Furniture.com Reports 260% Revenue Increase For Presidents’ Day Sales

Furniture World News Desk on 3/3/2015

Blueport Commerce, the leading provider of e-commerce technology and services for the retail furniture industry, today announced record success for Furniture.com over the Presidents’ Day holiday. The number of orders on Furniture.com were up 240%, with revenue up 260% compared to last year. Traffic to the site during the holiday increased 35%.

“Presidents’ Day has historically been a major brick-and-mortar retail holiday for big-ticket items like furniture and cars. This year we exceeded expectations by driving Furniture.com visits and conversions through carefully planned and executed digital marketing campaigns, merchandising and email targeting,” says Carl Prindle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blueport Commerce. “The results further validate the furniture sector as a legitimate and trending e-commerce vertical.”

As points of further validation, the top-selling items on Furniture.com over Presidents’ Day were sectionals and sofas and the average order value was $938. Top revenue-generating categories were Upholstery, Motion, Bedroom, Leather and Dining Room furniture.

“What differentiates Furniture.com from other home furnishings e-commerce sites is that large, real furniture has proven to be our most successful and saleable category, as opposed to lower price point décor items like lamps or pillows,” says Prindle.

Drawing on insight from past major holiday selling periods and an in-depth analysis of shopping behavior data through advanced marketing attribution tools, the Furniture.com marketing team planned and executed a digital marketing strategy to target online shoppers at the right time and the right place with the right promotions.

“We’ve learned that people start shopping around for furniture well before an upcoming holiday. They’re looking for great deals before a holiday starts. The key is to home in on these behaviors and put your brand’s best foot forward three weeks before a major holiday to establish awareness, build trust and engagement through consistent communication and ultimately convert them from shoppers to buyers,” says Randy Goldstein, Executive Vice President of E-commerce for Blueport.

The team credits the Presidents’ Day success to a phased approach over a three-week period, during which multiple short promotions ran. Additional tactics included:

• Display ad campaigns for Furniture.com introduced potential shoppers to the brand early on in their path to purchase.

• A combination of PPC, remarketing and email campaigns helped the Furniture.com brand maintain a regular presence on shoppers’ radars. Frequent outreach to the potential customer with both promotional offers and meaningful content helped build trust and engagement.

• As the end of the promotional period neared, Furniture.com employed retargeting campaigns, displaying personalized ads of abandoned shopping cart items to remind shoppers of their interest.

• Throughout the three-week period, Furniture.com “sweetened the deal,” often closing with a personalized extra discount.

“Each digital channel has its own unique purpose at different points in the shopper’s journey,” says Goldstein. “What the sales data tells us is that we’re accurately targeting and driving shoppers to Furniture.com and building a relationship with them at various points in their path to purchase. Ultimately, the combination of personalized and frequent touch points result in the brand being top of mind when that shopper is ready to buy – typically a tent-pole holiday, like Presidents’ Day. The amazing growth on that day is a result of the relationship we’ve been building with shoppers for weeks if not months before.”

In anticipation of the 35% increase in traffic driven to the site by the marketing efforts, Blueport staffed additional Customer Care resources to be available to assist shoppers. “Phone calls and live chat are still important in a high consideration purchase, even more so during a compressed purchase timeframe like Presidents’ Day,” says Prindle. “Forecasting the anticipated volume and aligning with internal and external clients on process and expectations for a retail event of this scope is the key to success, along with teamwork and flawless execution.”

Blueport Commerce helps furniture retailers reach new shoppers and drive incremental sales through its online marketplace, Furniture.com. Owned and operated by Blueport Commerce, Furniture.com is supported by the Product, Catalog, Marketing, E-commerce Strategy and Customer Care divisions of Blueport Commerce.

About Blueport Commerce: Blueport Commerce helps leading furniture retailers capture their online opportunity. We marry retailers' brick-and-mortar infrastructure and expertise with our decade of online furniture experience, innovative technology and unique marketing and sales strategies. $6.3 billion in retailers choose Blueport. For some retailers, Blueport's SaaS e-commerce platform powers their branded omnichannel websites, driving sales online and in their stores. For other retailers, we drive online sales through Furniture.com, our e-commerce marketplace. For many retailers, we do both. Our technology is transforming furniture retail, for the 4% of sofas that sell online and the 96% that don't. Learn more at www.blueport.com.