by Full-line resource showcased concept at April market, offering dealers complete settings retailing at $1,999
HIGH POINT — Like most other full-line furniture resources, Elements International successfully develops and merchandises standalone categories across wood furniture and upholstery for the benefit of its retail customers.
That way they can shop the line in a coordinated manner, whether is stationary or motion upholstery or bedroom and dining collections.
This past market, however, it launched a program that ties together the soft goods and its occasional furniture for a complete living room package.
By tying together promotional sofas, accent chairs, occasional tables and entertainment consoles — that come with an optional fireplace unit — the company is taking the guesswork out for retailers and flowing it in a way that makes it easy for retailers to buy and set up for their own floors.
At the recently concluded High Point Market, the company showed several settings of its Room Packages concept with four lifestyle looks including traditional, contemporary, soft modern and midcentury.
Featuring sofas that retail from $399 to $499, the settings also feature $299 cocktails on casters along with $999 consoles available in two different sizes and with pier units. Storage ottomans with pillows also are available for $299.
The whole room, which also includes a swivel chair, is targeted to retail around $1,999, said Paul Comrie, chief executive officer, noting that the goods are priced about the same to create consistency in the retail price of each item and the entire room.
“We just thought it would be a nice solution for our retailers to put it all together and hit a nice price point,” he said.
Comrie, a former senior vice president of merchandising and marketing with Canadian retailer The Brick, said that the program also aims to make it easy for the consumer to buy the entire room package without help from a designer.
“You want to be able to offer solutions for the end consumer and make it easy in terms of designing a look,” Comrie said of the concept, which he noted did well at the market.
The company is also stocking the four room settings, along with the fireplace inserts in its Texas warehouse, meaning that retailers can have it shipped and landed at their store or warehouse within days, depending on the location.
“Truthfully we need to do more of this,” Comrie said of the concept, noting that even categories such as standalone fireplace units already do well within the line. “Now they are shown as a focal point to the room, surrounded by the console, the piers and the upholstery and occasional pieces. So now you bring that whole look together with the rest of the merchandise.”
