RIGHT SIZED RETAILING: Gabberts recognizes ‘more is less’ in focusing on breadth of service helping people find their personal style instead fatiguing them with massive, redundant selection

For Gabberts, successful retailing is evolutionary based on intelligent design to satisfy people and assist them in making their lives more comfortable and stylish.

During the past years, the influential Minneapolis retailer recognized the changing mercantile landscape.

In response, difficult and counterintuitive decisions needed to be made, assuring Gabberts would be prepared for success in the dynamic retail landscape.

Jim Gabbert is a devotee of the emerging verity that more is less. With some managed apprehension tempered with resolve, he courageously reduced his Galleria store to 60,000 square feet down from 90,000 square feet.

Yes, changing business conditions were a factor. In Gabberts’ former, capacious quarters, too much space was too much for customers who really wanted experienced design assistance to discover their personal style (Click to discover your personal comfort profile at Gabberts).

“We just realized that we were operating on the wrong business model,” Gabbert says. “It’s not always about new product and bigger stores and always selling for less, which just undervalues what you do when our customers just want service for which they will pay.”

Granted, Gabberts' customers are different: More educated, discerning and desiring better, higher quality furniture and a willingness to invest the time in return for a sense of sustained accomplishment. They don’t want what he terms the pervasive styles furniture found at the “McLifestyle” stores such as Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware and Z Gallerie, he explains.

“We are focused on our customers and not so much on product,” he says. “The future of furniture retailing is giving customers a few right choices, and making it easier for them to find their personal style instead of confusing and fatiguing them with so much choice.”

Gabberts’ dramatic transformation recognizes that people “don’t need 50 sofas to make a decision, but only two or three in the style and design that’s right for them.”

Satisfying the needs of customers becomes the responsibility of engaged design advisers “who know the capabilities our vendors and can professionally explain to customers that not every style is for everybody."

If the personal style of Gabberts’ customers isn’t in the store, “our design advisers turn to technology and become better dreamweavers who can put together what our customers want in a virtual experience, using a graphic models.

“We just don’t need a huge floor selection to satisfy customers. Anyway, if we did, a million square feet wouldn’t be enough. So why have all that unneeded space in the first place when it’s not really needed to satisfy customers?,” the progressive retailer observes.

As Gabbert formulated his transformation over the years, he explains how Hickory Chair became a major influence.

“They (Hickory Chair) got it right,” he says. “Just look at the showroom and see the methodical changes each market. Hickory Chair evolves existing collections, with a new finish here and a change there.”

“They don’t fill the showroom with everything they make. Why should a retailer try to show everything, either? All this means is, like Hickory Chair, all of us at Gabberts work on refining capability, not on just adding new collections for their own sake and to be a party to planned obsolescence. We don’t think that’s good business.”

Nor does any other thinking, progressive retailer realizing what investments are necessary to be of service future.

Is Gabbert right? What's your experience? Comment below.

Comments

[Irvina of FurnitureFromHome.com]

I concur. I think it's really a case of "Quality over Quantity." Nothing irk's me more than to walk into a retail front where the merchandise is aged, the sales person is unattentative and the room is marked with dust. It's not so much what you're selling but your focus and your execution that makes your diamond in the rough rise. Esspecially in the furniture industry. Where there is no room for errors in presentation. It's all about the presentation. Good luck guys. Happy Selling this weekend. -Irvina of www.FurnitureFromHome.com