Furniture Wizard is all about continuing to find solutions for retailers to help them more efficiently run their businesses. The company grew out of owner Marty Fischbein’s own experiences and frustrations as a home furnishings, appliances, and electronics retailer. He developed a software solution that made his life easier – and eventually began concentrating his efforts full time in making other retailers’ lives easier as well.
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Fischbein continues to look to the future at other ways to enhance the retail experience – not just for owners and the sales staffs, but for their customers as well. For a number of years, Furniture Wizard has been creating websites. During the last couple of years there have been a lot of changes in web technology.
Fischbein explains, “I did a significant amount of research, visiting every home furniture store website I could find, and talked to many furniture store retailers. I realized that the websites home furnishings retailers were using fell into 3 different categories. Some were developed one from a simple do it yourself web builder kit, others were created by a friend of a friend or family member, or they were paying a high monthly fee for a site that features products not often merchandised in the actual store.” All three scenarios had one thing in common; the retailer either did not have the ability or knowledge to update their store’s site.” After gleaning this information, he set out to offer a better web site solution for furniture stores.
He explains that once the site is established, retailers can add detailed and “verbose” product descriptions and photos to the site that are in-stock and/or on their floors. Customers can look at the site and make a wish list and/or request more information about products.
After submitting the list the customer receives a thank you email. The store now receives an email with the customers list and details. And within seconds a designated cell phone at the retailers store receives a text message with the customer’s name, email and phone number. This enables the store to instantly reach out to the customer while they are still sitting at their pc. The wish list and all of the customer’s information is already available in the Furniture Wizard system.
“Our whole approach is full circle,” says Fischbein. “There is no need for a website to be completely separate from what’s happening in the store. For retailers who have Furniture Wizard in their stores, this is a natural extension for them. Synchronizing your web site with your point of sale/inventory control just makes sense.”
Original article in Home Furnishings Retailer Magazine
Ashley Integration
“It truly becomes an extension of your store ... your Internet virtual showroom,” says Fischbein. “You can get an item into your store, and in minutes have it up on your website. A customer can look at an item on your website, and that day look at it in your store.”
For those who carry Ashley Furniture®, Furniture Wizard offers tremendous Ashley integration. This includes pre-loading the software with the store’s complete item lineup including all available item information and pictures. Sales staff can instantly access current and future product availability from their designated Ashley warehouse. Purchase Orders are easily created and sent via EDI. Just recently added our integration is the ability to automate adds, drops, and changes. Instead of spending valuable time on the web your staff can concentrate on helping their customers.
“As new technology emerges, the developers at Furniture Wizard are constantly searching for new ways to make life easier for all furniture retailers,” he says.