FurnitureShow.com Opens 100' Showroom Online

Furniture World Magazine

Less than six months after the launch of its own web site, FurnitureShow.com announced the completion of its 10Oth online showroom for Phoenix-based Samuel Lawrence. A manufacturer of middle- to high-end solid wood bedroom, dining and occasional furniture, Samuel Lawrence's online Showroom showcases some of the company's hottest products, said Jim DeRose, Samuel Lawrence's director of marketing. "We started off with the basics," DeRose said. "In the future we look to add more groups to our site. "Before signing on with FurnitureShow.com, Samuel Lawrence's web presence was limited to registration of a URL name," DeRose said. "And the company had issued a statement prohibiting the sale of its product on the Internet." "We want to use the Internet as a business-to-business vehicle to expose our product to a wider range of retail buyers," he said, "We have an IS department, but we are a low overhead company. We looked at FurnitureShow.com as a natural fit with OUT desire to make the Internet an effective business too]. We were able to accomplish this while saving most of the costs associated with building our own web site." DeRose reports more than a few first-time buyers have already reached Samuel Lawrence through its new online showroom, "One of the other benefits of our relationship with FurnitureShow.com is that for companies that haven't heard of Samuel Lawrence our products are presented by an impartial third party," he said. "If a buyer types in bedrooms or solid wood, they will be prompted to visit our site. We needed a vehicle that would help us reach the buyers that were not coming to the High Point market and currently shopping us." Samuel Lawrence's top customers include: Heilig-Myers, Sears Home Life, Mathis Brothers, Havertys, Jordan's, City Furniture and Aaron Rents. The company leases showroom space in the main IHFC building during the High Point market. Founded in March 1999, Furniturc.Show.com offers a range of technology products that facilitate communication and transactions between furnishings manufacturers, retailers and their representatives, The company's online business-to-business marketplace is the furnishings industry's largest, with more than 100 live manufacturer showrooms, Dell Computer Corporate Vice President Tom Martin is the chairman of the Austin, Texas-based company. To visit Samuel Lawrence's online showroom or for a complete listing of FurnitureShow.com exhibitors, please visit the web site at www.fumitureshow.com. New buyers and browsers must register.