With 2025 firmly underway and a number of trade shows already under your belts for product inspiration for your businesses, now is the right time to reassess, amend or start from scratch on your plans for the year ahead. With this in mind, we explore what you could consider when making small or big improvements to your retail business, as well as taking a glimpse at what others in the furniture and beds space are doing.
Know your customers
This may seem like an obvious notion, but as time moves on, customer demographics and audiences can slight change. And within those changes, those demands and what they are looking for can also shift. A start to a new year is the perfect time to research your target audience, demographics and previous customers from the year before to better understand their needs and how to sell to them. Perhaps you have sold more sustainability-led products indicating a movement towards this area? Or maybe you’ve noticed a boom in technology-related products like TV beds or motion furniture? Whatever the uptick – or downturn – in product groups, it’s worth digging into.
Furthermore, this also plays into the shopping experience and offering a welcoming environment. Did you host any events in the past year? What was successful, what wasn’t? Perhaps look to host more in the year ahead, create engagement with the community, while taking advantage of offering promotions and loyalty schemes. If you know a customer has purchased a big-ticket item in the last 12 months – why not touch base with them, see how things are going, while also offering them a discount as a loyal customer on their next big purchase? If could spark them walking back into your store sooner rather than later.
Digital dilemma
Most retailers will have a website by now and social media channels too. Whether it’s a transactional site or a window to your business online, it’s worth considering areas on how to improve your online presence. This could be a new website, tweaking parts of your existing platform or embracing more digital products like SEO services, AI tools and other social media channels. It can cause a dilemma on what to attack first, which is why reviewing and implementing a digital strategy is best. With competing online trickier to navigate, perhaps understanding SEO practices is a good place to start as this can uncover plenty of instant wins.
Getting physical
From online investments to physical store improvements, it’s worth taking a good, hard look at your store (or stores) and identify what needs doing, where – the costs potentially involved and the benefits to implementing such projects. This will all aid your customer experience and make sure your retail store is modern, customer friendly, sustainably-run and efficient. Talk to your staff about improvements they have noticed, engage and implement where necessary.
Product, product, product
This links in with knowing your customer in terms of what products to offer and to make sure you can satisfy their demand. But also think about the next big thing and how this can sit in your store. Last month played host to two UK trade shows in the industry where hopefully you have seen something that is either a bit different or exactly on point to what your business needs to meet such customer demand. Perhaps you’ve gone for a whole new category or section in your store or revamped an existing section. Whatever the product flavour is, make sure it ticks the boxes you require. Then kit out your store to suit and maximise its potential.
What’s your business got planned?
In the February 2025 Big Furniture Group Magazine, you will find the Big Question is all about investments. Here’s a few examples from retailers that could spark some inspiration for your own.
Dreamland Bedding Centre – Our primary focus for investment in the forthcoming year remains centred on our workforce, who constitute the most valuable asset within the organisation. Staff development is integral to our ethos, and we are proud to support team members engaged in courses ranging from Level 2 to Level 7. While our digital presence is currently limited to a brochure-style website, we recognise the importance of online visibility and will be allocating resources towards bolstering our SEO strategy. Finally, we remain committed to investing time and effort into community engagement.
Harrison & Brown – We have had to invest in some new heating this year as our system was so old it was on the way out but luckily there was a 50% grant available for that.
Mattressman – As Mattressman continues to expand, we are investing in TV advertising.
Toons – We are redeveloping a new department in-store, which sees us create a larger gift shop area by knocking through into an old storage area. In the same space we will be introducing a new area selling bedding, ready mades, towels etc. We are also investing in a new roof for our older part of the building, which covers our whole flooring department and soft furnishings area. This is a large area and should cost us around £30,000. But it’s important for us as a quality and trusted furnishings store to keep our showroom in the best possible condition.
Elphicks – We are investing in renewable energy; this is due to the predictability of costs with using renewable energy. Unlike fossil fuels, which are subject to price fluctuations, renewable energy sources offer a more stable pricing. This can also have a positive impact on our employee satisfaction and retention. We have found while recruiting that more people are now considering a company’s environmental impact when choosing where they would like to work. To start the year off we are currently having 35 solar panels installed.
Read the Big Question and the Big Furniture Group February 2025 Magazine at https://www.bigfurnituregroup.com/magazine/
Got something planned you want to shout about? Let me know on dan@bigfurnituregroup.com