Inventory is a key driver for any business. It determines the target market that you attract, your sales volumes, and even your profit margins. It, additionally, plays a key role in either making your business venture competitive or a lame duck in the market.
No one wants to be a lame duck. It is thus imperative to keep curating your inventory and adding products that can boost your sales.
In today’s blog, we particularly turn our focus on furniture coverings. We explore their uses and benefits as well as the positive impact that they can have on the sales and profits of different businesses.
Furniture Coverings 101
Furniture coverings are designed to drape furniture just like the original fabric. They are sewn with provisions to fit over chair arms, backrests, and sitting areas, among other furniture features.
Furniture coverings can be made using different fabrics such as leather, polyester, fleece, or others. Most of them, however, have some elasticity to facilitate easy installation and a better fit. These covers provide numerous benefits including:
- Reduced wear and tear of furniture’s original upholstery
- Improved comfort
- A better or new refreshing look on furniture
- Furniture protection against stains, pet damage, and loose dirt
- Easier furniture maintenance as coverings can be removed and laundered more regularly unlike furniture upholstery
With these basics in mind, let us go further to expound on how furniture coverings can boost sales.
New Product Appeal
New products catch the interest of both existing and new customers. The right marketing will drive most of them to stop by and check out the new product. This works in your favor because a fair number will likely buy the furniture coverings once they understand their benefits.
The same customers or even those that may not buy the coverings will likely:
- Buy other products in your store; these can be impulse or planned purchases but they still boost your sales.
- Recommend the furniture coverings to family or friends thereby earning you more sales down the road.
Both scenarios give your supermarket or home improvement store a bump in sales.
Product Viability
Some products make great sales but offer little profit. This may be because they:
- Require heavy marketing
- Incur high logistical costs (shipping, inventory storage, etc)
- Suffer perishability: this may force you to lower prices as expiry dates draw near
Furniture coverings do not present any of these problems. Their benefits are easily understandable to customers and they are non-perishable.
On costs, buying and shipping furniture covers wholesale earns you significant discounts. They also have no special handling requirements and come in compact packages that are easy to manage.
These benefits enable you to set a fair price for your customers. The affordability makes it easier for more customers to buy them which is bound to impact your sales positively.
Numerous Consumer Markets
You can choose to supply furniture coverings as a retailer, wholesaler, or both. Each of these approaches opens your business up to different consumer markets.
Retail Model
The retail model brings in clients like homeowners or DIY home improvement enthusiasts. They may buy one or more sets at first. However, they have the potential to become fairly regular customers once they realize the decor magic that they can work with furniture coverings.
Wholesale Model
The wholesale model opens your business up to bulk buyers like interior designers and furniture sellers.
Interior designers are likely to buy in bulk if they identify patterns or prints that they would like to stash away for current or future projects. Furniture sellers, on the other hand, may be keen to find designs that are compatible with the furniture that they sell.
The trick, In both wholesale scenarios, is to ensure that you can meet both needs. Consider partnering with a furniture coverings manufacturer too so that you are able to process custom orders.
Retail and Wholesale
Acing both the retail and wholesale retail markets is likely to give you a major sales boost. Moreover, it does not only increase your sales volumes, it also gives you different customer niches which is better than relying on just one.
Product Pairing
Product pairing can improve your sales by volume or by revenue. Here is how.
Take, for instance, that you own a furniture store and decide to stock furniture coverings. In the beginning, customers may not know much about them. They may, therefore, be apprehensive to buy them.
However, if you start selling furniture pieces and furniture coverings as a package deal at a fair price, the situation may change.
- A rise in sales revenue– you will likely begin to make a little more from the pairing of furniture and covers because they are a value-added package and most customers may be willing to pay more for the package.
- A rise in sales volumes– you will likely see a rise in the number of furniture cover sales as more customers learn more about the benefits of the product.
In-store Furniture Protection
Furniture is mostly a one-off purchase and may thus not sell out as fast as other common retail products. Still, you may need to create elaborate displays for in-store customers or mall displays.
Furniture coverings can help you keep your furniture inventory in pristine condition by protecting it from dirt and wear and tear. This makes it easy to sell your furniture at fair prices even after months of having it on display.
Plus, covers do not hinder clients from seeing the original upholstery. You can easily take them off during sale consultations and return them after.
Conclusion
Making great sales leans heavily on making strategic business decisions based on factual information. Furniture coverings make a compelling case for themselves and can, indeed, turn the sales of your supermarket, furniture store, or home improvement store around.
We hope that the tips in this blog will help you implement your strategy effectively so you can start raking in well-deserved profits. Looking for a furniture coverings supply partner? You can count on us for that too. Reach out to us for details or quotes at any time.
