Dive Brief:
- Wayfair on Friday announced it is expanding its large-format store concept by adding a 150,000-square-foot location in Atlanta, set to open next year. A specific date was not given.
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The new store will be located at The District at Howell Mill in Atlanta’s Upper Westside. Wayfair will share mall space with such retailers as TJ Maxx, Ulta and HomeGoods.
- The Wayfair store will offer furniture, home decor, housewares, appliances and home improvement essentials. Many items will be available to take home the same day, while other products can be shipped quickly from the retailer’s nearby fulfillment center in McDonough, Georgia.
Dive Insight:
The Atlanta Wayfair will mark the brand’s second such large store following a May 2024 opening in Wilmette, Illinois. According to Wayfair, the Illinois location contributed to sales in that state growing 15% faster than the U.S. overall in the last seven months of 2024.
"The excitement around our first store in Wilmette exceeded expectations – from packed shopping carts in-store, to bus tours from neighboring states,” Liza Lefkowski, vice president of merchandising and stores at Wayfair, said in a statement. The new location will offer a broad range of furniture for “all styles and budgets,” Lefkowski said. “At the heart of our retail strategy is our commitment to providing customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether online or in-store.”
Wayfair’s recent physical expansion comes at a time when many digitally native brands have added brick-and-mortar to their retail portfolios as a way to meet customers where they shop.
Wayfair did have a small store in Natick, Massachusetts, that opened in 2019 but closed 18 months later when the pandemic saw people staying home and shopping online. Its business increased sharply during that stay-at-home period, climbing to over $14 billion in net revenue in 2020.
By 2021 people were starting to venture out again, home growth was slowing and Wayfair announced it would be opening three new stores, two of its AllModern brand and one of its Joss & Main unit. Today, the company has 10 locations, including three AllModern stores, two Joss & Main locations, four Birch Lane stores and the single Wayfair in Illinois.
Wayfair’s overall business is reflective of the overall state of the home goods sector, which may finally be reaching the end of its downswing. The retailer had a net loss of $492 million in 2024, an improvement from last year, on revenue of $11.9 billion.
The company also went through several rounds of layoffs as it continues to streamline operations. The brand laid off 340 tech employees earlier this month and said it planned to close its Technology Development Center in Austin, Texas. Wayfair also closed down operations in Germany affecting some 750 people and earlier in 2024 cut 1,650 jobs or about 19% of its corporate workforce.
