Retailer Furniture World Plus Breaks Sales Record By 500% With Private Sale, Promotes Bassett’s 100th Anniversary

Furniture World Magazine

Furniture World Plus, a Bassett Gallery store in Pineville, Louisiana, exceeded its one-day sales record during a private sales event on April 11th. The total revenue from this promotion represents five times the store’s previous highest sales day. Designed and executed by Direct Mail USA, the sale was promoted only through a letter to the store’s key prospects; Furniture World Plus ran no media advertising in support of the sale. “As the only ‘At Home with Bassett’ Gallery store in the area, we felt we needed to do something special for the company’s 100th anniversary,” explains Tommy Champlin, the storeowner. “Our Bassett sales representative suggested a private sale and recommended Direct Mail USA.” The store has done private sales before (without utilizing the services of a database marketing company) by sending letters to the house list of customers. Champlin admits that promoting a private sale to targeted prospects literally “blew the doors off what I have been doing.” “I am ecstatic that we made $100,000 with this sale. I usually average $12,000 to $15,000 with my in-house list promotions. My best private sale ever was $24,000,” Champlin says. Champlin is thrilled with the incredible response to the letter and credits Direct Mail USA’s ability to target the best prospects. “I started getting calls the minute the letters hit,” says Champlin. Tory Wimbs, the store’s Bassett representative, isn’t surprised by the success of the private sale. “I usually have a private sale going on at one of my stores every Thursday. I’ve been to over 300 private sales. Private sales give an extra boost to the medium and small guys,” Wimbs states. “And once the store owners start, they don’t stop.” Wimbs also credits Direct Mail USA for the success of the store’s private sale, “Anyone can get a mailing list – Direct Mail USA knows how to get it done for my customers, from choosing the right prospects to analyzing the demographics of the attendees after the sale in order to make the next sale even better. They know our business.” This will not be the last private sale targeted to prospects at Furniture World Plus, according to its storeowner. “Private sales make a lot of sense for us because they mesh well with our commitment to put the customer first. At Furniture World Plus, we want to make sure the customer enjoys the shopping and buying experience and a private sales helps us pull in new customers so we can impress them with our customer-first philosophy,” says Champlin, “Besides we had terrific volume and sales!” According to John Small, President of Direct Mail USA, the most important part of the private sales process comes after the sale. “We make sure the store collects the letters from the attendees. Direct Mail USA then takes those letters and analyzes the attendees based on their demographic characteristics,” explains Small. In turn, Direct Mail USA then uses the results of this analysis to pull the prospect list for the next sale. “This after-sale analysis is something every retailer should insist upon, whatever database management firm they use. It’s the only way to continue increasing revenue from private sales,” Small says. Direct Mail USA is a database marketing company that specializes in development and execution of targeted private sales programs. To support this expertise, Direct Mail USA offers: customer profiling, customer list management, new customer targeting, list services, and commercial mail services. For additional information call (314) 781-1415 or (800) 511-6245 or go to www.directmailusa.com.