Furniture Dealers in 2020: How are we doing business differently?
Our first ‘Hybrid’ Event was a live round table event with audience attendance and Q&A via Zoom. Ten experts from furniture dealer community got together to discuss, the future of our businesses after the pandemic.
This was an opportunity for us to discuss the difficulties that the industry is passing through and how to sustain though this period of slow business. Where do we see the furniture dealers in 2021? The discussion was moderated by Harsha Kotak, Founder of WOD & Design Manager @ K2 Space and Sally Rice of Rice Consultancy.
Nestled in Bisley’s boardroom in central London, Harsha introduced digital attendees to the panel including Jacquie Withnell from WeSpace, Amanda Salt of Salt & Pegram, Hannah Robinson from Office Principles, Eve Waldron of Eve Waldron Design, Jemma Grace from Hunts Office, Alex Gonzalez from Workplace Creations, Jessica Black from Obo Life, Moderators: Beth Harrison and Sally Rice.
Watch the zoom recording below (forward the video to 10 minutes fo start) to hear the conversation or read some key points below.
Here are some Key take-aways from the event: For details watch the zoom recording above.
- Share Knowledge: As furniture dealers we have had to change our strategy a bit and instead of just selling furniture and designs we are currently supporting our clients by sharing our knowledge.
- Relationship & Trust: Looking forward for both the dealers and the manufactures, what will hold their place in this market is a strong relationship with each other and strong support base for clients and end users.
- Skills: Furniture dealers are still crucial in this ecosystem as we bring a lot of skill sets which manufacturers are not well equipped with.
- Dealers Expertise: Also A&D companies will not be able to support their clients without the help from dealers as dealers hold that knowledge and contacts to provide options and variety for a project.
- Office in not Dead but Reshaped: People want to go back to work mainly for collaborations and to have those “watercooler conversations” which sparks creativity. So shared spaces are important and human interaction is vital for our mental wellbeing.
- Partnership: Dealers need manufacturers and manufacturers need dealers and we can support each other in generating business while facing this difficult times.