High Point Market Oct 2007

TRIP SUMMARY
Since we launched FurnishWEB in January 2006, I have enjoyed attending the High Point Furniture Market and this was no exception. I try to visit each of our customers and many potential customers. Although the week includes a ton of walking and my feet are aching by the time its over, it's always a good time.

Over the past three markets in High Point I've seen plenty of sour faces and the pervasive mood has been low. The talk has consisted of the Las Vegas market build-up, plants closing, lower sales volume, personnel turnover, and more competition for dwindling retail demand. Recently there has been a clear association identified between the housing market woes and slumping retail furniture sales as reported in the Raleigh News Observer. However, I experienced a definite mood upswing this market.

Many people (sales reps, sales vice presidents, presidents, buyers, marketing managers) told of a good market with good orders. They were smiling and seemed optimistic about the future. I guess they could be faking, but most of these people I've visited for several markets and, as an industry supplier, they have little reason to fool me. So I'm going with the positive vibes I felt during this market. I'm hopeful for a good winter season and the industry beginning its recovery in 2008. I expect many of them to sign up with the FurnishWEB family to bring more efficiency to the sales/customer service process ... they'll need it with the growth resulting from the market rebound.

WELCOME A.R.T. FURNITURE
FurnishWEB was again well received at the market. A press release was published in the Furniture Today's Wednesday magazine during market announcing that A.R.T. Furniture had launched their FurnishWEB extranet. Several people stopped me to let me know they read the article. How cool is that?

MOBILE FURNISHWEB BETA
We had more sales reps than we needed who were interested in beta-testing our newest FurnishWEB release, FurnishWEB Mobi. This is a slimmed down version of FurnishWEB designed to operate on the small web browsers available on many PDA phones (e.g. Blackberry, Treo). We've started with product data, inventory, and a photo. So far the response has been great. The sales reps think its great to pull out their cell phone and quickly get inventory status ... and the customer are very impressed. We're enthusiastic about FurnishWEB Mobi and looking forward to its imminent release .... stay tuned!