by Company continues to sell through the e-commerce model it has created on its revamped website
BASSETT, Va. — When Bassett Furniture acquired Canadian e-commerce resource Noa Home about two years ago, the goal was to achieve a greater online presence and boost its ability to connect with consumers digitally.
While the experience of selling through the platform helped accomplished those goals, it came at a cost that the company said no longer made financial sense. Thus the company announced as part of its latest earnings report that it was planning to close the division by the end of the year.
According to the company’s latest earnings report, Noa Home generated just $1.1 million in sales in the second quarter ended June 1, compared with $2.3 million in the same period last year. For the full first half, its sales were $2.9 million, down from $5.2 million the same period last year.
It’s a disappointing performance that no doubt is reflective of sales in general in this tough economy.
At the time of the purchase, however, the platform seemed like a good investment that would help the company better navigate the e-commerce realm with a lean operation that includes only about seven or eight employees, according to Rob Spilman Jr., Bassett’s chairman and chief executive officer.
“They had been in business for about five or six years and had been profitable for a couple of years,” Spilman told Home News Now, noting that officials were impressed with the entrepreneurial nature of the business and believed that it could help Bassett in its own efforts to sell online as part of an omnichannel bricks-and-clicks strategy.
But the venture, like many other acquisitions, was still a risk, given the needs of the fledgling business.
“They were cash strapped and needed capital to procure inventory,” Spilman said, noting that the company also tended to be out of stock on some items that were selling, “because they really couldn’t fund the inventory.”
Unlike its own website, www.bassettfurniture.com, which mostly connects the company to consumers in the U.S. market, Noa Home primarily sold to customers in Canada, Singapore and the U.K.
“So we said, ‘we’ll learn something from this. It won’t cost us a pile of money to do it and we’ll see,” he added, noting that the purchase also provided the opportunity to sell more furniture in Canada as well as Singapore and the U.K. The Asian-sourced product line included upholstery, along with some dining furniture, accessories and bed-in-a-box types of mattresses. “So that was the spirit in which we entered the business.”
“But just like everything else since that time, particularly as we got into 2023, the sales environment got much tougher,” Spilman said. “The digital advertising got more expensive and our business also got tougher. It didn’t make sense to keep funding this thing. If you hang in there long enough, it might get profitable, but when will that be?
“The standalone e-commerce business is a tough business, and it got tougher as furniture purchases waned,” he added.
Ironically, the company was just getting ready to sell some furniture from the platform in the U.S. with products stocked in Bassett’s North Carolina warehouse.
That said, Bassett had already made investments in its own website to improve the online experience for its own customer base. Today the bassettfurniture.com platform is the company’s primary e-commerce vehicle, selling everything from bedroom and dining room furniture to all types of living room seating as well as outdoor furniture.
Spilman noted that company’s ownership of Noa Home did teach it some “tricks of the trade” relating to search engine optimization, for example, along with ways to improve its own online connection with and exposure among influencers.
“I feel we are getting better and better on the Bassett site, and some of those lessons are being carried over to the site,” he said. “We want to focus as much of our energy in that effort as we can because we do think that long term, it is a big opportunity.”
