parachute room furniture
Courtesy of Parachute
Parachute started out as a small, quiet bedding brand in 2014. In those early days of e-commerce, it was one of the first to introduce luxury bedding online, previously a department store staple.
Early adopters who took advantage of the opportunity to order online loved the Parachute sheets. They quickly spread the word and Parachute officially became a disruptive brand in the bedding category.
With smooth sailing, Parachute slowly expanded to offer closely related products, including mattresses and pillows, towels, baby and pet bedding, robes, and home linens, all guided by its customer leadership. Founder Ariel Kaye was previously a marketing and advertising executive, so being consumer-focused was second nature to her.
Mattresses, bedroom furniture, rugs and lighting followed, along with retail stores, which came in at 12 just a year ago. Now, Parachute is moving from the bedroom to the living room as it cements its status as a lifestyle brand with a mission to make people “feel at home.”
Customer needs are the north star
“We started as a bedding brand just eight and a half years ago, but the vision was always to be a multi-category brand for today’s modern shopper,” Kaye shared with me.
“We seek feedback from our customers and to guide us in our assortment strategy. We have carefully expanded our assortment over the years and continue to hear that our customers want more. And that’s why we moved into the living room,” he continued.
At first glance, now might not be the most promising time for Parachute to launch into the crowded furniture space.
After a big spike in sales during the pandemic (furniture store sales grew 25% between 2020 and 2021), furniture retail sales stagnated for the first seven months of this year, according to the Monthly Report of census retail. Furniture stores have not seen revenue growth this year, even as inflation added 12.8% to furniture prices.
However, Kaye remains confident that she has a solution for her clients’ needs and insurance for their loyalty. Over 70% of Parachute’s customers are millennials, now between the ages of 26 and 41, and as a cohort, they’re growing up with the cutting edge now officially in their middle age.
“They are entering their highest earning years and in the process of establishing themselves. They are a generation that likes to build relationships with brands that care deeply about sustainability and quality. They buy with their values,” Kaye said. “Home is the most important thing for this demographic and we help them create a home environment for their future.”
Customer loyalty is returned
Parachute’s laid back, California chic aesthetic appeals to this generation and that has driven extremely high levels of brand loyalty. About 90% of customers return for new purchases within three years and about a third of sales each month come from previous customers.
Clearly, people are more likely to make more frequent and repeat purchases of bedding than furniture. But the company is taking the loyalty they’ve built in the bedroom to carry over to the living room, where they offer a selective range of upholstered sofas, chairs and tables to complete the room.
While upholstered furniture silhouettes are limited, the company offers a wide range of manufacturing options, appropriate for a brand in the world of bedding. Upholstery texture close-ups on the website and its sample program allow customers to touch and feel the quality, either virtually or in person.
A happy surprise for Parachute has been the loyalty it has created among interior designers, a very selective audience but with constant needs for their clientele of luxury clients. About 25% of its furniture sales are made by interior designers, and the company counts on their loyalty to grow along with its furniture assortment.
“We had a lot of interest from interior designers from the beginning of Parachute. As they shop our assortment, they buy more and spend more for their customers,” he shared.
“We have been able to create a service for designers that has accelerated our growth in the $41 billion interior design market. That’s a great customer base that we’ve tapped into and continue to build. We keep them in mind as we design new categories,” he continued.
Retail stores complete the connection
Parachute’s rapidly expanding chain of retail stores is also central to its growth plans. Currently operating 20 stores, it will reach 25 by the end of the year, effectively doubling the number of retail stores in the last year.
It targets communities where Millennials congregate, in neighborhoods with restaurants, ice cream parlors, and other destinations where there are as many things to do as there are places to shop. The stores’ footprints are smaller than a typical furniture store and therefore fit into spaces that others don’t and have a showroom feel that makes them more boutique than a traditional store.
And his West Hollywood store is in the Los Angeles Design District and caters more to the interior design trade, though it’s also open to the public. “This is a concept that we can implement in other cities where there is a large commercial presence,” he explained.
Additionally, Parachute has secured a partnership with Nordstrom beginning with pop-up stores in nine of its locations and now in 15 locations, with plans to move into traditional Nordstrom home departments in select stores. Nordstrom’s client aligns closely with Parachute’s target market, making it a timely partnership for both.
“We have a very ambitious retail strategy ahead of us and we’re being very opportunistic about where we can be and looking for the right places with the right co-tenants and neighborhoods where we think our customers will want to spend time.” she said.
authentic trust
Today, the company still relies heavily on online sales, with retail accounting for only about a quarter of the company’s revenue. But it has followed a “halo effect” in online sales in the markets where its stores are located and generated double-digit revenue growth year over year in its established locations.
It also gives you confidence in your furniture expansion that customers who have purchased your furniture end up spending 22 times more on future shopping trips across all categories than those who come to the brand in another category.
“We can really connect with our customers across multiple touchpoints, both online and offline. We focus on seeking feedback and having clear lines of communication with our clients,” he explained. “We have grown alongside our customers and evolved and iterated with them as we became a more prominent brand.”
Kaye and her team at Parachute are taking an authentic and proven consumer-centric approach to building a brand and business. This gives them the confidence that even if the domestic market turns south, they will be able to continue to be guided by the North Star of their company: the customer and satisfy their current and future domestic needs.
“Our approach has been authentic and today’s customers are very sensitive to authenticity. They look for brands with a clear point of view and we have been able to establish a relationship of trust with our clients.
“They keep coming back and buying in every category. Through that trust and our discipline around our assortment, we have been able to successfully move into new categories. The salon is the next logical step,” she concludes.
Source: news.google.com