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After reading and discussing the case, the participants would be able to: apply 7S and VRIO framework for online furniture retail; evaluate the profitability of horizontal versus vertical marketplaces for selling furniture online; articulate the challenges faced by online furniture retailers; discuss the applicability of technology to enhance customer experience in online furniture retail; and discuss the omni-channel strategy which online furniture companies can adopt.

Although furniture has traditionally been an unorganized category, the online furniture platforms have been on an upward curve since past few years. Digitization of economy and usage of smartphones to access internet had given a thrust to online purchases. This case on Wakefit Innovations Private Limited is intended to provide the readers with the business and marketing insights of selling furniture using online platform. The readers will be able to understand how retailing furniture using e-commerce is full of challenges and how various marketing activities have helped Wakefit improve their customer base. The readers can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of horizontal versus vertical e-commerce marketplaces and various challenges associated with online furniture retailing. Whether Wakefit should continue setting up experience centres and the benefits that could accrue by usage of virtual reality, augmented reality and data analytics are additional dimensions which can be discussed by the readers. The case will benefit the professionals in understanding the challenges and marketing strategies used by online furniture retailers and the same can be replicated by other players in this sector.

This case is suitable for students enrolled for full credit course on e-commerce at post graduate level. The case can be discussed towards the middle of the course once the students have studied different formats of e-commerce marketplace.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Compares and contrasts the effects of the resale price maintenance abolition of 1964 emerging in different products and markets, with particular emphasis on the furniture and footwear trades. Finds that the furniture trade has been more significantly affected, with a higher consciousness of consumer needs among its retailers.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of environmental management initiatives in the furniture retail area. The specific aim is to present reflections of participants implementing environmental initiatives in an Australian furniture retailer, Living Edge, in alignment with a secondary snapshot of environmental initiatives from other furniture retailers.

Primary reflections from the retailer’s manager and external consultant, both involved in the implementation of environmental initiatives, are enriched with secondary review of environmental management system trends and examples from regions active in the designer furniture sector, including Europe, Southeast Asia and North America.

An integrated view has been distilled around environmental impact in the furniture supply chain and consumer pressure to minimise the impact. Stakeholders require furniture retailers to improve efficiency and profitability amid the countervailing market demand for environmental sustainability. Retailers may seek competitive advantage through effectively applied and communicated environmental management. The voluntary adoption of systems, international standards and innovative practices that conserve natural resources are amongst the key to success. A live case example of Australian experience is added to the knowledge base for the global retail furniture industry.

One Australian retailer is exemplified to highlight the lived experiences of implementing environmental initiatives. The secondary global review presents a cross-section rather than an in-depth analysis of furniture sector retailers.

There are limited Australian perspectives of designer furniture and its intersection with environmental issues, thus, the paper addresses this gap in the literature and adds to informed practice in a global industry.

Retail warehousing is a subject of great topicality and interest. The property and planning press regularly contains new superlatives describing the behaviour of this sector of the retail industry. ‘…furniture and DIY warehouse sales were £658 million in 1984 showing a growth of 25% per annum since 1981.’ ‘Since 1977 retail warehouse rents have increased by a staggering 16.5 per cent per annum…compared with 13.0 per cent per annum for prime town centre retail rents.’ In 1986 there were current planning applications for more than 1.75m sq. ft of retail warehousing in the outer south east alone and ‘there are now over 1,000 stores in the country, with an estimated 40 chains currently seeking sites for 1,900 out‐of‐centre stores.’ Such statements distract the attention and make more difficult an examination of the factors which have underlain the emergence and remarkable growth of retail warehouses. Retail warehouses are one particular type of retail outlet and should be considered within the context of those wider trends evident in the retail sector as a whole.

Perceived value and customer loyalty have been studied jointly in most of services literature but mainly through SEM models. This paper aims to draw on the literature on the multidimensional richness of perceived value, to adopt a segmentation approach and explore segments of loyal consumers towards the service provider based on their value perceptions.

A survey was conducted among 460 Spanish consumers interviewed at the store exit of seven retail chains in two sectors (grocery and home furnishing). A CHAID analysis was performed on loyalty responses, through nine value dimensions (efficiency, service quality, product quality, emotional value, value for money, social value, aesthetic value, escapism and ethics).

