The housing sector remains weak, but CSN Stores Inc. finished strong in 2007.
In 2007, CSN Stores, a niche retailer of home furnishings, housewares and related categories, grew its total e-commerce sales to about $202 million, an increase of 84% from $110 million in 2006. At the same time, CSN Stores, No. 107 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, also spent the past year adding 170 niche web stores, increasing its personnel count from 300 to 500 employees and leasing more office space.
“Service, selection and savings continue to fuel our growth,” says CEO Niraj Shah. CSN Stores, an online retailer since 2002, targets niches in home furnishings categories such as bunk beds, daybeds, barstools, decorative faucets and dining room chairs.
“While the overall housing market remains soft, CSN Stores is growing because consumers still have a desire and a budget for fixing up and furnishing their existing property,” Shah says. As one measure of growth, site traffic to the company’s various e-commerce sites, which include AllModern.com, Luggage.com, BabyCarSeats.com, PubSets.com, HomeTheaterSeatingOnline.com and WritingDesksAndMore.com, doubled to about 6.4 million visits over the holidays, the company says.
“Unlike some December reports of delayed or slumping holiday sales from other online and traditional retailers, CSN’s holiday sales are significantly higher than last year,” Shah says. “The mortgage crisis has persuaded some homeowners to improve their current residence instead of buying a new home.” CSN opened about 170 more niche e-commerce sites in 2007, which grew its total number of web stores to 250.
The company is able to generate economies of scale and open stores quickly because of a significant investment over time in an internally designed and maintained e-commerce platform, which runs on a Microsoft .NET information architecture and a SQL database, Shah says.
“We now have the processing economies of scale and the customer service base to launch more niche web sites and then support those sites with good merchandising and personal service,” he says.
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