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ORLAND PARK, Ill. — A dedicated approach to bedding and an ongoing commitment to community have helped position Darvin Furniture & Mattress as the category leader in the Chicago area.
The company marked its 100th anniversary last year, but the challenges delivered by 2020 did not come with the playbook. Despite its long history, the retailer, like other businesses operating during the pandemic, was forced to find a new normal.
Its foundation, however, was strong, and the management team designed a new playbook that incorporated a new normal filled with dedicated telephone and online sales partners to meet consumers where and how they preferred to shop.
Like most companies, Darvin was shuttered for about two months, but the work didn’t stop. The retailer took advantage of the quiet time to develop safety protocols, spiffed up the interior with fresh paint and new vignettes, and created its critical needs call center. That call center gave consumers a seamless, contactless way to shop for products, including mattresses.
“The shutdown was a difficult time, but during that time we had an incredible awakening to online sales,” said Will Harris, president. “We had a terrific website that was ready to go for e-commerce, but it was underutilized. Prior to COVID-19, we had pretty decent online traffic. We were getting sales daily. However, the primary goal of the site was to bring consumers into the store.”
The management team dug in deep and treated the shift like an MBA case study.
“We shifted all of our focus to the website. We had the best thinking, analytical thinking, and engaged in new advertising practices guerilla marketing, if you will, that bore fruit for us,” Harris said.
That shifted during the pandemic, and Darvin has put a lot more technology and energy into the website. It appointed its first dedicated sales manager for Darvin.com, and there are now five communication specialists that work to response to online inquiries and phone requests. The end goal is to establish a full division for online sales.
“We are selling more mattresses and furniture online now than we did before,” Harris said, adding that the website is integrated into the store, and all of the “pieces have to match.”
In addition to the specially trained sales associates that manage Darvin’s online and telephone sales strategy, the company found that once the store reopened many consumers were leery of rest-testing mattresses. That realization led the company to design and make one-time use test blankets that consumers could use while testing mattresses.
“As the surge in buying came and people began returning to the in-store shopping, demand for the blankets climbed,” said Hanny Diab, vice president of merchandising, business development and Darvin.com. The company shifted production of the blankets from its distribution center to its onsite warehouse for quicker delivery to the store.
Store within a store
In 2010, Darvin opened its 9,000-square-foot bedding showroom, a store within a store that has a dedicated exterior entrance for consumers looking specifically for mattresses that don’t want to traverse the entire 200,000-square-foot showroom. In addition, the bedding showroom has its own sales management and a separate sales team of bedding experts.
The staff of 12 experienced bedding associates provides one-on-one consultation to help consumers find their perfect fit. The retailer’s assortment includes Beautyrest, Simmons, Tempurpedic, Aireloom, Serta, Sealy, Stearns & Foster, Restonic, King Koil, Symbol Mattress, iSeries and iComfort.
“Our bedding sales team is extremely knowledgeable of our 100-plus selection to help consumers find the best mattress to meet their needs,” Harris said, adding that the selection spans opening price points to the luxury segment.
Since the pandemic, the Darvin team has seen an uptick in demand for better-end mattresses, Diab said, adding that the team is constantly training to stay abreast of the latest innovation and changes to the company’s merchandising selection.
A surprise that both Harris and Diab point out is that they have been successful in selling mattresses over the phone.
“It was an unbelievable realization,” Harris said. “If we didn’t have that dedicated team of mattress experts, we wouldn’t have been able to be successful at that piece of the business. We now know that we have the team and the skillset to work that side of the business, too.”
Looking forward
During the past 12 months, the Darvin team dug in deep to make changes to adapt to a new environment.
The store’s team of 275 employees met the challenges headfirst through furloughs and the eventual return to work where daily health screenings continue.
“We are very fortunate, and we’re very proud of our bedding specialists. For a year, they have really stepped up, and they continue to meet our consumers in a variety of places — online, in the store and on the phone — to fulfill their needs,” Diab said. “They are so talented. We’re a family, and those customer specialists are inspired by one another on a daily bases.”
The company’s legacy continues to run throughout the organization. Harris joined Darvin in January 2020 — just as COVID-19 was beginning in the U.S. — from family-owned retailer Harris Family Furniture in New Hampshire. He says he is thankful for the mentors he has in Steve and Marty Darvin who continue to serve on the retailer’s board.
“We’re just getting started here,” he said. “Our long-term forecast is something that we discuss, of course, but the short- and mid-term is where we are, and we’re making incremental changes as we go.”
Diab echoes Harris’ assessment.
“Our future is bright,” he said. “If we continue doing what we are doing and continue to do it well, we’ll remain ahead of our competition. This year has been phenomenal. We took everything that we do to a whole new level. It was stressful, but fun. The pandemic gave us permission to get out of the box, and we don’t ever want to go back.”
