Furniturefan.com

www.furniturefan.com

Comments about the business model:

Article from (2001)

• FurnitureFan.com is a free service for consumers that works directly with local furniture retailers and manufacturers to create an online showroom where consumers can scout neighborhood stores.

• Bic Stevens, managing director of Zero Stage, said, "FurnitureFan has successfully shown it can build a viable business that supports the existing retail model while reducing channel conflict.

Here is an article (from 2000):

• How difficult is it to sell sofas and loveseats direct over the Internet? As if there weren't already enough clues, you might find more in news this week from FurnitureChannel.com. The year-old Sudbury Company, which launched its direct-sales website in 1999 only to shelve it last March, said it has completed a switch in its business focus and has changed its name. Now called FurnitureFan.com (meant to evoke an image of furniture enthusiasts), the website is now a searchable online directory of brick-and-mortar furniture stores and products.

• So instead of competing directly with your local furniture retailer, FurnitureFan.com has decided to partner with them, offering to host their web presence and help push foot traffic through their doors. The move from retail to "marketing services" would seem the antithesis of every e-commerce site that launched with the dream of trumping their stodgy, brick-and-mortar counterparts.

• But like online grocers, who now realize high operating costs and low margins aren't a recipe for success, online furniture retailers have grappled with their own special problems, such as delivery glitches and intense competition. And another big problem: Unlike people shopping online for CDs and books, furniture shoppers like to sit in that $2,000 sofa before they order it -- an impossibility online.

• That's one problem FurnitureFan.com tries to solve with its new service. Though it displays furniture photos and related details, it directs shoppers to their local furniture store to try out the merchandise and plunk down their money (though there's no guarantee that shoppers won't visit the competition looking for the best bargain once they've used the site to identify exactly what they want to buy).

• The new business model also keeps the website out of the delivery logistics business.

• Financing: The company last month said it had raised $3.5 million in second-round financing and hired Mitchell Russo as CEO to help with the transformation. The business was founded by President Gary Chase, the co-founder of GPS Furniture International, a large furniture wholesaler.

• In touting the new strategy, Russo said his company gives furniture stores a chance to get online "for a tiny fraction of the cost of building their own site."

• "Over the last year and a half, we have successfully aligned with retailers and manufacturers as their Internet marketing-services company. Our strategy allows manufacturers to gain additional exposure for their products through their existing dealer base, without creating channel conflict," Russo said.