Focusing on what this has meant for Wayfair, the specialist explained that, as well as an approximate fivefold jump in sales, the company “saw an increase in a lot of its key metrics, including new customers, newly active customers, repeat customers [and] repeat order growth.”
Demand for home office equipment was heightened during the pandemic, but for how long will this continue? The former associate director explained that we’re in a “very murky macroeconomic environment right now”, with virus variants creating uncertainty over the widespread return to office work.
Another category that has seen strong demand is outdoor home furniture – “I do think that the shift we’ve seen of people spending more time at home and around their homes is a secular shift, and so I think that there will continue to be an elevated demand for outdoor furniture and patio furniture relative to before the pandemic.”
Likewise, there is strong potential for Wayfair’s B2B department in this category, explained the specialist. It “is really well positioned to service those types of businesses, like restaurants… and so that is arguably a net new source of outdoor furniture demand and a market size that probably wasn’t that big before the pandemic.”
To access all the human insights from Third Bridge Forum’s Interview – Wayfair: near-term online home goods retail momentum & competitive landscape – click here to view the full transcript.
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