New Website Best in Case Goods
Originally published in Furniture Today
Durham Furniture says its online case goods buying tool is the best in the industry. Why?
"We are confident it will put us ahead of the crowd in the case goods category."
ROBERT (BOBBY) DALHEIM//Senior Editor of Case Goods and Global Sourcing• September 15, 2022
Durham Furniture makes solid wood bedroom furniture in Ontario.
DURHAM, Ont. – Ontario-based solid wood bedroom and occasional furniture manufacturer Durham Furniture has completely revamped its website in time for High Point Market, adding extensive 3D visualization and a proprietary portal for dealers.
The effort was led by Amanda McQueen, Durham’s marketing and sales support manager, who worked with two companies for over a year to see the project into fruition.
“The project was three parts,” she said. “First, there’s the new public facing website. Within that site, we have new 3D visualization technology, which allows all of our products to be shown in any of our finish, fabric and hardware options. If you can create it, we can build it.
Site users can customize all of Durham’s furniture pieces – from hardware options to finishes and fabrics.
“We then combined those elements into our own proprietary retailer portal, enabling a secured user to see the order and create carts while working with customers. They can see pricing, acknowledgements, invoices, their sales history and analytics.
The 3D technology part was executed by Intiaro, a furniture industry-focused tech firm out of Poland. North Carolina-based VanNoppen Marketing created the new website and dealer portal.
Company president and CEO Luke Simpson referred to the site upgrade as the “best case goods configurator out there.”
“We can drape our 3D models with these photo-realistic finishes,” he said. “When it comes to case goods, people haven’t gone this far. We are confident this will put us ahead of the crowd.”
A big motivator for the project was to get better use out of a reduced showroom space. Durham moved to a new 3,000-square-foot showroom at 220 Elm in High Point, a much smaller space than its previous 12,000-square-foot space in the International Home Furnishings Center.
“We can show everything on our website,” said Simpson. “We only need to show a handful of products in our showroom. We will benefit from significant savings. We will also have kiosks in the showroom to showcase the technology. We’re leveraging technology to more efficiently present our product at market in a reduced space.”
Another key motivator was to better embrace changing shopping habits.
“We felt like we had to go this way,” said Simpson. “This will become invaluable. Retailers may have three or four of our collections on their floors but nothing in specific finishes. Customers can now see everything.”
“Most of the time people know exactly what they want before they shop in a store,” McQueen added. “People are researching more online first. This will help accommodate.”
Durham will throw a launch party at market on Oct. 21 with a vodka tasting.
Originally published in Furniture Today
Durham Furniture says its online case goods buying tool is the best in the industry. Why?
"We are confident it will put us ahead of the crowd in the case goods category."
ROBERT (BOBBY) DALHEIM//Senior Editor of Case Goods and Global Sourcing• September 15, 2022
Durham Furniture makes solid wood bedroom furniture in Ontario.
DURHAM, Ont. – Ontario-based solid wood bedroom and occasional furniture manufacturer Durham Furniture has completely revamped its website in time for High Point Market, adding extensive 3D visualization and a proprietary portal for dealers.
The effort was led by Amanda McQueen, Durham’s marketing and sales support manager, who worked with two companies for over a year to see the project into fruition.
“The project was three parts,” she said. “First, there’s the new public facing website. Within that site, we have new 3D visualization technology, which allows all of our products to be shown in any of our finish, fabric and hardware options. If you can create it, we can build it.
Site users can customize all of Durham’s furniture pieces – from hardware options to finishes and fabrics.
“We then combined those elements into our own proprietary retailer portal, enabling a secured user to see the order and create carts while working with customers. They can see pricing, acknowledgements, invoices, their sales history and analytics.
The 3D technology part was executed by Intiaro, a furniture industry-focused tech firm out of Poland. North Carolina-based VanNoppen Marketing created the new website and dealer portal.
Company president and CEO Luke Simpson referred to the site upgrade as the “best case goods configurator out there.”
“We can drape our 3D models with these photo-realistic finishes,” he said. “When it comes to case goods, people haven’t gone this far. We are confident this will put us ahead of the crowd.”
A big motivator for the project was to get better use out of a reduced showroom space. Durham moved to a new 3,000-square-foot showroom at 220 Elm in High Point, a much smaller space than its previous 12,000-square-foot space in the International Home Furnishings Center.
“We can show everything on our website,” said Simpson. “We only need to show a handful of products in our showroom. We will benefit from significant savings. We will also have kiosks in the showroom to showcase the technology. We’re leveraging technology to more efficiently present our product at market in a reduced space.”
Another key motivator was to better embrace changing shopping habits.
“We felt like we had to go this way,” said Simpson. “This will become invaluable. Retailers may have three or four of our collections on their floors but nothing in specific finishes. Customers can now see everything.”
“Most of the time people know exactly what they want before they shop in a store,” McQueen added. “People are researching more online first. This will help accommodate.”
Durham will throw a launch party at market on Oct. 21 with a vodka tasting.