shopping tips

Did you know that shipping furniture can be quite expensive and cost up to several hundred dollars for one piece of furniture?  Sadly, this cost is expected to increase in the next few months as gas prices keep climbing.  Many retail furniture companies have been forced to charge a shipping fee to customers to help cover the cost of shipping.  This can range from $100 up to 10% of sales price.  Imagine you have just purchased your TV lift cabinet, dining room table set and living room furniture for your new home for a total of $10,000.  Ten percent of that is $1,000 that you would have to pay just to ship your furniture!  Yowsers!

Well, I have some good news.  At ImportAdvantage, we offer FREE shipping and In-Home Placement.  Yes, you heard me right.  I said free shipping.

Your TV lift cabinet will be delivered and placed in the room of choice.  At which time the delivery people will unpack your TV lift cabinet in front of you, allowing the chance to inspect.  Once inspection is completed to your satisfaction, all packing material will be removed from your home.   Simple, easy and best of all free. Now how do you like them apples?

New TV – check !  New TV Lift Cabinet – check!  Now it is time to select your new digital television service provider.

With the introduction of digital television, two main service providers have emerged into the television market and are growing rapidly.  In the last few years, Verizon and AT&T have both expanded their influence by entering into the television market with the new age of digital/HD television. Verizon has launched FiOS and AT&T has launched U-Verse®.   We have done some research on both providers and are now going to share with you are findings.

To sum up the table above here are the key findings.

Verizon uses fiber connections while AT&T uses their existing copper wiring connections.  Fiber is a much better product than copper for transmitting information.  In lay man terms, this means that during a bad storm, your image quality will not be affected and you can go about watching your favorite shows with no image interruptions.    FiOS trumps U-Verse® with fiber connection.

AT&T, however, does provide more affordable bundled packages than Verizon.  This is partly because Verizon must cover the cost of laying down new fiber connections which is time consuming and expensive.  To cover for the cost of this expense, they have slightly higher consumer pricing.  AT&T bundled packages are more affordable because they rely upon using their existing copper wiring to transmit information.  AT&T does plan to switch to fiber connections gradually over the next few years.  U-Verse® wins over FiOS on pricing.

Both FiOS and U-Verse® offer cool features to consumers.  With FiOS, customers can access Facebook and Twitter on their TVs.  The sharing ability between PC and flat panel is amazing.  With U-Verse®, consumers have the ability to record up to four programs at once.  Wonderful!  It is a toss-up on who wins on best cool features.  Both FiOS and U-Verse® offer uniquely different features.  It truly depends on the consumer’s interests.

Ok, we have provided you with a quick breakdown.  Now it is your turn to vote.  Which one do you feel is better?

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1.       Recycled wood – In order to live “green”, many folks are using recycled wood in their home furnishings.  Try furnishing your home this year with an Amish TV Lift Cabinet made with recycled wood.  Using recycled wood is a great way to reduce carbon footprints.

2.       Oui la France! – French influences are gaining momentum this year. Expect to see The Old World romance of vintage French pieces from the 1930s and 1940s. French motifs such as fleur de lys and quatrefoils add excellent soft features to any room.

3.       Metallic and copper accents – Can we say bling?  People want luxury! Shiny metallic and copper finishes achieve this glamorous look on a relatively affordable budget.

4.       Patterns, patterns, patterns – people will always love patterns.  This year expect to see bolder, more colorful patterns with more African tribal and Mexican influences.

5.       Color me gray – This year gray is the new neutral.  Keep a lookout for washed out purple grays and softer grays with blue hues. Good bye beige!  Hello, gray!

Out of the answers below, can you guess why people are hesitant to buy online?

A.      Cannot see the product in person.

B.      Does the finish look exactly as it does online?

C.      Concerns over online security.

D.      Do not feel comfortable doing business with people they have not had the opportunity to meet face to face.

E.       All of the above.

If you answered “E”, then you share the same concerns of many.  It can be quite nerve wracking to make a purchase sight unseen with an unfamiliar company.

As an online furniture company, we face these hurdles every day when speaking with our customers.  It is extremely important to us to make sure our customers feel comfortable when making their purchases.  That is why we make sure to address each and every one of these reservations.

For starters, did you know that we can send you wood-finish samples of any our TV lift cabinets?  Yes, it is absolutely true!  To ensure our customers select the right TV lift cabinet for their homes, we send free wood samples to all that are interested.  This has helped many of our customers determine which cabinet finish will work best in their homes.

