Christmas may feel a way off, but canny retailers will already be getting ahead of demand. In the first of a new series exploring the fundamentals of independent furniture retail, sales and operations consultant Ben Wain, the founder of Wain Consultancy & Coaching, suggests that good planning, and being open to change, could be the recipe for success in 2026 and beyond …
As I write this, it’s the first week of August. The children are off school, holidays are in full swing and retail can feel slightly slower.
But if you work in furniture retail, Christmas starts while the sun is still shining.
In the click of a finger, and by the time you read this, we’ll have passed the August bank holiday and began the sprint towards one of the most important trading periods of the year.
Customers will soon be thinking about the dining table they want their family gathered around on Christmas Day. The sofa they’ll cosy up on during dark winter evenings. The new carpet their children will sit on while opening presents beneath the tree.
They aren’t simply buying furniture or flooring. They’re buying the experience around it … and trusting us to deliver our part on time.
Sadly, I’ve seen retailers realise too late that they weren’t ready. Staff are still on holiday or still in holiday mode in early September. Supplier cut-offs have been missed. Containers weren’t ordered. PoS material arrives late. The sales team hasn’t discussed final order dates because nobody communicated them.
The customer still wants the product, and they’ll simply find another retailer that can deliver before Christmas. The business loses the sale, the salesperson loses the commission and the team enters peak already playing catch-up.
Ironically, by the time you realise you’re late to the party, you can’t get through the door.
That’s where I want to begin this new column, with a real challenge retailers are facing now.
Not theory. Not generic lists of ‘five ways to improve your business’. Not pretending there is one perfect answer for every retailer. I want to share the things I wish somebody had told me while I was learning to lead and improve retail businesses, and some things people did tell me that I wasn’t yet wise enough to hear.
For those who don’t know me, I’m Ben Wain. After more than 20 years in retail, leading large teams, running complex operations and taking responsibility for more than £500m of revenue, I stepped away two years ago and launched Wain Coaching & Consultancy.
Since then, I’ve helped businesses grow, stabilise their operations, develop their people and deliver some genuinely exciting improvements. It has given me a fresh appreciation for independent retail and how demanding it can be when the leadership team is expected to have every answer.
Over my career I’ve delivered incredible results, but I haven’t got every decision right. Some of my most valuable lessons came from getting things wrong.
Just one example from early in my management career – I believed energy and confidence could carry a morning meeting. I would pull together a few figures 15 minutes beforehand and try to deliver something inspirational off the cuff.
It didn’t work. The meetings became repetitive and uninspiring. My regional manager had explained the preparation behind a great meeting, but naivety told me I could wing it. When I finally prepared properly, the difference was enormous.
Confidence might help you deliver a meeting, but preparation makes it worth delivering, and I wish I’d listened sooner.
That taught me something I have carried throughout my career – you don’t have to make every mistake yourself. There is enormous value in listening to people with more mileage under their tyres, people who have faced the challenge, made the wrong call and emerged with a better understanding of what works.
I don’t pretend to know everything. One of my strengths has been surrounding myself with people who know things I don’t, asking questions and being willing to change my mind and always staying curious. That is the spirit I want to bring to this column.
Independent retailers have incredible experience, but experience can occasionally become repetition. Somebody might say they’ve been doing a job for 20 years when, in reality, they did it for five years and then repeated those same five years another three times.
Businesses can do the same. The same processes and frustrations repeat because “that’s how we’ve always done it”. Familiarity becomes comfort, comfort lowers curiosity and, before long, okay becomes the accepted standard.
I want these articles to challenge that. Over the coming months, we’ll explore the real issues facing independent retailers – new systems, team development, recruitment, productivity, margin, stock control and management capability.
Rather than simply telling you what to do, I’ll share what I’ve seen, where businesses get it wrong and what I would consider if it were my business.
Sometimes the answer will be a better process or better training. Sometimes it will mean finding a better ‘who’ instead of endlessly asking ‘how’ the existing team can do more. Occasionally, it will require a difficult decision.
Meaningful improvement doesn’t always involve spending a fortune or buying the newest system. Often, it starts by identifying what you’re trying to solve and why it matters before jumping towards a solution.
This matters because an independent retailer is far more than its turnover or profit.
Behind every business are the chimney pots – homes of people relying on it for security, stability and the opportunity to thrive. A stronger retailer protects jobs, develops people, supports families, improves customer service and strengthens its community.
That is the real reason for this column. If something we share helps one retailer avoid an expensive mistake, ask a better question, improve a process or make a decision they’ve been putting off, it will have done something worthwhile.
I’d also like this to become a conversation. If you’re facing a challenge and lack the time, expertise or budget to solve it, reach out to us. We may explore the wider issue in a future article without identifying the business.
Independent retailers might compete for the same customer’s pound, but we face many of the same pressures. We can learn far more by sharing experiences than by pretending we have all the answers.
For now, Christmas is coming probably faster than you think. Are your rotas planned? Do you know your supplier cut-offs? Have you protected delivery capacity? Are the right people available? Is your promotional material ordered? Does your sales team know how to begin the Christmas delivery conversation?
And have you booked the Christmas party or planned something for the team to look forward to? Peak asks a great deal of people. Showing them their effort will be recognised can make an enormous difference to culture, energy and engagement.
Small, considered decisions made today can prevent expensive, reactive ones later.
So, for now I’ll leave you with one question – where has your business settled for ‘okay’, and what could you improve today?
