Appliance Retailers Invade CE Market

Back in 1994, when we launched CE Pro, most integrators came into this business by way of home security or car audio. Then came the stereo guys and electrical contractors, followed by the IT pros and commercial integrators.

So where will the next wave of CE Pros come from? Would you believe … retailers of furniture, bedding and major appliances?

That’s my conclusion from the recent PrimeTime Expo hosted by Nationwide Marketing Group, a buying group that represents over 3,000 dealers selling a broad range of products – bedding, furniture, major appliances, kitchenware, basic electronics and (most recently) custom electronics, to name a few.

All together, the members buy more than $12 billion worth of stuff, although custom electronics is just a tiny part of that … for now. The custom division, Specialty Electronics Nationwide (SEN), was launched about five years ago and now boasts about 475 members; however, more than 1,000 dealers within Nationwide sell TVs, and that number is growing.

During PrimeTime, those traditional furniture and appliance retailers crossed the aisle to the small CE area in record numbers, seeking home-control and other custom opportunities for their businesses.

“We had one guy [furniture retailer] come by who was already selling home theater chairs,” says Wayne Ortner, national sales manager for Powerline Control Systems, a retrofit lighting-control company and new SEN vendor. “So why not also sell home theaters, including lighting?”

Similarly, after a presentation on selling high-end soundbar systems, one traditional retailer went right back to the store to set up the suggested demo. Jon Upton, electronics manager for Jeff Lynch Appliance & TV in Greenville, S.C., told me, “We are going to implement a demo area on our showroom floor that’s based on his [Atlantic Technologies VP of sales Lawrence Davis] ideas. It was a simple, yet powerful way to easily show our customers the advantages of adding high definition sound to make a complete ‘high definition experience.’”


OCT. 27, 2011: Jeannette Howe presents Everything You Need to Know About Integrating Smart Appliances
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And while retailers like Jeff Lynch sought new profit opportunities in CE, I didn’t see many custom dealers cross the aisle to major appliances. If appliance dealers believe refrigerators, remote controls and surround sound make good bedfellows, why don’t CE pros think along those lines? Because washers and dryers don’t belong in a CE showroom?

SEN executive director Jeannette Howe, who started her CE career in 1985 as an audio buyer for Tweeter and Magnolia before moving on to the Professional Audio/Video Retailers Association (PARA) and the buying group Home Entertainment Source (HES), recalls: “When we started out, TV stores were separate from audio. Deborah Smith [former PARA exec] got laughed off the stage when she suggested that every audio showroom would eventually have TVs.”

So, then, is it really a stretch to add major appliances to the mix?

Howe says, “A lot of CE dealers already have kitchen vignettes in their showrooms, but the appliances are just taking up space.”

Why not sell the stuff? If you don’t see the connection yet, you will soon because one day major appliances will be smart and currently you’re the only ones that can connect them to a home automation system and/or the smart grid – unless you’re Best Buy, which now has Magnolia, Geek Squad and the high-end appliance shop Pacific Sales (acquired in 2006) under a single roof.

“If you bring that together with the smart grid and smart appliances, they’re going to be leaders,” Howe says.

How dare they! Smart appliances and the smart grid have been slow in coming despite years of “just-around-the-corner” speak. But would it really hurt to get a jump start on the category before the appliance vendors eat your lunch?

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