We also understand that folks are hesitant to release their credit card information online.  Who wouldn’t be?  However, our customers do not have to worry when shopping on our site.  We are McAfee Secure and tested so our customers can shop without fear. McAfee provides around-the-clock site protection from hackers, adware, spyware, browser exploits, spammers, phishing attacks and online scams. This is the greatest confidence an online retailer can provide.

Finally, it is always helpful to identify a face with a name.   It is more comfortable knowing whom you are speaking with, rather than just having a voice.  To me, it just feels more REAL and personable.

With that being said, I would like to welcome you to our team.

Most reports for the 2010 holiday shopping season indicate it was an improvement over recent years, and last week’s big news about social media giant, Facebook’s, $50 billion valuation may seem to point to a connection between social networking and shopping. However, a survey by ForSee Results found that not as many consumers as expected used their “friends” or a company’s “tweets” to make a purchase decision.

Of course, even factory-direct TV lift cabinet manufacturer, ImportAdvantage, has its own Facebook page, but with how widespread social and corporate networking has been throughout 2010, it would seem that consumers would be hard-pressed to avoid its influence. The survey by ForSee Results received 10,000 responses from various consumers between November 29 and December 15, 2010. The survey showed that only 5% of online holiday shoppers were primarily influenced to visit top retailer sites by social media channels (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.). However, 19% of consumers were prompted by promotional emails and 8% were driven by search engine results.

So what does this do for retailers’ websites? Maybe not much. The survey also showed that the web is still an important place to do research before buying and that mobile web access is very important to shoppers. Fourteen percent of shoppers say they used their phones to access the website or a mobile app of a major retailer during the holiday season, but only 2% bought something over their phones.

Overall, almost half of shoppers who responded to the survey said they access a company’s website to research a product they intend on buying, but not necessarily go there to buy it. In fact, one-fifth of shoppers who first research a product online go to a brick-and-mortar store to actually make the purchase.

As an aside to the survey, ForSee Results also uncovered which of the major retailers’ websites scored highest and lowest for customer satisfaction. At the top, tied for first were Amazon.com and Netflix.com. At the bottom, BestBuy.com and Target.com tied for last place with six other retailers, including Buy.com, Cabelas.com, ToysRUs.com and 1800Flowers.com.

ImportAdvantage is proud to offer both a dynamic online shopping opportunity, complete with high-resolution product photos and descriptions, and honest customer reviews. However, for the one-fifth of shoppers who still want to visit a website first and then buy at a brick-and-mortar store, ImportAdvantage TV lift cabinets can be found in showrooms around the country. Call us today to find if there’s one near you! 1-877-377-5435.

Since the inception of Blu-ray technology, which was designed to supersede the DVD format, Blu-ray players have hot sellers in 2010. With the capability of holding 50 GB of data per disc, six times more than a standard DVD, Blu-ray movies set themselves apart by having countless extras and behind-the-scenes commentaries. By June of 2009, there were more than 2,500 Blu-ray movie titles available for purchase in the United States and Canada. And there will be many more to come, especially since their 1080p resolution and deeply rich colors put DVDs to shame.

Now that Christmas has passed, you may find yourself the new owner of a Blu-ray media player for your TV lift cabinet, or find yourself standing in line to return your DVD player for a Blu-ray player. In any case, you’ll want to know which Blu-ray players have earned their places at the top of the list for 2010. So here they are!

The Samsung BD-C6900 is chocked full of performance and comes with a terrific value. It also has the versatility to include a 3D player function (if you pay for it). Also nice is the option to stream Netflix, Vudu, YouTube and Pandora direct through your TV and the built-in Wi-Fi. This unit also comes standard with 1 GB onboard storage. The downside, however, to many Samsung Blu-ray players is that some users have experienced long-term reliability issues with their units.

For the most “bang” for your buck, you can purchase the Sony PlayStation 3 Slim (160 GB) and have it play Blu-ray discs in between games. The upside is its spacious hard drive, quiet operation and built-in Web browser. The flip side is that there is no infrared port so non-Bluetooth universal remotes are useless.

The Oppo BDP-83 is a universal disc player that can handle Blu-ray, DVD, SACD, DVD-Audio and CDs. Although a bit pricey and without Wi-Fi for BD-Live features or streaming, it can save you lots of space in your TV lift cabinet by replacing about three different media players.

Last but not least, the LG BD590 Blu-ray player does a lot of neat things. It can burn CDs directly into a 250 GB hard drive, stream Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, Pandora and CinemaNow, offers Wi-Fi, plays media directly off a USB drive and, of course, plays Blu-ray movies with excellent quality. Its downside is that it can be slow to operate and does not support 3D Blu-ray.

