Unfinished Furniture Retailing Profile Survey Now Available

Furniture World Magazine

The Unfinished Furniture Association (UFA), an international, not-for-profit trade group based in Chicago, has released an independent survey of unfinished furniture retailing operations and practices. The 98-page Retailer Profile Survey Report is the result of an in-depth, professional, confidential survey conducted by research firm Industry Insights in Columbus, Ohio. The report offers comprehensive statistics on the retailing sector of the unfinished furniture industry, including number of years the firm has been in business; how many firms are under first-generation ownership; how many are part of a chain operation and of those, how many are franchises; whether the store and warehouse are owned or leased-, how many stores, on average, a firm operates; and similar questions. The report also unveils information on retail store practices and philosophies, including how many plan to expand next year and how they plan to do it; opening and closing times; percentage of sales by month; size of the average sale; what percentage of floor space is devoted to what categories of furniture; what key factors influence the decision to buy from a particular vendor-, what issues concern them most; average number and types of employees-, compensation for various positions-, percent of sales allocated to advertising and of that, to what media-, and more. "UFA's 1998 Retailer Profile Survey Report provides extraordinarily valuable information UFA members can use to benchmark their own operations in virtually every key area," notes UFA Executive Director Joanne Weber, CAE. "This is information that will give every retailer confidence to stay the course or make needed changes, and will help manufacturers better understand their customers and what they need. "Because this information is statistically sound and respondents were able to provide data anonymously, it's information a retailer or manufacturer would almost certainly find impossible to obtain any other way than through UFA. Having an operating performance survey such as this is an important benchmark that signals the professionalism of the unfinished furniture industry." UFA's 1998 Retailer Profile Survey Report is available to UFA members for $100 and to nonmembers for $500. For ordering information, contact UFA at 800-487-8321 or 312-782-5252; fax 312-236-1140.