MARLBORO, N.J. — The owner of Unlimited Furniture and e-tailer EmmaMason.com has soft-opened the first Emma Mason physical showroom, the first step in its brick-and-mortar expansion plan for the East Coast.
The 30,000-square-foot showroom at 425 Route 9 opened Nov. 23, in a former home furnishings store space. Early business has been “Ok,” the co-owner said, but the midpriced to high-end player has yet to promote the location and won’t do so until it’s fully staffed and all merchandise is floored. The latter is something that’s taking a little longer than expected due to the industry’s supply-chain constraints, said Lenny Kharitonov, industry veteran and co-founder of the e-commerce home furnishings brand as well as the one-store Unlimited Furniture in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The original plan was to officially open Jan. 15, but the company now expects that will probably be pushed out to Presidents’ Day weekend, he said.
Kharitonov and other partners founded EmmaMason.com about six years ago as an e-commerce home furnishings business separate from Furniture Unlimited. (The name comes from the two most popular baby names around the time the business was launched.) While Kharitonov wouldn’t provide sales numbers, he said business for the brand online has been strong and, like many online operations, “extraordinary” since the pandemic.
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Emma Mason, he estimated, will invest between $500,000 to $1 million in the first location by the time it’s up and operating. If all goes to plan, the company will open one to two more showrooms next year and then two to three a year for the foreseeable future. The retailer is targeting the greater New York market first, but also has plans to move into Philadelphia and then Washington, DC, “and try to cover the Eastern seaboard,” Kharitonov said.
“I’ve always believed the future of furniture retail is a hybrid model,” one that meets the consumer, wherever and whenever she chooses to shop, he said. “We’re really good at e-commerce, and I think we’re going to be really good at driving traffic to the stores through our e-commerce channels.”
While Emma Mason has seen success selling furniture online, it’s also found it difficult to sell certain categories — mattresses and upholstery — because of the depth of customization in upholstery and because some consumers still prefer to “touch it and feel it” in both categories as well as test mattresses either by sitting or lying down on them before purchase, Kharitonov said. That’s another reason the owners decided to go down the physical-store path.
Emma Mason’s showroom will have depth in both categories, with goods displayed largely by brand galleries but also in lifestyle settings, he said. The retailer will feature best sellers from the website across core categories as well as product that that gets a lot of views, but few sales for the reasons Kharitonov mentioned.
“Instead of guessing what’s going to sell well, we already have a ton of data” to pull from, he said. “We know what’s selling, but also what people are looking at that’s not selling.”
Among the lines coming in: Universal, an existing supplier to the e-tailer, as well as Caracole, American Leather and Stressless chairs by Ekornes, all new to Emma Mason. The retailer also is looking to add goods from Palliser.
“It’s an opportunity to really tell a story of well-made, well-known products,” Kharitonov said.
On the bedding front, featured brands will include Sealy, Serta, Tempur-Pedic and Ashley’s Sierra Sleep.
While Kharitonov wouldn’t offer sales estimates for Unlimited Furniture or Emma Mason’s e-commerce business, he said the company is looking to do $200 to $250 per square foot at the first Emma Mason store once it’s fully operational (which equates to $6 million to $7.5 million a year).
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Way too long to type everything. I ordered a table in Jan of 2021. It came in April damaged. They reordered. In the mean time I waited till Aug/sept for delivery. After 3 attempts delivering the wrong table (cause they delivered someone else’s table 2 times) and then delivered the right table (used) and scratched with no legs I was told that was my fault. No legs cause they were already delivered and all I could get is the run around. A month later, I was very upset and told them to cancel. They did. Now I am trying to work something out cause I need the table and am being told sorry we don’t care about your problems, the price is the price. I am not asking for anything for free. Just to get my table at original price brand new and not someone else’s table. Hopefully the CEO will step in. In your court Mr. Lenny Kharitonov.