subscribe to news Mebel 2021 covers the topic of sales support and development

The conference programme of the Mebel 2021 international exhibition was opened by Furniture Retail Fest, organised for the first time by EXPOCENTRE AO together with FC Project agency.

The first day of the festival began with an analysis of figures and the general situation in the furniture market. Maria Kolpakova, a representative of Yandex, which works with major furniture retailers and manufacturers, devoted her speech to this topic. She gave a brief overview of the market, explained what was happening with user queries and what trends were currently in place.

"In 2021, user activity is recovering and going up. Russian furniture market turnover is up 48% between 2020 and the first half of 2021. The increase in 2021 to 2020 is 12%. The percentage of enquiries is not as active as in the previous year, but the share of furniture in retail is quite large," said the analyst.

The festival continued with the plenary session "Marketplaces and the furniture market. One for All or All Against One?" moderated by Natalia Peksheva, founder of Delicatex.

An interesting discussion was devoted to furniture manufacturers on the marketplaces, entering the marketplaces, and how furniture manufacturers who have already entered the marketplaces feel. Representatives of Russian marketplaces shared their experience of how to significantly expand sales geography and enter new markets with the help of marketplaces.

Maria Bugakova, Lead Development Manager at Wildberries, Petr Halfen, Mebel.ru representative, Alexander Slutsky, Development Director at AliExpress Russia, Andrey Melekhov, Director of the "Furniture and Home Goods" category at Yandex. Market, Roman Zakharov, Development Director of Home24, Roman Ershov, CEO of Askona Life Grou, Anton Makarov, founder of Divan.ru, Ivan Bugai, Head of Durable Goods business group of SberMegaMarket, Maxim Genke, Managing Director of Hoff.

On the following days of the festival, industry experts will discuss new opportunities for successful sales, issues of franchising and management systems, staffing collapse, make a presentation of the immersive Store of the Future zone, talk about in-demand trade formats in the digital society, the transformation of the furniture business and how rebranding and merchandising can change company positioning and business processes.

The festival's conference programme is attended by top executives from major furniture manufacturers, retailers, franchisees, retail chain owners, e-commerce representatives and renowned industry experts.

Furniture Retail Fest runs till November 25.

View streaming here.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO