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DUBUQUE, Iowa, July 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The best summer reads—the ones that height each year's bestseller lists—usually combine a good story with a little romance. Non surprising then that the execs at Flexsteel Industries are betting they take a potential hit on their hands with Flexsteel.com, an entirely revamped brand website designed to make shopping for a sofa, well, a day at the embankment.

"Our website is near providing inspiration, information and communicating our brand story to shoppers."

While nosotros consumers can store for just about anything, just nearly anywhere these days, the piece of furniture category has long presented something of a puzzler. For one thing, a sofa is a big-ticket item, not easily returned, and something we don't typically shop for very frequently, particularly since even a poorly constructed sofa volition likely last a few years. That leaves the decorating challenged without a lot of feel in the thing, and with a lot riding on making the right decision. Choose well and set to sit dorsum in satisfaction and comfort, enjoying the compliments of family and friends. Cull incorrectly, and you lot're saddled with a costly decorating mistake that will be a source of unhappiness and discomfort for quite some fourth dimension to come.

A New Decorating Ally

Flexsteel is a leading article of furniture manufacturer determined to take the guesswork out of the decorating game—stacking the deck for consumers by loading their new website with a diversity of high-tech tools designed to assistance in what many run into as a fourth dimension-consuming, and sometimes altogether frustrating, shopping process.

At showtime glance, the company would seem an unlikely contender for position of decorating marry in the digital age. Based not in Silicon Valley, but in Dubuque, Iowa, the maker was launched more than a century ago, when searching for but the right sofa anywhere other than inside a brick-and-mortar shop—much less while parked on a beach blanket—would accept sounded like and so much science fiction. Yet, the maker'southward journey from traditional furniture company to its recently stated goal of becoming a truthful omnichannel presence in the dwelling furnishings marketplace, is a story that appears destined to become a case study in the how-to-succeed-in-business genre.

It begins with a legacy of quality products, and a unique innovation that dates back to the 1920s, when Flexsteel introduced its proprietary blue steel spring™, a patented ribbon of steel that revolutionized upholstered article of furniture manufacturing in those days and has made for a clearly defined make story in all the years since. From the start, the manufacturer focused on telling its story to retailers across the land, for the almost part relying on those dealers to convey its benefits—the leap never actually wears out or requires adjusting over time—to their stores' customers, the article of furniture buying public. This marketing arroyo, which focused nearly all selling efforts on gaining coveted space for Flexsteel's products on retail floors, worked fine for decades. Indeed, over fourth dimension, the company would grow to become an manufacture leader, going public in the 1960s, and eventually expanding their production offering to comprehend non only upholstered goods, but major collections for every room in the dwelling house.

"Then came the big shift in how we, as consumers, shop for everything," says Sharad Mathur, vice president of marketing at Flexsteel. "While nil changed in terms of our capability to design and industry stylish, quality products that will terminal, in little more than than a decade, we moved from the industrial age to the digital. For consumers, new tools keep to appear at an e'er-quickening pace, from the showtime time we used a Google Map to find our way, to the introduction of the iPhone, to our outset Uber rides, and all the mobile apps we've learned to employ—and come to depend on—forth the fashion. People now habitually start their shopping process online, no matter the production, and the pandemic has only accelerated this trend. Prior to a buy, they look to observe all the information they require to brand their buying determination on your website, on your mobile friendly app, on a screen of one sort or another, wherever they happen to be."

First a New Chapter

The challenge for a visitor like Flexsteel, built-in and bred in the industrial age, was how to evolve its very traditional marketing approach to remain relevant in this new reality. Thus, the launch of Flexsteel.com, which supplants a site that was past all accounts dated and quite corporate in advent (read that tedious). The new version is cleaner, brighter, bolder, and from a visual standpoint, much more than in line with the await of a major specialty retailer.

Though aimed squarely at a consumer audition, the site remains strictly B2B in support of the retailers that sell Flexsteel's products. "Nosotros recognize that the success of our business organization hither at Flexsteel is directly tied to the success of our retail partners," says Jerry Dittmer, main executive officeholder, "so our goal was to develop a seamless experience linking our digital platform and our brick-and-mortar dealers to better run into the needs of today'southward consumers."

"Our website is almost providing inspiration, information and communicating our make story to shoppers," Mathur emphasizes. "The robust digital tools we now provide are designed to atomic number 82 site visitors to retail stores to complete their purchase, and to help those stores in positioning and promoting our make to their customers."

Get me Rewrite!

