The Bears take Vegas 🎲
July 2022
Hey folks, I’m back with another Recliner Club! Right when you thought we’re heading into the thick of summer slowdown, think again. I’ve got some juicy updates and insights for everyone to absorb. Here’s what I’ll cover this time — let’s go.
Bears are heading to Vegas for Summer Market 🎲
A look back at 2017 👀
Customer profile: Bauhaus Furniture Group 🤗
Relevant reads and a cool IKEA video
The ticker: Very relevant reads 🔥🔥🔥
IKEA’s secret high end furniture (Daniel Titchener, video)
What’s next for Perigold? (Business of Home)
One of Toronto’s oldest furniture companies is back (BlogTO)
Come meet us in Vegas. The Bear team will be down in Las Vegas, Nevada for Summer Market later this month, July 25-26th, and we’d love to connect.
Oh my, how things have changed…Back in October 2017 The New York Times published an article called “Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair is Counting on It.” At the time, buying furniture online was far from mainstream. In fact, 2017 was the year I left my family’s furniture business to start out on my own — and when I told folks about my vision to build THE system of record for furniture, I was met with looks of doubt and skepticism.
Well…now we’re here.
And in the US alone, over $100b worth of furniture will transact online this year.
And every single person I know (both young & old) has purchased LTL furniture for their home. It’s quite remarkable to take a step back to recognize exactly how Covid has forever changed how manufacturers and retailers sell.
Yet the global furniture market is one of the few categories still largely offline → with suppliers operating on disconnected and manual workflows.
To give you a sense of how untapped our space truly is, check out this graphic. The total volume of home goods transacted across North America and Western Europe is $800B, and on track to surpass >$1T by 2030. Of that, most is still transacted offline, through traditional retailers, and archaic workflows.
In fact, tradeshow selling is still the name of game, with manufacturers across all home categories spending hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for showrooms in Vegas, High Point, Atlanta, and so on.
Buying sofas online is very much in its infancy. And although we’ve made tremendous progress in digitizing over the last few years, I genuinely believe that for folks to be successful in 2022 and beyond, they need to be selling where people are buying.
Up close: Bauhaus Furniture Group is a leading Mississippi based manufacturer that specializes in upholstered furniture. They’re an iconic brand and one the most well respected names in our industry.
Challenge: they wanted to grow net-new revenue and expand into the rapidly growing online selling environment.
The ask: Since furniture is a complex category, with big catalogs, and bulky SKUs, it was crucial to Greg Morgan and the team at Bauhaus to find a technology partner uniquely designed for the furniture industry.
Results: Bauhaus has been able to establish and start ramping a highly profitable revenue channel over a rather short period time — and they’re just getting started. In fact, their first ever Overstock.com order was this beautiful (made in the 🇺🇸) $3.3k sectional sofa.
Here’s what our friend and partner Greg Morgan (🐐), Executive VP of Sales and Merchandising, had to say.
“Bear has helped us drive net-new revenue, unlock new channels like Overstock, and generate significant costs savings internally.
If you like what you saw, join the recliner email club to stay up to date with this kind of stuff, every month. I also choose one lucky subscriber each month and give them a $100 Snackbox to enjoy 🎉
Thanks for being a free subscriber to The Recliner Club. Hopefully this has been valuable to you. I am a big believer that knowledge is power and sharing information leads to better results for all. A rising tide floats all boats.
Enjoy the weekend and see y’all in Vegas!
Sam Vlessing
CEO, CommerceBear