By: Eddie Baird, Vice President of Furniture Sales
2020 has been, to say the least, a very interesting year. We have experienced snow storms, hurricanes, ups and downs in business, a Presidential Election and I almost forgot, a world pandemic. Who would have thought the new dress code would be dress clothes on the top and pajamas on the bottom to be prepared for your multiple video calls each day? 2020 will go down as the most interesting year for almost all of us. So, what has happened in furniture this year?
January and February were off to a great start, projects and transactional business were performing well. In March, things changed, as COVID 19 spread across the world we saw the introduction of acrylic barriers, panel top barriers, carpet disc that tell us where to stand, air filtration systems for our personal spaces and many other new products.
The WFH, product is finally getting its time in the sun, people quickly got tired of sitting at the dining room table or in the most uncomfortable chair in the house. Companies started buying employees product for their home offices or individuals invested their own money for comfort. Who said office furniture will never be sold online? Office furniture sales in the eCommerce channel has out-performed everyone’s expectations and continues to be a driving force. The workforce has adjusted to working from home but many are looking for a more balanced work life by working from both their home and office. Even though this is a small sample size, it is interesting to see from this LinkedIn post from Delia Caluser how many people want to work from home and the office versus just one place.
The positive side is that now they need office furniture at work and home.
We have all been looking forward to the end of the year. However, we are excited about what has been happening lately at S.P. Richards in furniture. We have a new team member, Alex Adams has joined the team as a Merchandise Manager in Furniture. Alex has many years of merchant experience from HD Supply, The AMES Companies and Home Depot. He is one of the few that is originally from the Atlanta area so, needless to say he is a Georgia Bulldogs fan. Help us welcome Alex to the family.
We have also kicked off the new 2021 Furniture and Lorell catalogs! Your new catalogs rolled out October 1st to help get ahead of the crowd. There are some really exciting and new products throughout both catalogs and from all of our popular brands. Hopefully, you have seen some of these new highlights from our Furniture Regional Managers or Account Managers as they are conducting catalog kickoffs. We are also offering larger catalog kickoff sessions that are open to multiple areas at one time so you have more chances to see the new products. Reach out to your S.P. Richards FRSM or AM for more information.
We have some exciting new WFH products coming soon that you won’t find in the catalog. These will be available in late Q4 and early Q1 of 2021. You will see us continue to add new products to help you service your customers better. If you have suggestions of new products, please let us know. We would love to hear from you!