Page 82 - Lighting Magazine October 2018

on the mark
IT’S CALLED SURVIVAL
As we rapidly race to 2020 – the year that many seasoned industry pros predicted as the nal rhapsody of brick and mortar showrooms as we know them – it’s time to embrace change.
BY MARK OKUN
Surprise! The way showrooms have gone to market and interact with their suppliers and clients is reaching a critical point. Un- fortunately, the impact of these changes we have experienced have hardly scratched the surface of change. The time to act is now; don’t delay!
First, let’s look back. It all began back in 2005, when there was consolidation of several compa- nies into one group. The change was stalled when the 2008 Recession hit, and the idea of continu- ing consolidations was put on the back burner and replaced by survival mode.
We saw many legacy and family-built vendors, go
out of business one by one, or be absorbed by ven- ture capital groups. This warning shot over the bow did li le to alert those down channel, however, and showrooms operated the same as they had.
So, what happened? The vendors’ need for growth was not being satiated by the channel that brought them to the dance. While that growth has been touted as vertical growth, in retrospect, much of it seems to have been horizontal. What’s the di erence?
Vertical growth can be referred to as increas- ing penetration into di erent vertical markets by taking a more signi cant share of the market that
78 enLIGHTenment Magazine | october 2018
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