I of the new tools that will no incertitude roll everyone'due south toes in the sand (or anywhere else for that matter), is digital draping—enabling site visitors to visualize and customize furniture styles and fabrics with a click. Forget the heavy rings hung with small fabric samples that accept long forced shoppers to flip back and along from 1 small swatch to some other, trying to imagine what a sofa might await like wearing each. Merely cull a customizable silhouette from Flexsteel's expansive selection of sofas, chairs, and sectionals, and then personalize the look with your selection of more than 250 standard fabrics from the company's popular South Haven drove. Tap on a fabric and the tool immediately "drapes" your slice, fully covered in the chosen colour and blueprint. No guesswork necessary.

Users tin then rotate the resulting prototype 360 degrees to view their pick from all angles, zooming in and out to study information technology closer. Say that dark-green floral sofa with plaid pillows is non quite what you imagined, just drape it with another fabric, changing the base textile and/or the emphasis fabric as many times as necessary to create a look you dearest.

Amongst the choices included in the South Haven collection'south simplified pricing program are performance fabrics with stain resistance—we're talking to you lot parents of small children and pets—sustainable options and even fabrics with UV protection. Still determined to go old-schoolhouse and insist on actually touching and feeling your chosen textile in person? Tap over again to asking a swatch be sent for your hands-on review.

When a Flexsteel.com company hits upon an ideal fabric and frame combination, they tin can add the image they have created to their favorites, email it to themselves, and/or share with friends, family members via social channels. Or simply print the image out to prove a salesperson on the floor of their favorite furniture store exactly what it is they are after. Of a sudden, buying furniture and decorating a space—long considered an overwhelming task by many—is something alike to a video game. Winning is like shooting fish in a barrel. Convenient. Conviction boosting. Fun!

Look, There'south More

As whiz-bang as all this sounds, Mathur is quick to note that the visitor's digital journey is but commencement. However, there are already more tools bachelor here to help consumers create cute spaces than the company has ever previously provided. Forth with the aforementioned draping tool, the newly interactive website is loaded with bolder, more than inviting images, improved navigation, and…a room planner.

The room planning tool enables site visitors to move beyond customizing a slice of furniture, to actually placing the piece of furniture in a space. "You input your room's dimensions, along with architectural elements like windows, doors and fireplaces, and the room planner makes it uncomplicated to choose from any of our products and design your entire room to calibration," he explains.

Set aside the razzle dazzle designed to appoint consumers and invite play, and the company's mission becomes quite clear. These new digital tools nearly nullify the possibility of making a decorating error, while exponentially increasing the client's peace of listen near prospective purchases. There is yet more to come up. Virtual reality—the kind that enables users to really move around inside a space they take created—figures prominently in the visitor's plans over the coming months.

The Plot Thickens

Any proficient summer read includes page after folio designed to engross and move a story forward, and the concept holds merely as true here. Anyone who may have encountered the company'southward previous website, volition immediately grasp that its sequel is far more than expansive and compelling. Indeed, the company's writing team has been hard at work developing fresh, informative, best-in-class content that is conversational in tone, relatable and smart. In fact, the new site arrives with an ever-growing library of inspirational blogs packed with pattern ideas and communication, all aimed at helping people make more informed decisions.

Read through the vastly improved copy and the underlying message of the brand'due south legacy—the quality construction story at its very heart—continues to beat unchanged. Additionally, all of the new content is seamlessly syndicated to the websites of Flexsteel retailers across the country, which ensures that no matter where consumers come across the brand, the information they find volition be accurate, upward-to-the-minute, and nigh important, consistent.

Although Flexsteel.com is the most outward expression of Flexsteel'due south transformation into an omnichannel presence, Mathur reports that it is actually only one chapter in the company's unfolding marketing plan. Others delve into brand nuts like refreshed store signage and point-of-purchase materials, an updated, easy-to-use in-store kiosk, and, of course, a mobile app. As is appropriate in the current environment, there is too plenty of audition engagement already at work through improved social outreach via Facebook, Instagram, and other channels.

"Our over-arching goal now is to create conversations with consumers, sharing what'south new and how nosotros're trying to position ourselves as a pattern leader," Mathur says. "Nosotros want to know who they are, what they retrieve nearly us, and what we can practise better. Rather than talk at people, we want to actually communicate. And beingness truly omnichannel means that nosotros need to be ready to talk whenever and wherever they desire to have the chat with united states."

In other words, the dialog in this story will be ongoing. "Nosotros're on a journey, and information technology's ane that never actually ends," the executive says. "Flexsteel accomplished wonderful things for more than one hundred years, all of which were relevant for a company in the industrial age. At present, the marketplace has evolved, and we are transforming along with it. The end of our story is a long way from beingness written, just for us, the time has come to turn the next page."

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SOURCE Flexsteel Industries, Inc.

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