Online continues to move offline! Wayfair joining in.
A recent article in CNBC highlights an announcement by Wayfair.
Wayfair on Tuesday announced it will be opening its first full-service store at the Natick Mall in Natick, Massachusetts, which is managed by Brookfield Properties, in early fall of this year. That’s after it tested a few pop-up shops, including one at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, during this past holiday season.
Now, Wayfair CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah said a permanent location will allow the company to bring its website to life, and hopefully win more customers over with „knowledgeable support and expertise of our in-store design team“ that can’t be matched online.
Just making sure you caught this… „knowledgeable support and expertise of our in-store design team“ that can’t be matched online. Probably sounds like what traditional brick and mortar furniture retailers are already saying! I will boldly proclaim nothing trumps proximity to the consumer. Nothing. That is if you do it right. Web is a vital part of the Wayfair strategy – a proclaimed opportunity to now „Bring the website to life„. Wayfair did not say „Well pure-play eCommerce stinks and we are losing our shirts so we are now going to give brick and mortar a go“. No, they are keenly aware that they can fully capitalize in-store BECAUSE they are strong online and are now executing on this! Wayfair understands that we (consumers) start online – and then we bring the action in-store (again – furniture specific here). They (Wayfair) can now deliver the entire EXPERIENCE the consumer (we) expect.
Here is a link to the article. Definitely worth the read!
Retail on!
Jesse