Easton, Md.—Decorating Den Interiors, North America’s largest interior design and home furnishings franchise company, experienced record sales in July and August despite Covid-19 adversity. “Our design business owners focused on maintaining regular communication with clients and prospects while sheltering-in-place, staying in touch with suppliers in our LIVV Home Collection™ of furnishings, and it paid off with fantastic results,” said James S. Bugg, Jr., President and CEO.

“While we have had strong retail sales in recent years, we have not had two successive months like this since pre-recession back in 2007,” Bugg said.

David Haseley, senior vice president of merchandising and marketing, added that “we took advantage of not being able to meet in the clients’ home and our supplier shutdowns by using the time to have video conferences to provide continuing education with our designers to further build their product knowledge and design expertise.”

“Additionally, we had all-owner video conferences at least twice a month to provide sales training, motivational support, and foster camaraderie during this time when it otherwise could be easy to lose interest in growing a business,” noted Jennifer Manley, vice president of retail sales.

“Our corporate staff provided an immense amount of resources and assistance to help us keep our design services in front of clients and prospects,” said Franchise Owner of the Year, Kathy McGroarty, of Pennsylvania, who also was recently elected as chair of the company’s franchisee advisory board. “We were provided email marketing, social media posts, direct mail, digital marketing, and other tools for continuing our marketing during the lull and being ready to go as soon as our states permitted more personal contact. We also have had tremendous cooperation from our LIVV Home Collection™ home furnishings suppliers.”

“We believe the recent strong sales are also a confirmation of our business model of working with clients in their own safe one-on-one setting,” Bugg said. “Many people are still not yet comfortable going into a furniture store, and not fully confident in limited design services from on-line sources.”