Castlery is a furniture brand in the ecommerce space making headway by focusing on quick turnaround … [+]
Furniture retail is a quickly-growing ecommerce vertical in the U.S. that’s predicted to bring in more than $40 billion by 2030.
One reason this particular vertical is seeing growth is that online furniture stores are more accessible and offer a round-the-clock shopping experience compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
This is important, considering convenience is one of the top reasons people turn to online shopping: Statista data shows 50% of consumers prefer it because it’s more convenient than traveling to a store.
For Declan Ee, experiencing this pain point firsthand lead to him co-founding the digital-first home furnishings brand Castlery.
When shopping for furniture items in Singapore, he recalled bumping into a series of frustrations: “The customer journey was frustrating and time-consuming. We visited multiple stores across the city and dealt with inconsistent discounting practices–which made us question if we were getting a fair price.”
Paired with this, Ee found that the furniture shopping experience often included long waiting periods and uncertain delivery times. When building Castlery, Ee and his partners wanted to focus on efficient logistics and supply chain management.
As a result, although the company has roots in Singapore and suppliers’ factories in Asia, it has expanded its reach to six other countries, including the US–which now represents 70% of its total group revenue since launching in 2019.
To accommodate this demand, Castlery has formed partnerships with logistics service providers and established distribution centers in strategic locations for optimal delivery times, including relationships with global integrated logistics providers like Maersk.
In the US, the brand operates four US distribution centers–each with over 500,000 square feet of space–that can store enough inventory to facilitate quick distribution throughout the country.
To keep customers informed about logistics, Castlery’s website displays every product’s real-time availability and lead times specific to the customer’s ZIP code, providing more certainty and clarity around lead times and delivery windows.
“Providing delivery updates once a purchase is complete ultimately helps customers feel a sense of control and trust that their anticipated purchase is on its way,” said Nicole Leinback Hoffman, Founder and President of retail consulting firm Retail Minded.
“It’s ideal for furniture merchants to identify turnaround for delivery, what may take additional time, and what may be more than above average when it comes to waiting for something to be delivered.”
Maintaining this level of transparency and customer communication means a dedicated in-house team monitors and optimizes inventory and costs using up-to-date data insights.
Each week, a team of data scientists runs an inventory forecast to adapt to changes in supply and demand. This accurate global inventory forecasting ensures that popular products are always in stock and available within a two-week delivery time to key markets.
But this isn’t the only way Castlery works to meet customers’ ever-evolving needs. By offering customizable furniture pieces, they’re tapping into the fact that 76% of customers prefer businesses that personalize their products.
Especially for city-dwellers, living spaces often require specific furniture dimensions. Castelry ensures product designs can be adapted to customer preferences through its Furniture Configurator Tool, which allows customers to choose from eight different modular seating options. This way, buyers can add or subtract sections based on their space needs.
Castlery realized the importance of getting to know its customers when it expanded into the Australian market in mid-2017. Failure to understand the local market resulted in financial losses for three consecutive years.
After this initial learning experience, the company successfully entered the US market with meticulous market research and a smaller initial product offering developed based on customer feedback.
“We noticed most American shoppers desired larger furniture, so we created collections to cater to this need,” Ee said. “This approach was scaled globally, resulting in significant growth between 2020 and 2022.”
Since then, a customer-first approach has become integral to Castelry’s operations, as well as to its product development process.
For example: its Summer 2024 Collection features the Sofa Headrest, a customizable product that acts as an extension on the back of a sofa—a direct response to customer requests for this feature.
Castlery is one example of how brands in the furniture space can work to tackle the challenges of ecommerce logistics and evolving customer expectations by giving customers a voice, leveraging product feedback, and maintaining clarity around product delivery times—all while working toward claiming a piece of the billion-dollar industry that is furniture sales.