Turning Shopper Hesitation Into Retail Opportunity
Join Katapult’s Maurice Edwards at HFA @ Las Vegas Market for two retailer-focused sessions on improving conversion in a tougher market — including a Monday conversation with The FAM’s Mark Kinsley on how AI is entering the retail sales conversation.
Furniture retailers are facing a conversion problem — and it’s not just about price or product. Today’s shoppers are more cautious, more research-driven, and more likely to stall at the point of purchase than at any point in recent memory. The hesitation is real, it’s measurable, and for most retailers it’s costing more sales than any competitor ever could. On Monday, Maurice will be joined by Mark Kinsley, Founder & Host of The FAM, to bring an added perspective on AI, customer trust, and how retailers can adapt as shopper behavior continues to evolve.
That’s the conversation Katapult’s Maurice Edwards, EVP of Omnichannel Development, is bringing to Las Vegas Market this July. Maurice is leading two sessions at the HFA Resource Center (Showroom Building B-1050) on consecutive days, and both are built around what’s actually happening on the floor — not a broad economic overview, but specific, actionable strategies for today’s selling environment.
Here’s what to expect:
Session 1: Selling in a Soft Market Monday, July 27 | 3:30 PM | HFA Resource Center, B-1050
When the market tightens, buyer behavior changes. Shoppers who might have decided quickly six months ago are now researching longer, hesitating more, and arriving at the showroom with more questions — and more caution. That shift puts pressure on every stage of the sales interaction.
This session examines how economic conditions are reshaping the point of purchase, and what the retailers who are still converting are doing to meet buyers where they are. Maurice will be joined by Mark Kinsley, Founder & Host of The FAM, to explore where AI fits into the conversation — not as a replacement for strong selling fundamentals, but as a tool that can help retailers better understand, support, and respond to today’s cautious customer. Attendees will come away with practical frameworks for supporting customer decision-making, reducing hesitation, and building the kind of purchase confidence that closes deals — even when demand is slow.
Session 2: The “Hesitation Moment” Tuesday, July 28 | 10:30 AM | HFA Resource Center, B-1050
The second session zooms in even further — to a single, critical inflection point in the sales journey. Maurice calls it the hesitation moment: the seconds before a customer decides to disengage. It’s not a no. It’s a stall. And it happens both in-store and online, often at the seam between the two.
Today’s furniture shoppers move between digital and physical touchpoints constantly — browsing online, visiting showrooms, circling back to the web before committing. When that journey feels disconnected, friction builds. And friction, left unaddressed, becomes a lost sale.
This session breaks down the behavioral signals that show up right before a customer disengages, how high-performing sales teams recognize and respond to them in real time, and how retailers can build a more seamless bridge between their eCommerce experience and the showroom floor to keep momentum alive and close more sales — with retailer participation adding practical, real-world perspective to the conversation.
Why These Sessions Are Worth Your Time
The retailers gaining ground right now share a common thread: they’ve adapted how they sell, not just what they sell. They understand that the customer who hesitates isn’t a lost cause — they’re a buyer who needs a different kind of support at a critical moment.
Maurice’s sessions are built around that understanding and designed to give attendees something concrete to bring back to their teams. With Mark Kinsley joining Monday’s session and retailer participation planned for Tuesday, the conversations will combine strategy, industry perspective, and practical examples from the field.
Both sessions are part of HFA programming at Las Vegas Market and are open to registered attendees. Add them to your schedule at https://myhfa.org/events/las-vegas-market/.
