Lamps Plus is preparing its first new store in seven years, opening this summer in The Arboretum, an Austin, TX, open-air mall. The new retail location, the company’s 39th store and third in Texas, is the company’s smallest, but the retailer believes it can thrive in less space by leveraging employees and its online operation.
Terre Wellington, Lamps Plus svp/store operations, told HomeWorld Business that the company has spent a lot of time over the past seven years building its online business.
Now, Lamps Plus is using that investment to turn to a smaller store format that is less densely merchandised than the company’s previous locations, organizes more products around vignette displays and helps the company promote its expanded home furnishings assortment, which includes a healthy selection of furniture. Lamps Plus plans to do that by arming store employees with tablet computers and encouraging them to work with consumers, demonstrating how whatever products catch their eye are both supplemented and complemented by online items.
“We want to promote interaction with a professional sales person who can help customers make the right decision and let them know we can provide installation and services,” Wellington said.
Lamps Plus has been enhancing its capacities in distribution as further support for its expanding assortment and store base. In January, the company purchased a 57,000 square-foot building next to its existing 800,000 square-foot warehouse in Redlands, CA, to augment the existing Lamps Plus storage and shipping operations. The acquired building will house lighting, home décor and furniture.
