Show Notes | Series 1, Episode 6 | Furniturebox
About our podcast
Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 E-Commerce Growth Hacking podcast, hosted by Caroline Baldwin, is a bitesize 15-minute podcast that gets under the hood of highly successful e-commerce brands to discover the key technologies they are using to power growth.
About our guest
Furniturebox is an online furniture provider based in the South West of the UK, popular due to the speedy delivery of its high-quality, reasonably-priced furniture, as well as great customer service. After launching in 2016 the brand initially sold via online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, then additionally began selling through their own Magento 2 website from 2019. Shortly after this, the events of 2019/20 saw the retailer make 267% growth. For this podcast, we spoke to James Ewans, Head of E-Commerce at Furniturebox.
Transcript highlights:
● “As we started out on marketplaces we had learnt a lot about the kind of product we should be selling when it came to operating through our own website. So we’d positioned ourselves very well - then Covid hit, which meant more people were interior decorating and furniture stores were closed, and we saw a huge spike in sales.”
● “We tend to describe ourselves as a tech company that sells furniture online - because everything we’ve done has been about using tech to further our growth. As this is different to a traditional furniture company who may have started out selling in showrooms, it’s likely this ‘tech first’ mindset has likely given us the edge over the competition.”
● “Brightpearl is the foundation of our tech stack and powers everything we do - without it we’d have no order management system, no inventory management, no purchase order management - but we’ve also brought on a lot of other tech to bolster what Brightpearl does for us.”
● “We use Demand Planner for demand planning and stock forecasting, that’s been an enormous boom for us. During Covid, when demand was fluctuating manically - when stores were open, then closed, then open - Demand Planner was our key tool. Without it we would have really struggled.”
● “When we doubled the product range we realised we needed a smarter way to store product info, so we invested in Pimberly which has been another key partner. So Brightpearl, Demand Planner and Pimberly are really the three tech tools that have made us a success story.”
● “Brightpearl has a very robust API so we can plug things into it really easily. The Pimberly connector was done in three weeks, and when you think about the number of products we have (it’s now up to 14,500 SKUs) that’s a real testament to how brilliantly it integrates.”
● “The most exciting part of retail tech now is AR and VR; the ability to bring the experiential aspect of being in a store, into the home. A lot of the big retailers are already doing it, but how that eventually evolves in the shopping and browsing space is really exciting. Tech is the answer - never be afraid to invest in tech. Your tech stack drives everything you do - efficiency gain, product launch gain, turnover gain. We’re in a world where tech is so important, so my top tip for growth is never be afraid to invest in it.”
Top takeaways
● Furniturebox ranked in 16th place on the Brightpearl Lightning 50, and won ‘Fastest-Growing Business in the South West’
● That followed a 267% YOY revenue increase in 2019/20
● The tech that’s driven their growth includes Pimberly (a product info management platform), Brightpearl and Demand Planner
● Though Furniturebox had enough stock to meet demand when Covid hit, Brightpearl’s Demand Planner enabled them to maintain inventory and service levels throughout. The brand credits their tech stack for getting them through periods of huge growth
● Since pandemic growth period, Furniturebox has had the means to keep growing. The brand has built a dedicated e-commerce team, more than doubled their product range and opened a new office in Bristol.