A furniture retailer in the Bay Area wanted to sell online. Before we could build the storefront we had to build the brand it would sell under.
What they were after
An established showroom with real stock and real customers, and effectively no way for anyone to find or buy from it without walking in. The ask was an online storefront so the business could reach past the people who happen to drive by.
What came out of the first conversation was that the storefront was the second problem. The business had a name and a sign, but not an identity that would survive being put next to every other furniture retailer within twenty miles on a search results page. Building the shop first would have meant designing it around a brand that did not exist yet.
What we built
- The brand, with the owner. How the business presents itself, what it sounds like, and what makes it a different proposition from the retailer down the road — worked out together rather than handed over as a logo file.
- The storefront. Built on Shopify, because a furniture retailer should be spending its money on stock and reach, not on maintaining a bespoke checkout. This is the same build-or-buy call we make on the technology side, and here buying was obviously right.
- Local visibility. Search and social aimed at the trade area the showroom actually serves, on the assumption that a customer buying a sofa wants to know it is nearby.
- Hosting and the ongoing run. The store, the search work and the social accounts sit under one retainer.
Why the brand came first
A local retailer competing with other local retailers is not competing on catalogue. Everyone has sofas. What a customer is choosing between, before they compare a single product, is which of several similar businesses feels like the one to trust with a delivery into their house.
That decision is made by the brand, and it is made before the storefront gets a chance to do its job. Building the store first would have produced a working shop that still had to argue for itself on price.
Talk to us about selling online
If you have stock, a showroom and no way to be found, the storefront is a solved problem and the interesting question is what you are selling under. Get in touch.