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How Wayfair Sells Nearly $1 Billion Worth Of Sofas, Patio Chairs And Cat Playgrounds
Forbes ^ | The May 5, 2014 Issue | Abram Brown

Posted on 05/05/2014 1:48:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Wayfair is an e-commerce site selling home furnishings. But with 1,600 employees, its physical presence is rapidly outgrowing its space in an obelisklike skyscraper in Boston’s Back Bay–which happens to be a former hub of the Christian Science church. Long gone are the white shag carpets, wood paneling and executive-floor elevators that once allowed church higher-ups to avoid hoi polloi. Flat-panel TVs on each of 12 floors beam not messages of faith healing but maps of the U.S. and Europe that light up whenever there’s a sale. Within seconds Katherine from Decatur, Tex. buys a $49 tungsten wedding ring, Jen adds a $94 cherrywood bar stool to her lounge in upstate New York, and Jenna in Connecticut picks up a $102 gray Parsons kitchen chair.

“We installed those TVs so we don’t forget what we’re doing,” explains Niraj Shah, the dapper, bald 40-year-old CEO and cofounder of Wayfair. He’s passing through the 24th floor with cofounder and Chairman Steve Conine, 41, a more hirsute, if less buttoned-down, counterpart. “We’re selling people things to put in their homes.”

A lot of things–more than 10 million tables, sofas, patio chairs, cat playgrounds and so forth, just last year. If its margins are in line with other e-commerce sites, Wayfair netted an estimated $18 million on $915 million in 2013, up 55% from the year before. It sells goods to customers across the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. Each month more than 11 million people–mostly 35- to 65-year-old women–visit Wayfair.com...

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: ecommerce; homefurnishings; internet; massachusetts; retail; shopping; wayfair
Amazing.
1 posted on 05/05/2014 1:48:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They do have nice stuff.


2 posted on 05/05/2014 1:56:45 PM PDT by petercooper ("I was for letting people keep their health insurance, before I wasn't". --- Barack Obama)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I thought a ‘sofa’ WAS a ‘cat playground’?...........................


3 posted on 05/05/2014 2:05:05 PM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: Red Badger

ROTL!


4 posted on 05/05/2014 2:09:07 PM PDT by ru4liberty
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To: Red Badger

Everything in the house is a cat playground!


5 posted on 05/05/2014 2:11:50 PM PDT by dynachrome (Vertrou in God en die Mauser)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
and Chairman Steve Conine, 41, a more hirsute, if less buttoned-down, counterpart

How is this in any way relevant to the story? Why would you even put this in your article?
6 posted on 05/05/2014 2:24:18 PM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Svartalfiar

Perhaps the author is, how shall we say ... interested in interior decorating?


7 posted on 05/05/2014 2:26:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Cruz and/or Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: Svartalfiar

It’s a magazine article, not a news story.


8 posted on 05/05/2014 2:37:54 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: petercooper

Their prices seem to be a bit high when I see their stuff on Walmart.com.


9 posted on 05/05/2014 2:38:33 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: ru4liberty; dynachrome

Sofa, it’s a combo cat scratching post, shedding spot, sleeping space and claw stretcher..............


10 posted on 05/05/2014 2:43:39 PM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

...elevators that once allowed church higher-ups to avoid hoi polloi.


I tip my hat to the writer and editor for using this phrase correctly (it’s never “the hoi polloi” as “hoi” means “the”).

Also, I have bought from them or one of their predecessors with different names and have been very happy with the value for top name furniture.


11 posted on 05/05/2014 2:52:54 PM PDT by Freeping Since 2001
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To: Freeping Since 2001

Ahoy Polloi! Where did you come from, a scotch ad?

12 posted on 05/05/2014 2:58:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Cruz and/or Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: Red Badger

You forgot hairball receptacle...


13 posted on 05/05/2014 2:58:56 PM PDT by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Just bought some funky blue glass pendant lamps from them today!


14 posted on 05/05/2014 3:10:28 PM PDT by melissa_in_ga (Laz would hit it.)
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To: goodnesswins

But of course! It goes without saying!..........................


15 posted on 05/06/2014 6:56:18 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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