Retail Education
Home furnishings and lighting retailers face many challenges in this ever-changing economy. From new consumer expectations to online competition, today's retailers work hard to ensure their customers have access to on-trend products and great customer service. In this section, you'll find all things retailing — news, features, analysis and tools — needed to make your retail business a success.
The Neverending Sample Sale: How Consignment Websites Can Benefit Showrooms
Investing in showroom samples can be something of a necessary evil. You have to show items in order to sell them, but once you’re done with them, they can end up collecting dust in a back room or…
Group Law: Geometric Tables
Remember when your 4th grade teacher would drone on about right angles, line segments and isosceles triangles, and you rolled your eyes because “like in real life when would you ever actually use…
How to Add a ChatBot to Your Website
Anyone who's ever had to call their cable, phone or credit card company knows how invaluable a website's chatbot can be. This handy tool usually pops up in the bottom right-hand corner of a web…
3 Winter Market Seminars You Can't Miss
Anyone who's ever been to a winter market knows that there's a whirlwind of activity going on. Showrooms have new products they're dying to show off, and they're putting out great spreads for lunches…
Shine On! 4 Tips for Cleaning a Crystal Chandelier
Above a rustic farmhouse dining table. Over a gorgeous marble kitchen countertop. Above a vintage claw foot tub. A crystal chandelier can lend unexpected glamour and whimsy to high-traffic spaces,…
Showroom Bar: Would You Serve Alcohol?
What goes great with a velvet sofa? A glass of wine, obviously.
That seems to be City Furniture's strategy. This October, the company began serving craft beer and wine at its Tarmarac, FL location,…
La Vie en Velvet
Like actress Emma Stone gripping onto her Oscar for La La Land, velvet is holding hard and fast to its reign as the “It” fabric of the year. In fashion, luxe velvet showed up everywhere from the…
How to Automate Social Media — Without Losing Your Voice
When social media automation first came out, the posts were somewhat laughable. They sounded robotic, and it was easy to spot when a real person was actually doing the posting in real time. Nowadays…
Entries/Nominations for 2018 Lighting Showroom of the Year Awards Now Being Accepted Online
The ninth annual Lighting Showroom of the Year Awards competition, which honors exceptional lighting retailers, is now open and accepting entries and nominations. The 2018 Awards are hosted by…
The Family Jewels
Sapphires, rubies and emeralds — oh my! It’s no wonder the precious (and semi-precious) palette has popped up everywhere from fashion runways to floral arrangements this year—and pretty much every…