Coaster Fine Furniture is headed to a new showroom at the Las Vegas Summer Market, moving to Building A-800/801. As a more furniture-focused building and a showroom that will hug the coveted center escalator position on the floor, the brand anticipates much easier access for buyers.
The move centers around the company’s updated approach to trade shows, which includes a new “bought product” strategy led by Crystal Nguyen, Vice President of Merchandise and Strategic Product Planning at Coaster. Whereas in the past Coaster would show 400 to 600 SKUs and rely on feedback of customers to then decide what to add to the lineup, the new approach presents 21,000-square-feet sporting about 200 products all of which can be ordered and immediately shipped.
“We will have on-hand inventory of our best-sellers, and orders have already been placed on our brand-new product with shipments arriving in time to boost retailers 2024 sales productivity with sales-driving, high-value introductions,” said Nguyen. “There will be absolutely nothing on the showroom floor that buyers and designers will have to wonder, ‘will this be a go or not?’ because all of the purchasing decisions have already been made.”
Nguyen’s “bought product” strategy now eliminates the lag time of getting items into retailers’ inventory. The strategy also takes advantage of one of Coaster’s key differentiators, which is the research time the company invests in the development of exclusive products to help retailers stand out in their marketplaces. “Me-too looks drive retail profit margins down,” Nguyen said. So, unlike many of its competitors, Coaster performs trend and market research and works to offer exclusive designs instead of buying its assortment off the shelf to ensure retailers’ offers are fresh and purposeful.
“Retailers who want to create excitement on their floors should make plans to visit our new showroom in Vegas this summer,” said Nguyen. “We’ve done the research and devoted a great deal of time to design and product development with an eye toward creating outstanding values that are designed to make their make doors swing. Additionally, we are coupling the products with retail-focused merchandising and display ideas in the new showroom to create even more excitement. We’re confident that the new products will be very well received, and we’ve done our part to ensure our customers will be able to get the products into inventory quickly.”
