As featured on esquiremag.ph last July 28, 2022
by PAUL JOHN CAÑA
Many of us buy nearly everything we need online. From groceries and apparel to gadgets and ready-to-eat food, e-commerce has altered and is continuing to reshape the way we purchase our needs and wants.
But one sector that many of us probably never imagined would thrive online is home furnishings. Although there are still those who need to touch, see and feel a chair, table, bedframe, or lamp before they buy, data suggests more and more people are willing to make these big-ticket purchases over the internet.
According to a report , the global home furnishings industry was worth $106.16 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $116.97 billion this year at a compound annual growth rate of 10.2 percent. Meanwhile, the online home decor market is expected to grow by as much as $52.95 billion between 2020 to 2025 at a CAGR of nine percent.
That’s a huge pie that major global players are fighting to take a major slice of, including familiar names such as Amazon.com, Bed Bath and Beyond, Herman Miller, Ikea, and others. In the Philippines, the big retailers such as SM and Ikea are getting in on the action, providing online retail services to customers, especially during the pandemic that forced many of us to stay indoors.
We can add a local e-commerce startup that aims to be the marketplace for all things related to home style and design to that list. Itooh Homestyle curates an assortment of furniture and home décor pieces, many of which are from Filipino designers and manufacturers, for anyone looking to design or remodel their homes or living spaces. Launched one year ago this month, Itooh Homestyle now has over 3,000 furniture pieces from about 70 merchants.
Itooh Homestyle co-founders Andrew Bercasio, Jules Veloso, and Enah Baba.
At a casual lunch to mark its first anniversary, the three co-founders of Itooh Homestyle laid out where the company is now in its journey to become the go-to site for all things related to home furnishings online.
“We have generated product market fit,” said co-founder and CEO Jules Veloso. “We’re now getting a lot of organic orders. We have yet to launch the B2B model, but we’re getting inquiries about it and are now talking to interior designers and procurement officers.”
Although the founders declined to mention specific growth numbers, Veloso did say the company has seen a 60 percent growth average in its gross merchandise volume month-on-month since it launched one year ago.
The founders says that what sets Itooh Homestyle apart from its bigger competitors in the online furniture retail space is its focus on local brands and manufacturers, giving Filipino ingenuity and craftsmanship a bigger platform to reach more people here and abroad. There's also a wider variety of pieces and styles on the platform compared to other single-brand marketplaces.
“Essentially what we’re doing is putting together all of these unique brands and giving people that option,” said co-founder and COO Andrew Bercasio. "Ikea, for example, has an inventory of about 100,000, but it’s all representative of just one specific design which is Scandinavian. They’re all about things like natural wood color. We have much more varieties.”
