Re-Styled Web Site Enhances Online Furniture Showroom Design and Use From Custom Page Design to Power Search Capabilities, FurnitureFan.corn Adds Exciting Features to Better Serve Retail Stores

Furniture World Magazine

Mitchell Russo, CEO of FurnitureFan, Inc., a webbased marketing services company for the furniture industry, announced today they've completed a redecorating project of their own ... online redecorating, that is! With the look and feel of Main Street USA, the retooled FurnitureFan.com web site features easier navigation, advanced "power search" abilities and a fun, easy-to-use web template for retailers to quickly create their own custom-designed online showroom on the site. Tapping into Allaire's cutting-edge Spectra technology, retailers can now join the FurnitureFan network and create compelling, database-driven web sites in as little as 24 hours. Russo explains, "It's about building business and enhancing your customer base. Thanks to our retooled site, all today's web-savvy furniture retailer needs is a mouse and their imagination to bring the Internet to their business." The restyling and enhancement of the site is the result of FurnitureFan's explosive growth. In less than six months, the site has grown from 484 separate store catalogs to more than 1,400 and features a total of 16,334 different items available for preview. Site traffic has also grown much faster than expected, reaching nearly one million unique visitors in the months of February and March, according to PC Data. Russo observes, "Most furniture retailers are not interested in spending additional time and money to create their own Internet presence. With our redesign, we have created a series of online templates that offer retailers their choice of several store presentation styles. Each template allows merchants their choice of color, button style, image placement and more. Best of all, a FurnitureFan online showroom shell can be completed in a matter of hours, plus it offers retailers the flexibility to edit, add or remove items at any time. The next level of functionality will allow retailers to conduct their own e-mail marketing campaigns directly from their sites!" The Company plans to continue building store web sites for its clients and then sometime in the next 30-60 days, turn over the keys to the back door and let stores take control of their own sites, if they choose. FurnitureFan personnel will always be available to enhance and create store sites for its clients. The revamped FurnitureFan site continues to deliver state-of-the-art data mining capabilities, providing retailers with important marketing information such as instant access to current figures on the number of visitors to their site, a listing of the most popular items viewed, as well as important representative demographic information. Additional enhancements to the site include: • integration of FurnitureFan's premier "leads" program, whereby all interesting items saved into a consumer's "Favorites" are automatically forwarded (via email or fax) to the nearest store with a picture of the item, its SKU number and the consumer's contact information for easy pricing follow-up - at no extra charge to retailers - no matter how many leads we send them; •easier navigation, featuring a virtual Main Street of category options, and easy, 24/7 access for stores to rearrange their own showroom and make edits or additions; •the ability to "power search," featuring a FurnitureFan designed system that allows consumers to search the site's extensive database of images and information by specifying key criteria (such as finish, color, style, price and more), thereby pinpointing the perfect item quicker and with greater accuracy; •access to integrated map and driving directions with MapQuest; and •the option to link directly to existing URLs and e-mail accounts for those retailers who have their own sites, hence driving traffic to their web pages exponentially. This is the site's second retooling in less than one year. Russo quips, I wish I could redecorate my home this often!"