Sony TDGBR100B, courtesy Sonystyle.com

First, everyone at ImportAdvantage would like to wish you happy holidays and a Merry Christmas!

3D TVs are more than a trend; they reflect a substantial shift in television and movie-making technology and an opportunity for new investments in the home theater experience. 3D TVs have been flying off the showroom floors during this 2010 holiday shopping season, just in time for the 30+ 3D movies coming out during the next two years. And with 3D-capable Blu-ray players becoming more readily available and dropping in price, many families will be enjoying more 3D movies in 2011 on TVs popping out of their TV lift cabinet.

The one caveat, however, is that 3D TV- and movie-viewing requires the use of 3D glasses, and with any profitable business model, television manufacturers have found a way to make their 3D TVs specialized to their own brand of 3D glasses. So a Sony 3D TV requires Sony 3D glasses, and a VIZIO 3D TV requires a pair of VIZIO 3D glasses. Where this seems to cause the greatest inconvenience among 3D TV owners is that it limits the number of watchers to the number of 3D glasses one owns, and it may mean that you can’t go over to a buddy’s house to watch Monday Night Football in 3D if you don’t have his TV brand’s glasses. This may change (and has already begun to thanks to “universal” 3D glasses being produced by companies like XpanD and Monster) since the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry group, is still finalizing standards for the emitters in 3D TVs.

With that said, another important factor in promoting 3D-watching is finding the right pair of 3D glasses that are comfortable to wear for two or more hours in one sitting. Before listing a few of the front-runners, it should be known that anybody who wears prescription glasses for TV-viewing may have more difficulty finding the right pair of 3D glasses, and it is highly recommended that you try on several pairs before purchasing.

From Sony, the TDG-BR100/B is a pair that allows viewing on Sony 3D TVs from a wide viewing angle, perfect for those with large entertainment rooms. Also, its battery life is up to 100 hours before needing replacement batteries, so about 20 movies worth.

From VIZIO, the XPG201 Theater 3D Glasses are battery-free and compatible with RealD 3D movie theaters, so you can bring your own to watch the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy.

Lastly, Samsung’s SSG-2100AB 3D Active Glasses are battery-powered features a “staggering” effect, blocking the left lens, then the right lens, which achieves a far more lifelike 3D effect. They are also sleekly-designed and fairly light, which adds to their comfort.

Do you already own a pair of 3D glasses? Please leave your own review here for others to read!

If you are shopping for a new TV this holiday season, especially a flat-screen to fit in your TV lift cabinet, and you have a naturally bright living area or den, it is important to know which kind of television works best for rooms with lots of light.

Between LCD TVs and Plasma screens, both will provide outstanding picture quality and major advances in technology, such as app-capable systems and 3D-viewing. However, each TV will give you entirely different results based on their environment and viewing angle.

If you plan on viewing your TV from an angle, an LCD screen is not the right choice, as the LCD screen uses backlight and pixels, which open and close like a shutter. The further you move to the side of this “shutter” the greater the variations in picture brightness across the screen.

Plasma screens are self-lighting, which means they contain two transparent glass panels with a thin layer of pixels between them. Each pixel contains three gas-filled cells – one for red, green and blue colors – and a grid applies an electric current to each cell causing them to ionize. This ionized gas (plasma) emits UV rays that glow in the desired color. And this translates into a screen that can be viewed from nearly any angle since there is no “shutter” effect, and it makes the plasma screen better suited for displaying dark colors in dark rooms.

LCD TV screen are much brighter, in general, and therefore better suited to brighter rooms. Additionally, they have less reflective screens than plasma TVs, which means less chance of reflecting the light from a lamp or window. As a viewer in a bright room, our pupils are smaller than they would be in a dark room, limiting our ability to discern finer shades of light. It’s why we can see a lit candle much better in a dark room than if it was outside at midday.

Another bonus to LCD screens is that they consume much less energy than plasma screens. This can be a benefit for anyone who prefers to minimize the use of overhead lights and lamps for the purpose of saving energy and instead open windows and draw back curtains to maximize natural light.

So as you shop around for your next TV, it is certainly worth understanding how much ambient light will be present in your viewing room. You wouldn’t want to invest in the latest and greatest TV and not be able to see it well at home.

Do you consider yourself a “trendy” TV-owner? Do you get a couple goose-bumps every time you raise your flat screen TV out of your TV lift cabinet? Are you also either planning to upgrade your TV or give one as a gift this holiday season? If you said “yes” to any of these questions, check out this list of the Top 5 Trendy TVS for 2010!

