The furniture showroom goes digital

Disruption isn’t just about challenging the way people view your products or services, it’s about changing their minds so convincingly that they never look back. Just ask Lovesac, a company that turned the luxury furniture market on its head with a personalized, direct-to-consumer sales model.

Since introducing the world to its ultra-comfortable Sacs in 1995, Lovesac has broken rule after rule in the furniture sales playbook. For one, the business encourages customers to buy its modular sofas for life and simply add new pieces and change their covers as their tastes evolve, instead of throwing an entire couch in a landfill. In essence, they’ve created a sustainable, high-end furniture platform.

“Nobody believed people would spend thousands of dollars on a sofa online, especially if they haven’t even seen or experienced the product first, but it’s amazing what you can achieve when customers trust you,” says Lovesac’s VP of Digital Marketing and Ecommerce, Sue Beckett. “Our Sactionals product line and the guarantees that go with it have helped us to build a loyal following that continues to grow yearly."

Beckett and her team have every intention of maintaining this growth trajectory. In August of 2020, Lovesac moved its online experience to Adobe Commerce. Working with implementation partner, Blue Acorn iCi, an Infosys company and 3D Product Configuration powered by ThreeKit, Lovesac created a new website and virtual showroom that brought white glove service to its digital audience, and that continue to evolve to this day.

Bringing experiences to the people

Lovesac began to build its new website in late 2019, less than a year before going live on Adobe Commerce. Realizing that its previous web platform could no longer support online demand and buyer expectations, the company needed to adapt quickly. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, driving all of Lovesac’s traffic online and bringing its timelines forward even further.

60% of Lovesac’s buyers were omnichannel shoppers, using both its website and its showrooms during their purchasing journey. But not all of its audience lives within driving distance of Lovesac’s 115 showrooms, and until recently the company’s website could not support digital transactions.

As Blue Acorn iCi’s Co-CEO, Chris Guerra, recalls, “Lovesac had an incredible product and a captive audience, but they needed to break down this major barrier in their digital experience to reach every potential buyer." Just as importantly, the company needed to create an online experience to match the luxury feel and premium nature of its sofas.

To that end, Blue Acorn iCi designed a streamlined direct-to-consumer site that brings Lovesac’s showroom experience online, fueled by Adobe Commerce. The new design highlights educational content to help visitors find, choose, and customize their Lovesac Sactionals, including videos, detailed product details, and user-generated content from other customers.

But the crown jewel of Lovesac’s new website is an interactive product configurator, powered by ThreeKit, which shoppers can use to design every element of their Sactional on any device, from any location. From the number of sides and seats, to cushion fill materials, to hundreds of covers and accessories, customers have a virtually limitless number of options to play with, allowing them to build and order their dream sofa without leaving their homes.

Driving sustainable growth

Less than a year after going live with the new website and configurator, Lovesac has seen double-digit growth in its conversion rates and average order values. Bounce rates for visitors to the website have fallen, thanks in large part to the additional time people take to read through Lovesac’s information pages and use the Sactionals design platform.

“A piece of clothing or a pair of shoes comes in a handful of colors, but Sactionals have a limitless number of configurations, especially once you throw all the different materials and covers we offer into the mix,” says Beckett. “We’re fortunate to have an e-commerce platform that’s flexible enough to showcase all of these options for customers in a digital space, and we’ve done incredibly well in a short period of time”.

Lovesac recently earned the title of fastest growing furniture retailer in America, the second time it has done so in 10 years. And for Beckett, Adobe Commerce has positioned the retailer to keep improving its digital experience and attract new customers to its unique proposition.

Since launching in August 2020, Lovesac has updated its product configurator with simpler instructions and greater product detail. Its web team has also added inspiration pages to the new website, allowing customers to draw on each other for tips and creative ways to configure their Lovesac products.

Customer research is a top priority for Lovesac, with the end goal of tailoring its online experience based on direct feedback from the people who use it. Input from its visitors over the past several months has already helped Lovesac to update the Sactionals configurator with simpler instructions, improve the look and feel of its products on the site, and reduce page load times at crucial steps in the buying journey.

A big hairy audacious goal

Like most retailers, growth is a top priority for Lovesac, but in parallel the company is also on a mission to reshape buyer behavior. Its “big hairy audacious goal”, to paraphrase Beckett, is to inspire people to buy less and buy better.

Lovesac rejects planned obsolescence as a business philosophy, and that goes for its approach to technology purchases as well. “We believe in a more sustainable approach to selling furniture, but we also want to be sustainable in the way we do business, so it’s only fitting that we lead by example in the way we invest in our future,” says Beckett.

Guerra reiterates how this broader vision shapes Lovesac’s technology investments. “Lovesac chose Adobe Commerce as their digital platform because it’s a lot like their Sactionals — customizable to fit their exact needs,” he says. Guerra points to the Adobe Commerce easy-to-use admin as the key to helping Lovesac build, refine, and modernize its unique customer experience for the long term.

Lovesac’s corporate structure is yet another reflection of its sustainable approach to growth. In an industry that is notorious for organizational siloes, especially between marketing and sales teams, Lovesac stands out for its unified workforce and seamless collaboration between departments.

“We’ve completely upended the traditional retail and e-commerce dynamic,” says Beckett. “We don’t have siloes, so when we talk about omnichannel we have the cohesion between internal teams and data streams to deliver truly seamless journeys to our customers. The incentive to collaborate is company-wide, and that translates to the best possible experience for our audience."

Digitization on fast-forward

With the majority of Lovesac’s customers now beginning their shopping journey online, they are also more educated about its products than ever before. Even people who visit its showrooms walk in the door full of knowledge and a clear set of questions in mind. Many have also built and saved a Sactionals configuration on the Lovesac website, which they’ve brought with them to discuss with an in-store associate.

“Our virtual configurator and website have closed the gap between our online and in-store experiences. 10 years ago, we didn’t even have a website, and now we’ve hit the accelerator on our ecommerce evolution,” says Beckett.

As Guerra points out, the shift to online sales during the COVID-19 pandemic put added pressure on Lovesac to pivot quickly and turn its website into an end-to-end transactional journey. “Their pivot has been truly impressive,” he says. “Together with Adobe, we’ve helped Lovesac to create an immersive showroom experience that caters to all customers on all channels, from tech-savvy digital shoppers to people who still prefer to complete their purchases in-store."

Next up for Lovesac is experimentation with new technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality to further personalize its website and online configurator. Yet again, the company is rewriting the luxury retail playbook and redefining what it means to deliver omnichannel customer experiences in today’s digital economy.

“Our people are invested in delivering the best customer experience possible, and now we’ve got both the processes and technology in place to make that possible and keep getting better,” says Beckett. Indeed, all signs point to further disruption ahead, and Lovesac’s competitors will be watching its every move with great interest.

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