Furnitureguide.Com Takes Aim At Becoming Web's Leading, High-End On-Line Furniture Site

Furniture World Magazine

FurnitureGuide.com today announced the launch of its website, which debuts as one of the web's largest furniture-related sites. FurnitureGuide.com is a unique web-based locator tool that allows consumers to browse through complete catalogs of leading high-end furniture manufacturers, find the specific piece of furniture they want and then get directions to a nearby retailer that offers the furniture they found online. "FurnitureGuide.com solves a long-lived conflict between two known facts about furniture shoppers: most people do not enjoy the traditional furniture shopping experience of driving from store to store for hours on end, but they do strongly prefer to touch and test furniture before purchase," said Brent Mellow, CEO of FurnitureGuide.com. "We're going to take the pain out of furniture shopping by providing consumers unbiased information and unrivalled convenience." The information provided by FurnitureGuide.com cannot currently be found anywhere else on the web as most furniture-related websites have focused their business model on 'e-tailing', attempting to sell whatever brands of furniture the e-tailers can get their hands on, often on a private label basis. FurnitureGuide.com will not sell furniture, but will fill the information void in the market with a website that provides tools and resources currently unavailable to the public. "e-tailing simply won't work online because people really have to see, feel and experience most furniture before they can be satisfied with their purchase. This is why there are warehouses stacked full of furniture that was returned from online consumers," said Sharon Ellis, president of FurnitureGuide.com. Research predicts that monthly unique users of furniture websites are projected to total 9 million by year-end 2000 (according to PC Data Online). Of these 9 million monthly users, less than three percent are expected to make purchases online while the remaining 97 percent are primarily looking to gather information prior to embarking on a traditional furniture shopping experience. FurnitureGuide.com is the web's only site focusing exclusively on that 97 percent of Internet users. "By building our business model based on becoming the web's largest, most useful furniture site, we are filling a gaping void in the market while opening the doors to a variety of revenue streams ranging from qualitative and quantitative consumer research to online advertising," said Mellow. Furniture manufacturers are enthusiastically and rapidly lining up to participate in FurnitureGuide.com. " I believe participating on FurnitureGuide.com will become as important as having a showroom in High Point, North Carolina. It's one of the things furniture manufacturers will have to do to be successful," said Joan Karges Rogier, vice president of Karges Furniture Company. At launch, FurnitureGuide.com will feature more than 10,000 pieces of furniture from the complete catalogs of 21 leading manufacturers, including: Bernhardt Furniture Company Guy Chaddock & Co. Lexington Home Furnishings Bevan Funnell Harden Furniture Co. Nye Portfolio Century Furniture Industries Hekman Furniture Precedent E. J. Victor Hickory Chair Sherrill Furniture Company Ferguson Copeland Limited Hickory White Taylor King Furniture French Heritage Reproductions John Widdicomb Company Whittemore/Sherrill GieMme USA, Inc. Karges Furniture Company Woodmark Inc. "We plan to use our banking backgrounds, personal experiences and entrepreneurial spirits to drastically improve the furniture buying experience for consumers while simultaneously helping retailers and manufacturers survive a competitive marketplace and the impact of the Internet revolution," said Ellis. In the coming months, FurnitureGuide.com will provide additional value-added tools to furniture shoppers, including a room planner, personalized wish-list capabilities and a profiler that utilizes artificial intelligence to help consumers quickly narrow searches based on their personal preferences. FurnitureGuide.com is based in Dallas, Texas. For more information, please call (214) 346-2907.