Before we launch right into the list, you should have a basic understanding of what makes a TV worth its weight in pixels. As you know, TVs range in price and quality, and if you don’t know what all those numbers and refresh rates mean on the sticker, you might get more than you need or, worse, not enough bang for your buck.

So let’s start with contrast ratios. Especially for larger TVs, resolution is highly important. The contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest and brightest colors the TV can display. It’s important that this number be very high. Good televisions offer at least a 6,000:1 contrast ratio.

Another important factor for buying a good, trendy TV is resolution. The resolution is measured in the number of pixels that can appear on your screen at one time. If you have a lot of pixels, the image will appear much clearer. Additionally, some TVs may use interlacing to display images; while others use a progressive scan. It’s important to know the difference.

Another important component of a quality television is its refresh rate, which is the number of times the TV reconstructs the image on the screen each second. If you have a low refresh rate, your TV will have trouble displaying fast-moving images (think of all action sequences in blockbuster films!). This measurement is in hertz, and most HDTVs have a refresh rate of 60 hertz, but some go even higher. High is good.

So let’s get to the list:

5. Westinghouse TX-52F480S – Offered as Westinghouse’s largest LCD HDTV, it is also highly adjustable in terms of sound and image quality. Also, if you want to save energy, it can be set to a standby mode, consuming only about watt of power.

4. Pioneer PRO-151FD – This 60-inch flat-panel is one of Pioneer’s finest achievements. It has a terrific contrast ration and a 72 hertz refresh rate! Its coolest feature is an Optimum Mode setting, meaning it can automatically adjust the quality of the picture based on ambient light and temperature.

3. Mitsubishi Laservue L65A90 – First launched in 2008, Laservue technology uses rear-projected lasers as its light source, and its effect produces twice the color as any competing HDTV. It also boasts a 120 hertz refresh rate.

2. Sony 70-inch BRAVIA XBR LCD Flat Panel HDTV – If you want a true theater experience, this massive beauty allows you watch films at 24 frames per second (the standard speed for film). It also features a 1080p resolution and a 120 hertz refresh rate.

1. Pioneer’s 9-millimeter Thick Television – A 50-inch flat-panel screen that measures only .9” thick! It may not even be available to everyone, but it is truly a feat in trendy TV technology.

VIZIO XVT3SV Series TV

Happy Black Friday!

Landing on Mashable’s list of Top 10 holiday gifts for 2010, the VIZIO XVT3SV Series TV is expected to be one of the, if not “the,” hottest-selling TVs this year because of its value and high-tech features.

An incredible, mercury-free and energy-efficient display that includes TruLED backlighting, which has the ability to brighten and dim the TV image independently across the entire screen, not just along the edges, the VIZIO XVT3SV’s 1080p full HD video display is available in 42-inch, 47-inch and 55-inch models. Exceeding the new ENERGY STAR 4.1 Guidelines, the VIZIO XVT3SV will also not drop the bottom out of your energy bill every month.

With its super-sharp 10,000,000-to-1 contrast ratios and 240Hz SPS Refresh Rate, it can project more accurate black and white levels than nearly any other competitor in its price range. But what really sets this unit apart is the accessibility to Vizeo’s Internet Apps and ability to stream media services like Amazon Video On Demand, Netflix and Pandora directly to the TV, without needing an additional media player. Pandora, especially, should sound incredible thanks to the SRS TruSurround HD premium audio processing and SRS TruVolume, which eliminates volume inconsistencies between programming.

Another feature that lands the VIZIO XVT3SV Series TV in the spotlight is a built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, which means you don’t have to run an Internet ethernet cable to the TV. And to put its Internet-capable functions to work, the included Vizio VUR10 remote control connects to the TV via Bluetooth and has an integrated slide out QWERTY keyboard.

As with any new TV purchase, customers are looking for value and longevity, and while the VIZIO XVT3SV Series TV may have its display marginally outshone over the next five years, competitors will find it difficult to pack so many features into one home theater system for a rock-bottom price, which retails at just under $1,300 for the 42” class.

Backed by a company that has recently experienced unprecedented growth and consumer endorsement, VIZIO has become producers of the #1 LCD and LED Backlit HDTVs in North America, according to its market shares and revenue.

So will your holiday shopping list include a new VIZIO XVT3SV Series TV? We want to know. Share your comments below.

*Photo courtesy Mashable.com