July 2014 NGN Spotlight: Emily Severson

Next Gen NOW Spotlight A big Dallas Cowboys fan, Emily's favorite Cowboy is tight end Jason Witten.

: How does a communications major end up in the furniture industry?

Emily: I majored in communications with

a management minor because, like most 19 year olds I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. I started taking calculus 2 and communications courses and the (communications) courses are what resonated with me.

: If you opened a home furnishings store tomorrow, how would you be successful?

Emily: I’d have to have an online presence.

If I don’t, I’m going to have a hard time believing I’ll be successful—especially a new business like mine. I need a website if for no other reason than people need to fine me online before they star shopping in person. I also need a venue for people who don’t want to come to the store, but still want to interact with me. A site that inspires them while they are researching is the best way to capture them…then you can sell to them. I can’t just open a store and sell, sell, sell. I have to gain their trust. I’m not sure a lot of stores understand what online can do for them. They just don’t get it.

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GETTING TO KNOW Emily Severson Operations Manager Furnituredealer.net Eagan, MN

: Tell me a retailer that

Emily: Belfort Furniture has blogs, surveys, design tips. They try to inspire, show a range of product that can go with any lifestyle but in a way of engaging the customer—not just “here’s our website now come buy something.”

: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made on the job and what did you learn?

Emily: Not taking advantage of all the

networking opportunities that were available when I first started. It’s hard to learn it all on your own. You’re not going to get anywhere quickly if you assume you have

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Next Gen NOW Spotlight

Emily bought her first sofa, from Rowe's Dalton collection, for her apartment last year. That was the easy part. Choosing this emerald green fabric took 2.5 hours.

to find all the information on your own without any help. Once except the Packers. This was when the Cowboys were winning you take in the industry, find a mentor and some friends, the indus- with guys like Troy Aikman and Deion Sanders. My older try will embrace you. I didn’t let it embrace me as soon as I could. brother started liking Dallas first. When you’re 5, your 7-yearold brother is your hero so he kinda made my choice for me.

: Do you think those are the biggest challenges facing store owners today?

Emily: I think those are probably right up at the top. The challenge

is that it’s a self-fulfilled prophecy. We drop prices, we run thinner margins and it reduces our ability to do the things we want to do.

So what happens is we’re working harder for less. You have to sell more $200 dressers to make up for the one $400 dresser you used to sell. When we drop our numbers, we have to work a lot harder and do a lot more to make the same amount of money.

: From a 20-something perspective, what’s the biggest challenge the retail furniture industry faces?

: Your apartment is on fire. There’s only time to save your cat and one social media.

Emily: I would go with LinkedIn. Facebook has gotten a little

convoluted in the sense that it’s everything. A lot of it I don’t care about. I mean, it’s a great venue for content and staying connected to people, but it’s almost too overwhelming. LinkedIn is a good, professional network. Everything I find on there is relevant to my life. Twitter and Instagram just aren’t as robust as I’d like to see.

: You’re walking down the street when you see the home furnishings industry coming toward you.

Emily: The biggest challenge is engaging the younger customer What does it look like?

because they’re the next big buying group the industry is going to be trying to grasp in the coming years. (Millenials) are young, tech-focused and have different expectations of how things are done.

They don’t buy things the way their parents do. Retailers are going to have to adapt and engage them on their terms.

: Why has the furniture industry been so slow to embrace the Internet?

Emily: A man, maybe someone who walks around in a sport coat and jeans. He’s professional making executive decisions in the sport coat, but the jeans give more of the history of where he started. This industry didn’t happen overnight. A lot of hard work got us where we are today.

: You do a lot of online shopping, which is odd since you live so close to the largest mall in the Emily: It’s a big leap to start doing some of the online strategies world. Online or bricks? needed. It takes time, it takes money. For businesses, that can be scary. Retailers had a wheel that was turning just fine. Now the industry is trying to reinvent itself, but a lot just want to keep going and going the same old way. I totally get that. It’s not like you’re buying a book online after reading the synopsis. Furniture is a big-ticket purchase with a lot of things to consider: size, fabric and comfort. It’s asking a lot of someone to pay $2,000 for a sofa without sitting on it.

: How does someone from Amery, Wisconsin end up rooting for the Dallas Cowboys?

Emily: (Laughs) My father was never into sports and my mother was from Minnesota. She said we could root for anyone we wanted

Emily: I love both. I will spend a week online looking for ideas

before I go into a store to make a purchase. That’s how I bought my sofa last year. Or, if I’m confident it will fit or know I can use it and like the reviews, I’ll go ahead and just buy it online.

: Why is Next Gen important?

Emily: Again, it’s the networking. Easily the best way to learn

the industry and grow, while at the same time helping the industry. The best of the best are at High Point Market and the best of the best are getting younger. They want to share what they think and they want to hear what you think. You really are taken seriously.

Next Gen NOW (NGN) is a community of young, passionate, engaged industry professionals whose mission is to give a voice to the needs and goals of the up-and-coming future generations. NGN strives to educate the industry on how and why it should attract and keep young talent. The NAHFA supports NGN by facilitating meetings and educational opportunities and introducing the industry to its members through RetailerNow. Connect with NGN members at ngnow.org or on Twitter @ngnow.

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