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| Dec 10, 2012 |
Wayfair.com raises $36 million to grow Joss & Main
Boh staff
By Staff

Home furnishings e-retailer Wayfair.com has secured $36.3 million in new equity financing to fuel the growth of its discount sale site Joss & Main. Since its inception nearly two years ago, Joss & Main has attracted nearly 3,000,000 members and generated $100 million in annual revenue. Investors include Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Spark Capital.

"Joss & Main has gained tremendous traction over a very short period of time through its unique approach to curated e-commerce," said Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair.com. "The site hit its highest sales day on Cyber Monday by a factor of over 50 percent and sales are up 10- fold since last year. It's clear that shoppers love the Joss & Main experience and with the help of our investors we expect to grow membership and sales at an even greater pace."

Joss & Main is a membership-based website that offers inspirational decor at attainable prices via daily events, spotlight collections highlighting design trends and styles, and curated collections in collaboration with celebrities and notable influencers within the design community. Members of the private sales site can explore curated collections of furniture, housewares, decor and accents through limited-time sales.

"Our aim is to evoke a lifestyle magazine and encourage the delight of daily window shopping as well as the ease and temptation to buy every item from every story – if you act quickly enough," noted John Mulliken, co-founder and General Manager of Joss & Main. "This recipe is resonating very strongly with our members as evidenced by the pace at which new members are signing up every day. Because we're part of Wayfair.com we have capabilities and flexibility with our offering and supply chain that other stand-alone flash sites cannot offer and that, in turn, makes our customer experience even more compelling."

Joss & Main's mobile app, released earlier this year, has helped drive steady sales growth with the percentage of revenue from mobile up 50 percent this holiday season.

"Mobile shopping represents more than one third of sales every weekend, and reached nearly 40 percent on Cyber Monday. Mobile is growing four to five times as fast as the rest of our business, which is fast-growing itself," added Mulliken. "The combination of inspirational content, compelling pricing, and a simple experience to quickly shop our events from anywhere is driving a big portion of our success – and our mobile app members are 40 percent more engaged than our other members."

While the home furnishings industry is valued at over $160 billion in the U.S. alone, only a small percentage of that market is online. Traditional barriers to online shopping for home furnishings are crumbling as new generations of shoppers who have grown up with the internet are beginning to furnish their homes. Additionally, shoppers across all generations have built up a comfort level over time with online purchases of smaller items such as books and shoes making the move to furniture and decor a more comfortable transition.

"Niraj and his team have done an amazing job over the years we've known them, and their move into flash sales is no exception," noted Neeraj Agrawal, General Partner at Battery Ventures.  "The online home furnishing market has experienced double digit growth over the last year, and we believe Joss & Main is poised to lead the flash sales portion.  It's a mega industry that's just beginning to hit its stride online, and the team has the right DNA to capture the opportunity."

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