Conlin’s Furniture Launches New World-Class Website

Furniture World Magazine

Conlin’s Furniture, with 17 retail furniture stores serving North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, and parts of Canada, announced the launch of its new retail website that offers an extensive online catalog of furniture and a range of helpful features and services for their customers. The new site (www.Conlins.com) will allow customers to conveniently conduct research, access more selection, efficiently find solutions, and get better service. The new Conlin’s site will focus on shopping rather than selling, and will be marketed locally rather than nationally. The new site was built to simplify the information intensive furniture shopping process, and to strengthen the company’s core competencies as a local brick and mortar retailer. Most furniture shoppers need assistance planning their space and coordinating styles and colors; most want to visit a store to see products and verify comfort and quality; and most require in-home delivery and setup of their oversized, high value and often fragile furniture purchases. WEBSITE AND STORES WORKING TOGETHER The big online opportunity for furniture retailers is to help customers conduct research. The Conlin’s website is designed with that in mind, and was designed as a tool to help customers get ideas, learn what is available, find product solutions, educate themselves and get information. “The reason we chose Minnesota based FurnitureDealer.net to build and manage our new website,” said Joe Conlin, Chairman and CEO of the privately owned Conlin’s Furniture retail chain “was because of their multi-channel approach. Conlin’s has achieved growth and success over the years by having great sales people, stores, merchandising, service and delivery. We are 100% committed to our bricks and mortar business because we know that is what furniture and mattress consumers want, need and expect.” The new website, noted Conlin, makes Conlin’s a whole lot better by offering a huge selection of products, tons of useful information and critical shopping functions to help consumers find, evaluate and compare. BETTER SELECTION MEANS HAVING WHAT PEOPLE WANT There are currently three to four times more products shown online than in the stores. According to Dave Schwartz, Conlin’s Casegoods Buyer, “Conlin’s has always offered the best selection of name brand home furnishings, such as Broyhill, La-Z-Boy, Palliser, DeCoro and Lane. Now we are able to offer so many more styles, features, colors and choices. Unlike a store, the website is not limited by inventory costs or showroom space.” CONVENIENCE MAKES IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE “Customers now can have much better access to our stores,” explained Joe Conlin. “We like to think of the new website as a way for our store to do ‘house calls,’ because customers can conveniently find products, educate themselves, and get information when and where they want it.” People today are busy. Many of our customers come from rural communities that are far from the store. People today expect to be able to research online for big-ticket purchases like furniture. After just two months, the company has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people calling the stores to get help over the phone. “Whether the customer is calling from the office during a lunch break or from home after putting the kids to bed, it is amazing how much can be accomplished over the telephone with the website,” said Conlin. A SITE LOADED WITH HELPFUL FEATURES According to Andy Bernstein, President and Founder of FurnitureDealer.net, “The website was designed to help streamline many of the most information intensive and time consuming aspects of furniture shopping. One of the unique and useful tools is “Narrow Your Search,” where people can efficiently navigate the extensive catalog according to product features (such as style, dimensions, wood type, and finish darkness). Each product is shown along with its matching/coordinating items and alternate finishes. Customers can view side-by-side comparisons. The site offers multiple navigation options to accommodate both those individuals who know what they want (item search) and those who don’t know what they want (browse through pictures of beautifully furnished rooms). Other helpful features include: a wish list to save items for consideration; an online credit application to take advantage of special financing; a free online room planning application to lay out a floor plan and arrange furnishings to scale; showroom photo galleries to see what is on display; links to key manufacturer websites for extended information and selection; custom upholstery tools to see what a sofa looks like with different fabrics, exclusive offers by email, decorating tips, rich product descriptions and tons of great item and room setting photos, and much more.” INTERNET MARKETING IS THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE The company is excited to leverage the internet to achieve its marketing goals. “In today’s world of online news, streaming media, email and iPods,” described Vicki Madding, Conlin’s Director of Marketing, “people are increasingly looking to the internet over traditional media for their information. FurnitureDealer.net’s skill at making the site search engine friendly has more than doubled the traffic on Conlins.com, and these site visitors are calling our salespeople, visiting our stores and buying furniture.” About Conlin’s Furniture: Established in 1937, Conlin’s is a leading American furniture retailer and is routinely listed by Furniture Today as one of the country's top companies to watch. The company operates seventeen stores in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Minnesota. The company offers a broad collection of furniture manufactured by some of the strongest brands in the country including, Broyhill, La-Z-Boy, Sealy, Simmons, Tempur-Pedic and Palliser. Additionally, Conlin's offers its own Conlin's Private Label brand of furniture. For more information on the company and its products contact Conlin's Furniture at 763-559-3482 or visit their website at http://www.conlins.com. About FurnitureDealer.net: FurnitureDealer.net builds and manages websites and provides internet marketing services for more than 25 leading furniture retailers across the country. For more information about FurnitureDealer.net, call 651-204-1925 or visit their website at http://www.furnituredealer.net.