| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | E-tail |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Key people | Niraj Shah, Founder & CEO; Steve Conine, Founder & Chairman |
| Website | www.wayfair.com |
Wayfair is a U.S.-based multinational e-commerce company. The company—formerly known as CSN Stores—began selling furniture online in 2002,[1] and now sells many other home furnishings, luggage, toys, shoes, and jewelry, from over 5,000 brands. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts,[2] Wayfair also has warehouse and corporate locations elsewhere in the United States, and in Australia, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.[3]
Contents |
2002 to 2006:
Entrepreneurs Niraj Shah and Steve Conine founded Wayfair in August 2002 – then as just a two-person company with a makeshift headquarters in Conine’s nursery in Boston, Massachusetts.[4] Both Shah and Conine hold Bachelor of Science degrees from Cornell University. The pair had run two previous companies, Simplify Mobile and iXL, a global consulting firm, before starting Wayfair.[5]
Today Shah is the Chief Executive Officer of the company, and Conine is the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.
Originally known as CSN Stores (the name deriving from a mix of Shah and Conine’s initials), the company began with a single website, racksandstands.com, which sold media stands and storage furniture.
In 2003, the company added patio and garden goods suppliers along with three online stores and over a dozen employees and relocated the headquarters out of Conine’s house and into an office on Newbury Street, in Boston.
Over the next two years, the company expanded its catalogue to include home décor, office, institutional, and kitchen and dining furniture and materials, home improvement goods, bed and bath materials, luggage, and lighting. In 2006, the company earned $100 million in sales for the first time.[6]
2007 to 2010:
For the next four years, the company expanded aggressively and exponentially both in the U.S. and in international markets.
In 2008, CSN Stores began shipping to Canada and selling in the United Kingdom, and opened an office in London. In the same year, the [[Boston Business Journal]] ranked the company the #1 fastest growing private ecommerce company in Massachusetts, and the #4 fastest growing private company overall.
In 2009, the company expanded to Australia and Germany.
In 2010, the company relocated to its current headquarters, occupying 10 floors of 177 Huntington Avenue. At the end of that year, the company launched Joss & Main, a members’ only private sales online store.
2011 to Present:
By 2011, CSN Stores owned over 200 online shops, largely niche shops for specific products, like cookware.com, strollers.com, and everyatomicclock.com. In an effort to scale, to direct traffic to a single site, and to unify the aesthetic of the company, Shah and Conine decided to rebrand CSN Stores as Wayfair.
To market the new brand and to increase is expansion, the company raised $165 million funding from four investment firms, Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners, and Spark Capital in June 2011.[7]
Wayfair.com launched on September 1, 2011.
As more customers reach Wayfair directly, the brand will gradually consume all niche sites, directing all traffic to Wayfair.com, except allmodern.com and jossandmain.com.
As of today, Wayfair is the second largest online house ware and furnishing retailer in the United States, and the 51st largest online retailer in the United States.[8] The company earned $380 million in revenue in 2010, and expects to earn over $500 million in 2011.
Wayfair
Wayfair sells the entire catalogue of all former niche sites of CSN stores. This includes furniture, home décor, kitchen and dining products, bed and bath products, patio and garden goods, home improvement products, recreational goods, and baby and children’s toys and furniture.
AllModern
AllModern sells modern furniture and modern home goods, which opened in 2007. Products sold at AllModern are from many top designer companies, including Missoni, Herman Miller, Knoll, Philippe Stark, Vitra, and Steelcase. All of All Modern’s products are also available at wayfair.com.
Joss & Main
Opened in 2010, Joss & Main offers limited-time sales on a variety of products. Shoppers must be members of Joss & Main in order to view events and make purchases. Sales are released, typically from three brands a day, at 11 a.m. ET each day, and usually last for 72 hours.[9]
As of today, Wayfair has seven locations across the globe.
1. Global Headquarters: 177 Huntington Ave., Boston, Massachusetts. Over 700 employees, about 75% of the entire company, works in the headquarters. The founders, human resources, marketing, engineering, finance, customer service, and other departments primarily work there.
2. Warehouse and Customer Service Center: Ogden, Utah. Acquired in 2011, this location manages shipping to the western part of the United States. The Odgen location is transitioning to also become Wayfair’s primary customer service center.
3. Warehouse: Hebron, Kentucky. Also acquired in 2011, this location manages orders across the continuous United States.
4. European Operations Centre: Galway, Ireland.
5. United Kingdom Office: London, England.
6. German Office: Munich, Germany. The Munich office manages buying, merchandising, and logistics for German business.
7. Australian Headquarters: Sydney, Australia. In September 2011, Wayfair purchased the Australian home goods retailer, buyster.com, and converted it to wayfair.com.au.[10]
Wayfair has adopted a largely informal culture. All ten floors of its headquarters have an open floor plan, a deliberate choice of Conine and Shah to encourage collaboration and to foster employee openness. Not even Shah or Conine has his own office; they have desks in the midst of all other employees.[11] The company also issues a very loose dress code, with employees dressing in everything from business casual to flip-flops. Shah and Conine advocate a strong “work-life balance” in their employees. In December 2011, Wayfair was ranked the 19th best place to work in the United States by Glassdoor.[12]
The company encourages growth and exploration by its employees, and offers many classes through Wayfair University – an internal program that includes classes ranging from career planning to software tutorials to yoga.
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007