and then having all of the wrappings and debris removed are all necessary additional steps.
Most smaller or even mid-size furniture retail stores generally do not want to have their own fleet of delivery trucks along with adequate drivers and crew members to provide these necessary services to their customers; it is far too costly an endeavour. As well, the store owner may not have the expertise required to manage the licensing, log filing, dispatch, driver and crew training and other logistics involved in providing furniture moving service.
Another challenge for the retail store relates to storage capacity. Few independent stores have adequate storage space for furniture items. A lot of the furniture items sold to consumers are ordered directly from a manufacturer. Sometimes there may be several pieces ordered but not all are available at the same time. This means that unless the customer wants their furniture delivered piece-meal, then the retailer must have somewhere to store the goods until the order is complete and ready for delivery.
A Contracted Delivery Service
To meet the needs of their customers, many retail stores are choosing a very workable option by sub-contracting the delivery service to a company like Premiere Van Lines. By doing so they have access to a very large network of moving offices all across Canada with extensive resources in terms of equipment and manpower. The drivers and crews supplied by Premiere are fully trained and experienced furniture movers. They can safely handle this valuable commodity and are very familiar with furniture set-up and assembly. Premiere’s personnel have the customer service skills needed to ensure total customer satisfaction. In addition all Premiere locations have large, government-approved warehouses which are suitable for storage of inventory and/or pre-shipped orders. If necessary they can also provide pickup of goods directly from the manufacturers. It can be a total one-stop logistics solution for retail stores.
By using a company like Premiere Van Lines for delivery of furniture a retailer can promote a white glove type of service that will enhance their reputation with the buying public. Not only is it a point of difference from a marketing perspective, it could be turned into a revenue stream depending on the service enhancements offered to customers.
For more information about a customized home delivery service and storage facilities contact your local Premiere Van Line office.