At online retailers CSN Stores and Max Furniture, growing sales often means satisfying a growing interest in white-glove delivery services that let customers forget about the chores of unpacking and setting up their new dining room sets or TV stands.
Despite the downturn in the housing market, sales at CSN Stores are continuing to rise after growing 85% last year to $202 million, while sales at Max Furniture are on pace to grow 20% this year to $15 million, the retailers say.
Both retailers attribute much of their success to a high level of customer service, with an emphasis on serving a growing demand for white-glove delivery services that unpack and set up furniture where a customer wants it in her home, then remove the leftover packaging materials.
To Narij Shah and Steven Conine, CEO and chairman, respectively, of CSN Stores, an emphasis on service highlighted by white-glove delivery services has been a hallmark on which they’ve built the business they co-founded in 2002. “We saw retail furniture as an area that could be better served,” Conine says.
Shah and Conine decided early on to offer high-quality delivery services, but extended it beyond just the bulkiest, most expensive items more common in other white-glove offerings. “We were one of the first web retailers to offer white glove service on a broad selection of products,” Shah says.
CSN Stores, No. 69 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, complements its high-end service with online tools that provide important shipping-related information not commonly provided by furniture retailers. Product pages rate each item for its level of construction quality and the likelihood that it could get damaged in shipment.
Max Furrniture also emphasizes white-glove delivery services along with a policy of maintaining close control over most of its shipments.
“We see a growing demand for white-glove delivery services,” Malone says. “We feel we compete more against brick-and-mortar stores than other online retailers.”
Max ships about 60% of its orders from its own warehouse in Dallas, the remainder in drop-shipping arrangements with suppliers. But unlike other online furniture retailers that rely mostly on drop-shipping, Max maintains direct control over fulfillment by using its own shipping partner to drop-ship some orders directly from suppliers to customers, Malone says.
“If we can deliver what they expect the item to be in a timely manner with a professional delivery or exceed any of those areas, we have a repeat customer for life,” he says. “You can’t beat the convenience and selection of looking through hundreds of bedrooms and dining rooms and having exactly what you expect to receive arriving at a great price in a reasonable time frame and being installed professionally.”
Max is planning to build on that reputation through blogs and social networks.
“Word of mouth is a big piece of our business,” Malone says. “Furniture can be a fun story for customers to tell about they received it. They love to tell how they went online, had a whole dining set shipped, and had it set up perfectly.”
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