Business to Business: Online Furniture Industry By: Adam Ratana In-Soo Son Omotola Talabi Rubina Zaidi

Major Players Ccfurn.com – Full-service office furnishing firm – Provides wide selection of office furnishings – Space planning, interior design, and installing services Gunderchurch.com – Specializes in church furniture – Customizes its products – Markets in mid-west area Officefurniture.com – Supplies office furniture – Step-by-step project management advice – Allows you to buy directly from their site

Major Players Office-design.com – Provides self-planning user interface select or create a design enter the room shape and measurement layout space with products from online catalogs view 3D rendering and product review – Helps customer locate the product dealer nearest them Mks.net – Portal site for furniture industry – Categorizes furniture into specific segments and provides industry specialized Webs – Each web contains the links of manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers

Common features of the sites Sites offer only product information or catalogs – no selling through sites (except for one)! To get further information, must follow up through contact Company profiles and mission statement Online catalog and products list Self-design software (office-design.com, mks.net) Online ordering form Contact information List of manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers

Online gallery of office-design.com

Screen shop of self-planning software

Basic concepts Informative – Provide real time detailed product information and descriptions for customers. – Price and feature based comparisons Interactive – Online interactive design and office layout software – Dynamic customizable pages Transactional – Online purchasing – Order tracking

Online B2B Furniture Customers Customer profiles determined by the core focus & business strategy of the site. Emphasis usually on customer acquisition rather than retention – because furniture is often a one-time expense Type of siteProducts & ServicesCustomer Profile Furniture Portals Specialized search engines Directories Customized WebPages Direct links to dealers Office design software Consulting Services Designers Furniture Suppliers Large and Small businesses Office design software vendors Financers Trade Organizations Trade Shows Installers

Type of siteProducts & ServicesCustomer Profile CataloguesMultiple vendors product listings Sample office designs Used furnishings Installation Customized WebPages Rentals Large and small businesses ManufacturersCatalogue of own products Dealer directories Installation Dealers, catalogues Large and small businesses Online B2B Furniture Customers

Value Added ParticipantsValue proposition Buyers (large and small corporations) Cost and time saving purchasing. Integration with purchasing systems. Comparison shopping and interactive applications Dealers, Suppliers and Manufacturers Cost effective distribution and service channel. Direct access to customers. ServicesDirect distribution channel through web based applications. VALUEVALUE

How these sites attract customers Many of these sites operate by “pull” systems – Customers are usually actively searching for furniture – Customers find these sites by doing an online search for furniture options; thus they visit sites that match their search query Other methods of attraction – Being listed on trade site, e.g., – Word of mouth – Leasing/purchasing plans – Free shipping – Discounted prices

How these sites retain customers Offer increased functionality: Step-by-step project management help/advice – Free space planner / tips for preparing a scale drawing – Wide product selection – Leasing advice / info – Online lease application / lease payment calculator – On-site assembly option Online order tracking system Mailing lists to inform customers of sales, specials, closeouts, and new product additions Functionality to save designs and reload them at a later time to continue work on them

Low Points of Some Sites Typically most of these sites are poorly done and do not offer much value over a paper catalog Confusing Navigation/poor interface design (mks.net, ccfurn.com) Not enough information or pictures (gunderchurch.com) Bad use of frames (officefurniture.com) “Sterile” feel – not much personality in the website (most of the sites)

High points of some of the Sites Excellent use of images and pictures (office- design.com, officefurniture.com) Able to order online – “the complete experience” (officefurniture.com) Clean, simple design (gunderchurch.com) “Friendly” feel (officedesign.com)

Recommendations Sites should extend more of their owners presence onto the net, offer to form relationships with potential businesses buying from them In general most of the sites are static sites, or use limited database capabilities. They should offer more value over a catalog: – Allow businesses to use a “wizard” to generate a list of furniture they might want – Allow ordering/payment online

Recommendations For the sites that do use ASP or other dynamic database technologies, there is no excuse to not have more functionality! Sites should: – Allow businesses to check on the status of their order (whether it was placed online or not) – Allow businesses to place orders online – Enable customizable solutions with pricing and/or estimates Officefurniture.com’s site is very close to ideal; other sites should model themselves based on Officefurniture.com’s website