Furniture.com Is A Really Audacious Retail Concept
In the latest edition of Omni Talk’s Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Simbe, and Ocampo Capital Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss:
🛋️ Furniture.com is shaking up the industry by integrating real-time inventory, search data, and in-store browsing into one seamless furniture shopping platform. Could this be the next big thing in home furnishings, or will giants like Wayfair and Walmart respond with their own versions? In this week's episode, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital, we break down the opportunities, challenges, and future of omni-channel furniture shopping.
For the full episode head here: https://youtu.be/rTReEPz6yR8
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Transcript
A new digital furniture platform wants to be an omnichannel, one stop shop for customers.
Speaker A:According to chainstoreage.
Speaker A:By seamlessly integrating store location and inventory data within its search engine, furniture.com intends to enable customers to explore, test, and purchase furniture items either digitally or in person.
Speaker A:Roomstogo, one of the nation's largest furniture retailers, both backs and participates on the furniture.com platform.
Speaker A:Furniture.com's retailer partnerships also include chains such as Bloomingdale's and American Signature Furniture.
Speaker A:And as someone currently in the market for home furnishings, or at least I think you're still in the market for home furnishings or, or aren't we always in the market for home furnishings?
Speaker B:Yeah, sure does.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:Why not?
Speaker A:Does what furniture.com is.
Speaker A:Maybe not with all the tariffs.
Speaker A:Does what furniture.com is trying to do intrigue you?
Speaker B:Yeah, it does, because I think it gets back to how we're searching and discovering this.
Speaker B:Again, like, I, I'm not going to roomandboard.com or to roomstogo.com to look for furniture.
Speaker B:That's just not how it's happening.
Speaker B:I'm getting inspired by following, you know, Rae Design, which is one of my favorite interior design posts.
Speaker B:And every Monday, she does a Look for Less.
Speaker B:So I see a restoration hardware chair, and then she posts a, a West Elm chair, that's hundreds of dollars less.
Speaker B:And if I can, in that moment, you know, click the button to search that particular item and see, like, there's one at the West Elm.
Speaker B:This chair is at this west elm that's 10 miles away from you.
Speaker B:If you go there now and you go sit on it and try it, like, I, like the article is saying, like, if it works, I'm buying that chair.
Speaker B:I'm leaving that day with that chair.
Speaker B:But I'm only able to do that if I know, like, I'm only able to, like, get that motivation to get up and go when I have this directly available to me.
Speaker B:So I think that's one case.
Speaker B:The other example is, again, it's Lens.
Speaker B:Like, I think so many people now are using lens as a way to, you know, see something online or see something, like in a furniture store when they're out on a Saturday doing furniture shopping and see, like, who else has this?
Speaker B:Where else can I get it?
Speaker B:And to be able to say at that point in time, you can go to this retailer this many miles away, it's there.
Speaker B:Like, I, I think you definitely see increase in basket size and, and that intent, that's completely shifted when you've invested in what furniture.com is talking about doing here.
Speaker B:But that's, that's me and my, you know, party of one shopping experience.
Speaker B:Like what, what is your opinion, Chris, from being in this, in this business, in furniture and home furnishings for so long from, especially from an omnichannel perspective.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean I, I think the concept's really intriguing.
Speaker A:I was on the site yesterday.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you know, the best way I could describe it, it's, it looked to me like a hybrid of like search advertising.
Speaker A:Like, it kind of felt like retail me, not circa 10 years or 10 or 15 years ago, but combined with like, it's kind of like a mashup between that and a third party marketplace for brands that want to sell through it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And, but this idea that they're inherently getting at is a, it's a new wrinkle because it's, it essentially creates like you're saying a third party marketplace that shows you the availability of products for in store pickup or in person browsing, which is still a key factor in determining your home furnishings purchases.
Speaker A:And like you said, using Google Lens or you're searching for an item with very specific specifications.
Speaker A:Like I can remember, I can remember when I was finishing my house, I was, I wanted a yellow rug.
Speaker A:So I was like 8 by 10 yellow rugs.
Speaker A:Show me everything you got.
Speaker A:But it's limited in the universe of what that, you know, that site carries.
Speaker A:I think I was on Wayfair at the time.
Speaker A:But now you get all the extended brands here too, which I don't know of anyone else trying to do that.
Speaker A:But there are some big questions.
Speaker A:There's some big matzo balls with whether or not this concept can work like one.
Speaker A:It sounds like they've got some big brands already, but how many brands are going to sign on to it and then will consumers actually go there to use it?
Speaker A:Which I think they will at the end of the day based on hearing you describe it.
Speaker A:Because that's exactly from my experience of home furnishings, how people want to shop.
Speaker A:So I think that's actually easy.
Speaker A:But then who else will start to do this?
Speaker A:That's the big question is like, you know, furniture.com's the first one maybe to this party.
Speaker A:But you know, does Wafer start to do it?
Speaker A:Does Walmart start to do it?
Speaker A:Or does, you know, this becomes some kind of co op play with the smaller furniture brands to defend themselves against Wayfair and Walmart?
Speaker A:I could see them wanting to do that.
Speaker A:The last place I'd be listing my products is on Wayfair or Walmart or Target or some big national, you know, brand third party marketplace.
Speaker A:So I think this plays in really nicely for that reason too.
Speaker A:So I think it's really interesting.
Speaker A:I applaud the audacity.
Speaker A:I mean it's, it's a really audacious concept that I don't know, it's catching both of us, you know, in a way that you know, we haven't seen.
Speaker A:When was the last time we talked about a new retail concept where like oh yeah, that's, that's different.
Speaker A:That's got a hook.
Speaker A:That's got a hook that could last.
Speaker B:Yeah, I have, I totally agree.
Speaker B:I think there's, this is something that's new that's happening.
Speaker B:I do think your points are dead on though.
Speaker B:Like, and even, you know, how do we look at the, the other search players out here?
Speaker B:Like how does Google respond to this and does Google start to categorize like, categorize it's now Google Furniture or it's Google Beauty or whatever.
Speaker B:Like there's so many competitors that could get in and around this space.
Speaker B:So it will be interesting.
Speaker B:See like the moats that furniture.com can set up and the partners that they, I mean I think it'll really come down to, to the partners like you said that they can bring in.
Speaker A:Well and the other interesting point about this too, which you know, we're on the advisory board for Lucky.
Speaker A:The article mentioned Lucky as a similar, you know, idea to do this to tell you what inventory is available in store.
Speaker A:But the funny thing about this, which is why I love what we do is Lucky is a completely different type of thing in a lot of ways.
Speaker A:That's about, you know, making sure you're advertising is a, you can see if the product you want where it's available through your advertising because they're synced with the inventory feeds.
Speaker A:Same idea in principle but a very, very different execution.
Speaker A:But it shows you that getting the inventory visibility to where things are in a physical location is going to be key here as things evolve.
Speaker A:And you and I mean kudos to us.
Speaker A:We've been on that for a while.
Speaker A:I mean we've been, I think we've been hooked up with Lucky now for over two years.
Speaker A:So right.
Speaker A:You know, we, we've seen the evolution going in this way.
Speaker A:This is cool that furniture.com is doing this.
