Wayfair Formerly known as CSN Stores, Wayfair is an online retail giant dealing in home products, furniture and accessories.
WHAT’S WAYFAIR.
The Company
Wayfair Inc, formerly known as CSN Stores, is a multinational eCommerce website. The US based company has headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts as well as warehouse and corporate offices in various locations in the United States as well as in Australia, Ireland, United Kingdom and Germany.
The company began in 2002 as CSN Stores that sold limited furniture such as stereo racks and stands. Over the next few years, the site grew to become the largest online destination for home items such as furnishing as well as luggage, toys and pet related products. The site expanded from a single website to over 250 individual sites that sell a variety of items.
Almost ten years after the website was founded, the creators move all the sites to one destination and Named it as Wayfair. This was in 2011 and by 2012 the yearly income crossed $600 million with the site offering a large number of items in distinctive categories, styles and prices. As of 2013, the organization highlights more than 7000 suppliers that offer more than 7 million products through five distinct brands: Wayfair.com, All Modern, Birch Lane, DwellStudio and Joss & Main.
History
The beginning rendition of the Wayfair was made by two entrepreneurs, Niraj Shah and Steve Conine in 2002. The operation as a two man venture in Conine’s home in Boston. Both founders had degrees from Cornell University and had as of now had experience running two organizations, Simplify Mobile and iXL.
he site was named CSN Stores which was just a mix of their initials. The beginning site was called rackandstands.com offering media stands and furniture for storage. In the following year, different things were added to the arrangement of items including patio and garden supplies. The Website grew from three workers to twelve.
The organization kept on growing over the course of the following two years with items such as home décor, office furniture, kitchen and dining furniture, home improvement goods, bed and bath products, luggage and lighting added to the index.
In 2006, the organization made its first $1 million in sales. Over the next four years, the pace of development proceeded with both inside of the United States and outside. Overseas expansion started shipping to Canada, selling in the United Kingdom and an office location in London. International expansion proceeded with Australia and Germany.
In 2008, the proceeded was named the quickest developing eCommerce organization in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal and the fourth fastest overall. By 2010 the organization had sufficiently move to a 10 story office space and by 2011, over 200 online shops were secured under the CSN Stores umbrella. These shops were predominately niche stores that indulged particular interests or products such as cookware.com, strollers.com and so forth.
At this point, Shah and Conine realized the need to bring together into a solitary site and make a more engaged substance. CSN was rebranded and launched as Wayfair in 2011 after a $165 million raising money. The venture into the new brand and its extension endeavors originated from four speculation firms, Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Spark Capital. All of the CSN Store sites were united with the exception Joss & Main and All Modern. Wayfair obtained Wayfair supply, catering to business, government and institutional customers and Dwell Studio, a New York City based design house and retailer.
At present, Wayfair remains the largest online retailer for home products in the United States. Income has kept on expanding from $380 million in 2010, to over $500 million in 2011 and nearby $1 billion in 2013. The founders remain with the organization with Niraj Shah as the Chief Executive Officer and Steve Conine as both the Chief Technology Officer and the Chairman.
IPO
The organization declared its goal to raise $350 million in an IPO in August 2014. The organization also revealed mounting misfortunes despite gigantic expenses. In spite of the fact that incomes have kept on growing, this has been accompanied by a concurrent increase in operating expenses.
The organization’s IPO decision has been firmly taken after and the IPO itself a standout among the most anticipated eCommerce IPO’s of the year. The excitement was somewhat eclipsed by the Alibaba Group’s IPO declaration around the same time with the expectation that it will acquire near to $20 billion.
At present, the fellow benefactors possess 57.8 percent of the shares in the organization. After them, the private equity firm Great Hill Partners own 11.4 percent. HarbourVest and Battery Ventures possess somewhat more than 7 percent and 6 percent each. These shareholders will continue to hold B class shares that afford the holder 10 times more power to vote than the A class shares that are in the works to be sold in the IPO.
Culture
The organization has figured out how to keep up a startup like culture throughout its development and expansion. Teams are assembled for speed with open floor plans in offices. This setup is made with the aim of encouraging a collaborative environment and openness. The co-founders, who hold top management positions also do not have their own particular offices, instead sitting among other workers.
The clothing regulation is relaxed with a blend of business casual and flip-flops. Work-life balance is strongly encouraged and advocated. he organization has stayed concentrated on the long haul with sustained growth and expansion. This is supported by the culture in every way with the organization backing its attention on culture with concrete actions and steps such as onsite yoga, daily ticket raffles for concerts, theatre and sports. There are also free snacks and games such as ping pong and foosball inside the workplace.
Glassdoor positioned the organization as the 19th best place to work in the United States in 2011 and the 18th best for work-life balance in 2012.
BUSINESS MODEL & KEY COMPONENTS
Product categories
The company sells home products in different ranges and categories. These are:
wayfair.com: The main brand name, this website is the destination for millions of home based furniture, accessories and other products sold by thousands of suppliers.
All Modern: This is the Wayfair business that sells home items in original modern designs.
Birch Lane: Opposite to All Modern, Birch Lane is focused on classic and timeless furnishing and home accessories.
DwellStudio: This online store sells modern furnishings and products that are trendy and fashion forward.
Joss & Main: This website is based on online flash sales that focus on inspiring home design on a daily basis.
USP
Wayfair’s unique selling proposition has been the sheer volume of items sold through the website. More than 200 different sites were amalgamated into the Wayfair umbrella. These were niche sites for individual categories of items such as rugs, crockery etc. Every website had a Huge Number of suppliers offering different items in that category. All this indicates a huge number of items discounted.
Order fulfillment
The organization works operates somewhat uniquely from other retail giants in how orders are fulfilled. Almost none of the stock is kept in company operated warehouses. Instead, items are shipped directly to the client through the supplier themselves. Wayfair enables the suppliers to gain shipping discounts by availing its accounts with significant shipping organizations. What makes this system work is a progression of calculations that fulfill orders with a 98 percent achievement rate. This technology driven approach is vital given the organizations over 7000 suppliers and a detailed and expand production network.
The system works through correspondence in between suppliers and Wayfair. Information regarding current stock is either uploaded to the server or emailed to the organization. The algorithm mentioned before goes through this data and picks up and potential red flags such a delays etc. it also stores relevant information about the items such as what is in stock and where it is at the moment. The same algorithm calculates shipping time and checks item availability every time a customer browses through a page.
Once the order is placed, a software is in place to send notifications to the supplier. The same system decides the best way to ship the item depending on its nature. When the item is sent, the system updates its progress to the Track My Order page for the customer.
Wayfair Customers
The website gets more than 11 million visitors consistently every month. The greater part of these visitors are women between the ages of 35 and 65. The organization has divided these visitors into two groups. The seekers and the gatherers. Seekers incorporate those individuals who have come searching for something particular. Search engine optimization is what draws them to the website often as they search for a particular item. Commonly, these people are on the lookout for the best price for their chosen product and Wayfair is just one stop in their search. They may spend around five minutes on the site.
Gatherers on the other hand are fundamentally window shopping. These individuals will spend anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours on the site, going through categories and products. They may be less driven by specific brands.
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