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Lekker Home’s Joe Hickey on the new standard for shopping experiences

Posted by Alex Samuely on Feb 9, 2021

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

The onset of the pandemic has given way to a rise in social media usage, which retailers should leverage to enhance in-store shopping and provide customers with a true omnichannel experience. Store associates can encourage consumers to browse social media to find inspiration pictures that articulate their tastes, and then show customers available products that might fit their curated preferences. In a highly visual industry, social media can—and should—assist the seller.

Joe Hickey, sales manager at Lekker Home—a Massachusetts-based small business that sells high-end furnishings and decor—recently sat down with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, for an Endless Aisle podcast episode about working in a relationship-focused field and catering to consumers with a true omnichannel shopping experience.

Joe began his career in the industry by working at TJX Companies post-college and developing a deep understanding of the brick-and-mortar retail experience. At Lekker Home, Joe and the team attempt to tap into the aesthetic nature of social media platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram to pique consumers’ interests and entice them to visit Lekker’s showroom.

Read on for several takeaways from Marcus and Joe’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On TJX’s appealing business model

“Their business model is interesting because they have this really attainable price point on a lot of products. They have brand names that people are looking for but don’t necessarily want to pay the brand-name price. There’s this allure about their stores of ‘you don’t know what you’re going to find when you go in there.’ You could go into HomeGoods and find a Dutch oven [that’s] super inexpensive, where you can find that at Crate and Barrel for double the price. And it’s wild because their social media presence isn’t like ‘shop with us.’ They don’t really have that web aspect, which is kind of scary how well they do without it.”

On building out a showroom experience

“I think retailers need to put more of a focus on a showroom experience or an in-store experience, and then play that hand-in-hand with the rise of social media. There are companies that do this really well—pulling people into their store with their visuals [and] their social media and creating this story around their whole brand. They know who their customer is. They cater to that customer because they know who they are.”

On customers’ growing expectations

“[Customers are] more educated because they have all these resources at their hands. They’re more price savvy. They can shop around now. I think overall the customer has been spoiled by Amazon. I’m like, ‘I ordered my skincare product online. It’s going to be here in a week? No, no, no. I need it tomorrow.’

“So I think we’ve been spoiled—especially in furniture, where lead times are 10 to 12 weeks. But now with COVID and workforce restrictions and manufacturing, it’s 18 to 20 weeks. Our industry is really struggling with trying to mitigate that new lead time reality.”

On the reasons for Lekker Home’s social media growth

“I give big credit to our social media team at Lekker. They do such an amazing job because just in the past year alone, we were at roughly one million Pinterest views a month, and now they’re at something like 10 million Pinterest views a month. And that’s over the course of a pandemic. I think that has escalated—that has put the foot on the gas pedal of social media assisting retail or [the] seller.

“Folks come in and they say, ‘I want minimalism. I want clean lines. I have inspiration pictures.’ Okay, great. Social media has, in that sense, helped me say, ‘Okay, now I know what you’re talking about. This picture helps.’

“In another way, not in a salesperson-to-customer type of way, it drives people into the showroom. I think if social media is successful, your arm of your social media [and] your company is successful, it is a huge component in driving people in and creating that overall brand experience. Especially for the millennials right now.”

On the relationship-based nature of selling furniture

“It’s more of a storytelling experience and a relationship-building experience. We use CRM software to leverage those relationships, but it’s [about] making everyone feel special. When you’re going into Gap or Banana Republic, you don’t really need that trust level built with someone as much as [when] someone’s laying out $10,000 to buy a sofa and they need to know that you’re the right person to guide them in that experience and that you’re going to continue to guide them because now [they] need a chair with this.”

On the psychology of retail

“There’s something to be said about the psychology of retail [as] a zoomed-out version of the psychology of sales. Having that person-to-person interaction, it’s been tougher in the past year, but it still is what drives my love of retail. You don’t know what’s walking through the door. It can be anything, and that’s so exciting. It lends some interest to your day. I think it’s unlike any other day job, and it’s exciting.”

On having retail pride

“Don’t allow anyone to make you feel ‘less than’ for working in retail. Retail is an incredibly admirable profession, and one that we take a lot of pride in. It’s an amazing industry that employs a huge percentage of the United States and the world.

“I would [also] say to always be yourself. People appreciate genuine folks when they come into a showroom. There’s a reason you are where you are. And whatever type of selling it is that you’re doing, whether it’s just consultative or commission selling, be true to yourself and conscientious and be able to lay your head on your pillow at night and be proud of the work you did.”

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