Online furniture and home retailer Wayfair
Wayfair
The move marks what the company described as a “significant milestone” for the business, with the two-story Wayfair store spanning 150,000-sq. ft. and designed as a “one-stop shopping destination” for all things home – including furniture, home decor, housewares, appliances and home improvement products across 19 departments.
The new store also includes free onsite design and home improvement pros services, the debut of all-day café restaurant The Porch, plus the availability of some products to take home from the store or free shipping of most products within a day or two, the company said.
However, the Wilmette store is not the company’s first foray into brick-and-mortar shopping. The online retailer had previously opened a number of Wayfair pop-ups, along with stores for its Joss & Martin and AllModern sub-brands.
“We are committed to providing our customers with unparalleled shopping experiences, tailored to their preferences, whether they choose to shop online or in-store. The opening of our Wilmette location marks an exciting chapter for Wayfair, reinforcing our position as the premier destination for home goods,” said Liza Lefkowski, vice president of merchandising and stores.
“Our store is thoughtfully designed to be both inspirational and practical, empowering shoppers to create spaces that are just right for them,” she added.
Wayfair Trading Update
Located within Edens Plaza, a WS Development Property, at 3232 Lake Avenue, Wilmette the opening of the store follows the announcement of Wayfair’s latest trading results earlier this month.
Wayfair said that it generated $12.0 billion in net revenue for the year ended December 31 2023, while for the three months to March 31 2024 total net revenue of $2.7 billion was down $45 million, or 1.6%, year-over-year.
U.S. net revenue of $2.4 billion was down $24 million, or 1.0% year over year, while international net revenue of $338 million fell $21 million, down 5.8% year over year.
Gross profit was $819 million, or 30.0% of total net revenue, while the net loss tightened to $248 million.
“The first quarter ended on an upswing,” said Niraj Shah, CEO, co-founder and co-chairman, Wayfair, said of the results. “Our revenue was down just under 2% year-over-year for Q1, which marks our sixth straight quarter of share gain. Shoppers are increasingly choosing Wayfair, with year-over-year active customer growth once again positive and accelerating compared to last quarter.”
Wayfair, like some of the other pure play retailers, has carried out a raft of layoffs in recent times after it saw the pandemic sales boom settle down once consumers could visit stores again and also stopped prioritizing investment in their homes as heavily as when they were in lockdown.
In January, the company announced plans to cut 13% of its global workforce, equating to around 1,650 employees, in order to slim its structure and bring costs down. The restructuring – which was the third round that Wayfair has implemented since the summer of 2022 – is expected to deliver savings of about $280 million.
As a result, shares in the Boston-headquartered company have staged something of a recovery over the past year, with the price up nearly 6% in the year to date and over 75% in the past 12 months.
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