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Wayfair Inc. is going all in on bathroom vanities, which it thinks is a “multibillion-dollar market.”
Chief Executive Niraj Shah said that single furnishing is one of the online furniture retailer’s major areas of investment, along with expansion in Canada and the launch of Way Day, the company’s shopping event that follows in the footsteps of Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Day.
The attention on bathroom vanities is part of Wayfair’s effort to capture more of their customers’ wallet using features from the site like idea boards, photo searching and 3-D viewing.
“These features of our offering are particularly relevant to customers shopping for bathroom vanities as the items typically are focal points of bathrooms, with customers placing emphasis on the design and desiring uniqueness,” Shah said on the call, according to a FactSet transcript.
Wayfair offers 11,000 different vanities, and customers have provided nearly 50,000 product reviews, he said.
The company has invested in a program that helps customers shop for specific styles and price points, and takes into account the plumbing features in customer bathrooms and the installation process. Increasing the number of customer service representatives has been significant for this category.
“This is particularly important in vanities where customers may have questions on whether, for example, the vanity will fit in their space, if the opening in the back of the vanity will align with their waterline access point, or whether they can combine different items such as a vanity with an alternative backsplash,” Shah said. “We see this investment in people as a competitive differentiator in shopping the home category online.”
Damage during transport is also a big risk because these items are usually large, heavy and made with special features like stone countertops. Wayfair has brought more of the shipping process in-house, which also improves the speed of delivery, Shah said.
As a result of the effort so far, Wayfair says bathroom vanities have an annualized run rate of more than $100 million, double the prior year. Data provided by Edison Trends shows the day resulted in 400% more sales than the average of the previous 30 days.
Wayfair reported a first-quarter loss of $1.22 per share after a loss of 66 cents per share last year. The adjusted-per-share loss was 91 cents. Sales rose to $1.4 billion from $960.8 million the previous year. The FactSet consensus was for a loss of 90 cents and revenue of $1.36 billion.
Wayfair shares leapt 12% in Wednesday trading.
Wayfair said its Way Day event, which took place April 25 was the biggest revenue day in the company’s history.
And this is Wayfair’s second year in Canada, the company’s most developed market outside of the U.S., according to Shah. The company has been investing in its Canadian infrastructure and, to better serve Quebec customers, developed a French site and French-language advertising.
Wayfair shares are down nearly 9% for the year to date while the S&P 500 index is down about 1% for the period.