One of the hardest things for any retailer – especially one in the home furnishings business – is figuring out how to integrate the store’s online presence with its existing physical facility.
As digital-only e-commerce companies continue to open physical stores – Wayfair is the latest with its first full-time store opening in the Boston area this year – going the other way is proving to be just as tricky.
One retailer that’s found an interesting way to approach the problem is Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM), the giant home furnishings operation with mega-stores in Omaha, NE, Kansas City, KS, and most recently Dallas. In May, it’s opening what it calls a pop-up shop in that Dallas store – in The Colony north of the city – that will showcase products it only sells online. While there will be some inventory for its opening, after that it’s only floor models for customers to see in person and then order online, either at the store or when they get back home. One of the featured lines will be NFM’s exclusive Accentrics Home program, for which shoppers can scan a QR code and see the entire collection online.
The in-store shop is scheduled to run through the end of July, but the store is saying it may extend it if it proves to be successful.
As one of the larger lighting retailers in the country, with thousands of SKUs in its assortment ranging from table lamps to hard-wired products to outdoor lighting, NFM will be a test case in creating a true omnichannel retailing model.