The flagship store has increased local sales 15% higher than Wayfair’s national average and more than half of store shoppers are new to the brand.
Wayfair’s inaugural large-format store in Wilmette, Illinois, is driving new customers to its brand and boosting sales. In fact, sales in Illinois are 15% higher than Wayfair’s national average in the year since the store opened in May 2024, the home furnishings giant reports.
“The results have been fantastic, both financially and for the brand and for our customers,” Liza Lefkowski, vice president of merchandising and stores, tells Multichannel Marketer.
The store is driving outside growth within the area, which Lefkowski said is both significant and meaningful.
By category:
- Sales in lower-ticket impulse purchase categories (such as candles and kitchen accessories) are 50% higher in the Chicago designated market area vs. comparable designated market areas over the past year.
- Sales in high-consideration purchases (such as bathroom renovations and kitchen cabinets) are 35% higher in the Chicago area vs. comparable markets over the past year.
Having a physical store, especially a large format one off a major highway, gives Wayfair a built-in set of impressions, Lefkowski said. This builds brand awareness, spreads word-of-mouth marketing and gives the brand more meaning.
“Our Wilmette store is like a giant purple billboard on two highways,” Lefkowski said. “When you have a physical location, as a consumer you pay more attention to the brand, or at least it has a slightly different meaning for you because physical locations bring credibility and inspire confidence.”
Wayfair’s store drives new customers to the brand
This has helped drive a lot of new shoppers to the brand. More than 50% of store customers were new to the Wayfair brand in the past year.
This is significantly higher than Wayfair’s average, which is mostly online. In its Q1, new customers placed 19.5% of orders, and repeat customers placed 80.5% of total orders.
Such a high new-customer rate is exciting, Leftkowski said, as it gives Wayfair a chance for its first impression to be highly engaging.
“Having a store, it’s just such a powerful moment and medium for the brand,” Lefkowski said. “For new customers we get to introduce ourselves in a far more immersive way than we get to do online. There are obviously still a lot of customers out there who appreciate the ability to experience the product before they buy it, especially in a category like home where so many of the things you’re purchasing are expensive or high ticket.”
The store serves multiple purposes depending on the shopper. Some shoppers want to talk to another human about their large purchase, which they can do in store, while others have done a lot of research online and want to see it in person. Unlike Wayfair.com, which has more than 14 million SKUs, the store offers 12,000 SKUs that highlight top sellers within various aesthetics and price points. This curation is key to the store’s success, as it its narrowed products are good quality and value.
“We are very thoughtful about showing our customers range without showing redundancy. We don’t want to create unnecessary decisions,” she said.
Another way Wayfair attracts new customers is by hosting in-person events, such as product demonstrations or floral arranging. It hosts an event almost every week, and events consistently attract more than 75 attendees, many of who are new to the brand.
“They might not transact that day during that event, but they’ll return,” Lefkowski said. “It is another awareness, consideration, engagement, building mechanism, a way for us to form relationships with the communities and with our customers that feels very organic rather than just welcoming them into shop when they have a need.”
Lessons learned from Wayfair’s Chicago store
A few lessons learned over the past year at the store include increasing the assortment in product categories with a higher volume of sales and dialing up the seasonality of the store.
The store is split between goods that are “cash and carry,” meaning shoppers can pay and leave with them, and larger goods that shoppers order that Wayfair will deliver later to their home, such as a couch.
“We’ve expanded the cash-and-carry assortment, customers have reacted positively, and so it’s a big priority for us to maximize cash and carry to the extent possible,” she said.
In the past year, Wayfair learned that customers wanted to leave the store with more products that it previously designated for delivery, such as ottomans, floor lamps and mattresses in a box.
“If it fits in your car, you should be able to take it with you, which for us means some slight adjustments to floor sets and fixtures,” Lefkowski said.
Another example is dishware, which is small but heavy. Instead of Wayfair holding dishes for shoppers for delivery, shoppers want to pull it off the shelf and put it into their cart, which is what Wayfair is now doing after feedback.
Future store plans
After the success of the Chicago store, Wayfair plans to build more large-format stores, with one slated to open in Atlanta in 2026, plus a recently announced store to open in Yonkers, New York, in 2027.
In Wayfair’s Q1, it reported total net revenue of $2.7 billion, which was roughly flat year over year. U.S. net revenue was $2.4 billion, up 1.6% year over year. It reported a net loss of $113 million. It had 21.1 million active customers, a 5.4% year-over-year decrease.
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