Wayfair

Wayfair LLC

Type	Private
Industry	E-tail
Founded	2002
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Key people	Niraj Shah, Founder & CEO; Steve Conine, Founder & Chairman
Website	www.wayfair.com

Wayfair is a U.S.-based multinational e-commerce company. The company—formerly known as CSN Stores—began in 2002^[1] selling furniture online, and now sells many other home goods, luggage, toys, shoes, and jewelry. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts^[2], Wayfair also has warehouse and corporate locations elsewhere in the United States, and in Australia, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom^[3].

History

2002 to 2006:

Entrepreneurs Niraj Shah and Steve Conine founded Wayfair in August 2002 – then as just a two-person company with a makeshift headquarters in Conine’s nursery in Boston, Massachusetts^[4]. Both Shah and Conine hold Bachelor of Science degrees from Cornell University. The pair had run two previous companies, Simplify Mobile and iXL, a global consulting firm, before starting Wayfair^[5].

Today Shah is the Chief Executive Officer of the company, and Conine is the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.

Originally known as CSN Stores (the name deriving from a fusion of Shah and Conine’s initials), the company began with a single website, racksandstands.com, which sold media stands and storage furniture.

In 2003, the company added patio and garden goods suppliers along with three online stores and over a dozen employees and relocated the headquarters out of Conine’s house and into an office on Newbury Street, in Boston.

Over the next two years, the company expanded its catalogue to include home décor, office, institutional, and kitchen and dining furniture and materials, home improvement goods, bed and bath materials, luggage, and lighting. In 2006, the company earned $100 million in sales for the first time^[6].

2007 to 2010:

For the next four years, the company expanded aggressively and exponentially both in the U.S. and in international markets.

In 2008, CSN Stores began shipping to Canada and selling in the United Kingdom, and opened an office in London. In the same year, the Boston Business Journal ranked the company the #1 fastest growing private ecommerce company in Massachusetts, and the #4 fastest growing private company overall.

In 2009, the company expanded to Australia and Germany.

In 2010, the company relocated to its current headquarters, occupying 10 floors of 177 Huntington Avenue. At the end of that year, the company launched Joss & Main, a members’ only private sales online store.

2011 to Present:

By 2011, CSN Stores owned over 200 online shops, largely niche shops for specific products, like racksandstands.com, strollers.com, and everyatomicclock.com. In an effort to scale, to direct traffic to a single site, and to unify the aesthetic of the company, Shah and Conine decided to rebrand CSN Stores as Wayfair. Wayfair.com launched on September 1, 2011.

As more customers reach Wayfair directly, the brand will gradually consume all niche sites, directing all traffic to Wayfair.com, except allmodern.com and jossandmain.com.

As of today, Wayfair is the second largest online house ware and furnishing retailer in the United States, and the 51st largest online retailer in the United States^[7].

Current Stores and Services

Wayfair

Wayfair sells the entire catalogue of all former niche sites of CSN stores. This includes furniture, home décor, kitchen and dining products, bed and bath products, patio and garden goods, home improvement products, recreational goods, and baby and children’s toys and furniture.

AllModern

AllModern sells modern furniture and modern home goods, which opened in 2007. Products sold at AllModern are from many top designer companies, including Missoni, Herman Miller, Knoll, Philippe Stark, Vitra, and Steelcase.

Joss & Main

Opened in 2010, Joss & Main offers limited-time sales on a variety of products. Shoppers must be members of Joss & Main in order to view events and make purchases. Sales are released, typically from three brands a day, at 11 a.m. ET each day, and usually last for 72 hours.

Awards & Accolades

2011

• Named "Private Company of the Year" by Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council^[8].
• Ranked No. 51 of 500 on the Internet Retailer 500 by Internet Retailer magazine
• Named to Boston Business Journal's Pacesetters list of the fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts

2010

• Ranked No. 61 of 500 on the Internet Retailer 500 by Internet Retailer magazine

2009

• Ranked No. 63 of 500 on the Internet Retailer 500 by Internet Retailer magazine

2008

• Named to the 2009 Hot 100 by Internet Retailer magazine
• Ranked No. 492 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in the United States by Inc. magazine
• Ranked No. 69 of 500 on the Internet Retailer 500 by Internet Retailer magazine
• Ranked No. 4 in Top 60 Pacesetters for the fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal

2007

• Ranked No. 147 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in the United States by Inc. magazine
• Ranked No. 107 of 500 on the Internet Retailer 500 by Internet Retailer magazine

External Links

• Wayfair.com

Notes

1. ^ "Wayfair About Us". http://www.wayfair.com/about/history.php. 
2. ^ "Wayfair.com 'mega-site' is new home for CSN Stores' 200 shopping sites". Home Accents Today. http://www.homeaccentstoday.com/article/542601-Wayfair_com_mega_site_is_new_home_for_CSN_Stores_200_shopping_sites.php. 
3. ^ "CSN Relaunches as Wayfair.com". Furniture Today. http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/543089-CSN_Relaunches_as_Wayfair_com.php. 
4. ^ "Back Bay Company Wayfair To Merge 200 Online Storefronts". CBS Boston. http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/09/20/back-bay-company-wayfair-to-merge-200-online-storefronts/. 
5. ^ "Wayfair Team Bios". http://www.wayfair.com/team. 
6. ^ "Wayfair Timeline". http://www.wayfair.com/about/history.php. 
7. ^ "CSN Stores Becomes Second-Largest Online Retailer of Home Goods in the U.S.". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/31/idUS218504+31-May-2011+PRN20110531. 
8. ^ "2011 Mass Technology Leadership Awards Finalists". http://www.masstlc.org/2011awardwinners.html.