Skip to main content

Wayfair, the Amazon of home goods, just landed a $2 billion valuation

wayfair amazon home goods just landed 2 billion valuation screen shot 2014 03 07 at 1 10 20 pm
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ever heard of Wayfair.com? If not, don’t worry – it’s not your fault. The company became the biggest online purveyor of home goods in the U.S. practically over night, so despite selling household wares, it’s not quite a household name just yet.

“Yet” is the operative word here though. The company is blowing up (sales exploded from around $600 million last year to nearly $1 billion in 2013) and earlier today announced that it raised more than $157 million from a number of different investors. This gives the company a valuation of around $2 billion — putting it on par with companies like Nest, Snapchat, and Box, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Recommended Videos

Wayfair sells furniture, lighting and other home goods, and is known for offering limited-time discounts known as flash sales. When your really get down to it, it’s really just another ecommerce site, but the company been able to successfully fend off rivals like Amazon, Overstock, and others by offering a unique, specialized inventory.

It wasn’t always so organized and awesome though. The company actually got its start as CSN stores back in 2002, selling speaker and television stands through a site called RacksAndStands.com. Founders Niraj Shah and Steve Connie decided that, following the dot-com crash, it was best to go with a generic name to avoid scaring off manufacturers who got burned when the bubble burst. 

Over the next eight years, the two of them started more than 270 separate websites, each of which sold a highly specific category of home goods.

“Our view was that you just had to pick a category that was off the beaten track,” Shah said in an interview with Business Insider. “You couldn’t focus on electronics or, you know, the same items that Amazon and others were selling.” 

There was AllBarsStools.comEveryMirror.comBedroomFurnitureDirect.com, and a boatload of others. The strategy was rooted in search engine optimization — Shah and Connie figured that with that a wide array of specific, niche sites with generic names, people searching for home goods on Google were bound to come across one of their stores.

It worked beautifully, and by 2010 the company was pulling in nearly $400 million in annual sales, but the problem was that people who bought from their sites had no way of knowing they were all ran by the same corporation. So, to unify all their brands, Shah and Connie formally launched Wayfair in 2011. The rest is history.

Given that $1 billion in annual sales is a cutoff for filing confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an IPO is expected in the next few months. 

Topics
Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Early Black Friday chest freezer deals: up to 40% off today
The Insignia 7-cubic feet chest freezer placed in a garage.

Update 10/29/24: This starts our Black Friday coverage of chest freezers, and we like what we see so far. The following deals are from a variety of good brands, show a wide range of prices, and most importantly come in various sizes, so you can pick what is right for your home.

While Black Friday officially starts on November 29, retailers are getting started early this year. That means great early Black Friday deals, including on things like chest freezers. Here, we search high and low for the best deals on chest freezers to hit the market. That means we're looking at sources like Walmart's, Amazon's, and Best Buy's early Black Friday deals among others to get you the best deals possible. Whether you're wanting to store ice cream, meat, or a party's worth of frozen pizza, these are the best chest freezers for you.
Hisense 5 cu. ft. Garage Ready Chest Freezer — $165 $189 13% off

Read more
Best cordless drill early Black Friday deals: DeWalt and more
A DeWalt drill being used.

Update 10/28/24: This marks the beginning of our drill coverage for 2024's Black Friday shopping season, and all of the major brands have at least one great deal. While we're excited for what is to come, this is a fantastic start and there's really no reason to not go ahead and get prepped by buying something now.
If you're buying anything this Black Friday, there's a big chance you might want a drill/driver to go with it. A drill/driver is one part drill, one part (screw)driver and it can help out in many situations. For example, say you take part in one of these early Black Friday TV deals, you very well might want to wall mount it. Then, say you grab up an easy coffee maker from Keurig's early Black Friday deals. An extra side table in your study would sure go nice with that and a drill/driver could very well make the table's construction much easier.
Really, with so so many of your early Black Friday purchases, there might be a chance to pick up a cordless drill or driver and get to work. As such, we've compiled a list of the best cordless drill deals throughout Black Friday deals that are available now, so you can get a head start on prepping for the savings that are to come.

Skil Pwr Core 12 Drill/Driver — $50 $59 15% off

Read more
Best Roomba deals: Top robot vacuums from as little as $170
iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum.

If you come home and don't really look forward to doing the day-to-day dusting and vacuuming that's required to keep everything clean, then robot vacuums are a great solution. Probably one of the best-known brands is Roomba, and if you're looking to pick up a new one, then Roomba has a lot of great options you can pick from.. Whether you're looking for a budget-friendly option or something a little bit more high-end that comes with a self-emptying station, we've gone out and collected some of our favorite Roomba deals below.

That said, if you don't necessarily want a Roomba, you can check out these general robot vacuum deals, and for the more substantial messes, there are always these vacuum deals and cordless vacuum deals too.
iRobot Roomba i1 -- $170 $220 22% off

Read more