As the First Tuesday movement continues to gain momentum, the committee is unveiling a dedicated website to support communications between buyers and sellers.
Created by FurnitureDealer.Net, the mobile friendly site MyFirstTuesday.com is focused on promoting the dates for the ongoing First Tuesday events and acting as a guide to open showrooms for attending retailers and designers. As such, the site features a growing portfolio of manufacturer profiles, a kind of digital showcase that includes the key differentiators unique to each brand, as well as product photography.
The next First Tuesday event is scheduled for February 2-4, 2021. According to Emily Severson, Vice President of Supplier Relations at FurnitureDealer.Net, attendees will soon be able to request and schedule appointments with participating manufacturers via links to each company on the site.
“Our goal for the First Tuesday site is to make it easy for attendees to plan their shopping trips prior to arriving in High Point and to help maximize the use of their time while on the ground here via their smart phones,” Severson says. “The content is therefore centered around connecting people and helping attendees understand what each brand has to offer, a get-smart-quick guide if you will. We believe this is particularly important given the generational shift our industry is experiencing, and the varied constituents expected to attend overlapping events such as Designer Wednesdays.”
She continues: “The way this industry does business is changing and will continue to evolve, largely due to the pandemic forcing everyone to reallocate resources and accelerate their focus on doing business digitally. We all see the research on consumers spending more time and money online, but the same thing is happening on the B2B side as well. Manufacturers are not traveling overseas to review product, while retailers are scheduling more private meetings with vendors, and video calls have quickly become the norm for everyone. We see our job as providing tools to help pave the way forward in this evolution, and this new site is simply one example of our commitment to the industry.”
As the list of participating manufacturers continues to grow, Severson says new profiles are being added quickly. “We are actively reaching out to all participants, but we invite all manufacturers to hasten the process by proactively contacting our editorial team either via email (Kimberley@furnituredealer.net) or phone (336) 627-0825, so that we can quickly develop your profile and promote your company’s participation.”
“The First Tuesday event was created as an alternative buying platform for the Retail community as our industry responds to safety issues during this Pandemic. With the support from Furnituredealer.Net, we are now able to increase the buying experience for First Tuesday with product information from open showrooms in High Point. The committee will continue to work on improvements to this event making sure safety and new product information are priority number one”, states Kevin Castellani committee chair.
