If you want a stable portfolio, financial experts will tell you to diversify, diversify, diversify. Spread out your investments a bit, lest you become someone who loses everything when best-laid plans go awry.
Lighting showrooms across the country understand that diversification also makes sense from a product mix perspective. But while decorative accessories and mirrors have long been the go-to solution for expanding showrooms’ assortments, accent furniture has something to add.
Lighting may be their bread and butter, but showrooms are loving accent furniture. Here’s why.
1. Does double duty
At Living Lighting on King in Toronto, Ontario, nesting tables rule the accent furniture category. The showroom’s condo-dwelling clients appreciate their space-saving and multi-use attributes. The tables, along with chairs, stools and benches, have ulterior motives on the showroom floor as well.
“Being able to use accent furniture in our showroom instead of display cubes allows us to create displays that are more visually appealing,” said Jodie Orange, President of Living Lighting on King.
2. Tells a big story in a small space
Lights Unlimited in Garner, North Carolina, leans on accent furniture like this Sterling chest to help customers visualize the possibilities without taking up too much real estate.
“An accent piece typically does not not take up a lot of space and really helps tell the story of the lights in a specific vignette,” said Carla Reck, Lighting Specialist at Lights Unlimited.
3. Drives up your bottom line
The fact that accent furniture doesn’t require a lot of extra space is good for business too.
“Accent furniture is an add-on sale, so it increases the saleable merchandise per square foot in your showroom,” Orange said. “Real estate is expensive, so it helps to stock the floor with low-profile impulse items that drive sales numbers up.”
4. Forges a deeper connection with customers
The accent furniture offerings at Phillips Lighting in Modesto, California, run the gamut from decorative bookshelves and étagères to occasional chairs and consoles. Though somewhat unpredictable from piece to piece, the mix adheres to an important thread: to make a connection with its lighting customers.
“Our store [feels] more engaging with the addition of home furnishings and accessories,” said Carrie Arnold, Vice President of Phillips Lighting & Home. “Since accent furniture is such a personal and often unique item, people are excited when they happen upon a perfect, hard-to-find piece.”
5. Keeps the showroom looking fresh
As much as lighting follows fashion, it can be difficult, expensive and even risky to bow to the whim of the latest trends. What does one do with summer 2017’s “super brights” or this fall’s forecast for feathers and “poetic knits”? Forward-thinking showrooms keep their sales floors fresh and current with on-trend accent furniture.
“It allows us the opportunity on a seasonal basis to throw in on-trend colors and styles to keep our displays current with home decor fashion,” Orange said.
