How can retailers increase sales and profitability?

Enthusiastic and knowledgeable retail sales staff are crucial. We believe it is essential to thoroughly train key individuals in our Devon-based workshop, both about our company, its values and the products we create. The retail environment is important, with good display and in-store ambience important – we can learn a lot from our European colleagues in terms of the aspirational approach to bed sales, but retailers need to be supported with appropriate point-of-sale materials from brands. ekonglong modern meeting desk

What brings a smile to your face in this industry?

One of the first major photoshoots I got involved in took us to a beautiful house in an idyllic coastal location, with a 7ft top-of-the-range divan set. The lady of the house was delightful, and we soon got talking about beds – she tried the Vi-Spring and was totally sold. She rather shamefacedly showed us her own bed – really no more than a chunk of foam on a non-sprung base, and this in a multi-million pound house with state-of-the-art features, that had featured on Grand Designs!

We may smile, but this sums up what a massive job bedmakers, retailers and organisations like the National Bed Federation (NBF) have to do to educate people about how important a good bed is to our health and wellbeing.

This is an extract from an article published previously in Furniture News magazine. For more stories like this, you can subscribe to receive a regular physical copy of the magazine, or sign up to have a free digital issue delivered to your inbox each month.