Results show the existence of different groups of loyal customers based on the nine value types. Efficiency is prioritised by the most loyal customers in grocery but not for home furnishing. Emotional value and aesthetics, along with product quality determine the most loyal segments.

Retailers should focus on enhancing those value dimensions that better explain customer loyalty towards retail stores in their area of specialisation, combining not only tangible and intangible elements but also functional and emotional elements.

The paper adds to the prolific research on perceived value in services with a diachronic graphical review of value dimensions in retailing; furthermore, the range of value dimensions studied here is wider than most of previous works using dimensions of value in services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between manufacturer profit rate and large retailer market share for five matched retailer‐manufacturer groupings.

Basic structure‐performance modeling is used to relate manufacturer return on assets to large retail market share and a group of control variables. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Corporate Statistics of Income size class data provide a sample that covers the full range of firm sizes from the smallest to largest firms in the USA.

Large retail share negatively impacts small manufacturer rate of return for shopping goods, while in convenience good markets large retail share has no impact on manufacturer return.

Shopping goods retailers have opportunities to gain market power from expertise in merchandising, sales assistance, and product expertise. Strong private brands may offer leverage for convenience good retailers in negotiations with national brand manufacturers.

The paper examines the impact of retail channel power on small, medium, and large size manufacturing firms in five retailer/manufacturer categories over a period of extensive change in retail concentration.

Short delivery time is a feature that can influence consumers’ purchasing decisions and that retailers compete over fiercely. Accordingly, evaluating the effect of delivery time on demand and identifying marketing-mix variables that alter this relationship may influence retailers’ strategies and impact supply chain (SC) performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study was performed in collaboration with the largest furniture retailer in Italy, which provided its sales and inventory data for 19,000 units sold over a six-month period in 32 stores throughout Italy. Data were analysed using logistic regression with fixed effects.

The value of delivery time for consumers, even in an industry generally characterised by long delivery lead times, is surprisingly high. The evidence reveals that when the delivery time changes from two days to seven days, demand is reduced by 37.5 per cent, although variables related to location and the marketing mix moderate this relationship.

Retailers can use the findings presented herein to drive their inventory and facility planning decisions and support investments in SC integration.

Supply chain management (SCM) studies consider the value of delivery time anecdotally and have neglected empirical estimations of the magnitude of the effects of delivery time on consumer demand. Further, SCM studies have not explored the factors moderating this relationship, although intertemporal choice and service management studies have demonstrated the existence of such factors.

The retail furniture business, which should be an exciting fashion industry, is stuck in a rut, according to our contributor. It badly needs a new approach to design and merchandising; the opportunities are there, but retailers seem nervous of grasping them. The second part of this feature describes how Coles of Bilston turned their discount warehouse into a shopping pleasure.

The purpose of this paper is to understand better the formation of an industry and the movement toward agglomeration by examining the development of the furniture manufacturing industry of Western North Carolina and Virginia.

In this general review, the initiation and growth of the furniture industry is traced, applying the theory of agglomeration and noting isomorphic tendencies and the primacy of the search for legitimacy among constituents.

The paper finds first of all, the pioneering efforts of Thomas Wrenn in High Point brought the industry to the region. An initial wave of furniture manufacturers followed closely behind Wrenn as the industry gained legitimacy and status in North Carolina. Important elements in building the industry included the establishment of the Southern Furniture Manufacturers Association and the Southern Furniture Market in High Point. A second wave of furniture producers arrived on the scene after the First World War. This group benefited from cooperative actions of the survivors of the first wave and brought the Western North Carolina and Virginia area to the forefront of the furniture manufacturing industry in the USA. Finally, the paper comments on the current state of the industry in relation to the threat of foreign competition.

The furniture industry is not alone in the need to understand the impact of globalization. Practitioners and researchers alike should be aware of the costs to stakeholder groups, such as employees and local communities.

The retail furniture sector is showing rapid growth in France. New influences pinpointed by Alan Hallsworth include the growth of flat‐pack, self‐assembly, and a number of foreign groups moving into the market. The author expects these trends to continue.