by Haylee Reed`
July 5th, 2024
In today’s world, ecommerce is an essential component of every business. While it’s grown as a popular buying medium for quite some time, the pandemic surged its popularity among consumers — turning an online store from a nice-to-have to a must-have for shoppers.
The home and garden industry isn’t immune to consumer demands for ecommerce. As of Q2 of 2023, 20% of global shoppers purchased home and garden products online on a monthly basis.
With 58% of Millennials and 42% of Gen Z preferring to shop for these items online vs in-store, we can only expect the importance of having a robust ecommerce site to ramp up as these generations continue to account for more of the buying population.
However, building an ecommerce site isn’t as simple as it sounds. Today’s shoppers crave a seamless experience that can replace the need to ever step foot in a store.
Creating a world-class online shopping experience is essential to help customers feel comfortable purchasing home goods from your ecommerce site. Otherwise, they’ll likely choose to shop from a competitor that offers the experience they’re looking for.
While building a seamless digital presence that replaces traditional in-store shopping may feel overwhelming, we’ve got you covered. To inspire your store, we’ve compiled the home, garden, and furniture brands on BigCommerce that have built a top-notch ecommerce site and insights on how we can help you create an online store that exceeds shopper expectations.
Examples of home and garden ecommerce sites
Figuring out what you want your ecommerce site to look like is half the battle. That’s why we’ve gathered a few home and garden brands that have built successful online stores on BigCommerce so you can see what tactics would best apply to your site.
Burrow.
Burrow started out as two friends who found a way to improve the end-to-end furniture buying experience. Today, it’s a successful brand that specialises in selling home goods in modular pieces to simplify the furniture assembly process.
When designing its ecommerce site, Burrow wanted the freedom to plug in outside technology to optimise the user experience. To do so, the brand took advantage of BigCommerce’s composable architecture and built a headless site. This has enabled Burrow to connect an outside CMS as its frontend interface, allowing it to create a site that exceeds its shopper expectations.
“The value of the BigCommerce headless solution has been huge for Burrow, specifically in enabling us to craft a unique shopping experience,” remarked Kabeer Chopra, Co-Founder and CPO of Burrow.
London Tile Company.
Case Study: London Tile Company
Hampshire Tile Warehouse’s flagship brand, London Tile Company, is known for its unique collection of tiles designed to meet any DIY or home improvement goal.
After experiencing challenges with its bespoke ecommerce tool, the brand decided it was time to find an easy-to-use solution that offers the freedom to integrate custom-built tools. With BigCommerce, London Tile Company takes advantage of its diverse selection of native features, third-party applications, and ability to incorporate custom solutions to optimise the user experience.
“And at the end of the day, BigCommerce won out because of the accessibility for everybody using it and the features that were native to it,” explained Jon Lett, Ecommerce Manager at Hampshire Tile Warehouse.
Molly Mutt.
Molly Mutt’s storey starts in 2008, when owner Molly Mundt came up with the brilliant idaea of washable dog bed covers. Today, this international brand offers a wide range of high-quality pet products to enhance the lives of pets and owners.
Prior to moving to BigCommerce, Molly Mutt hosted its ecommerce store on Magento 1. After learning the tool would no longer be supported, the brand decided it was time to say goodbye to the hassle of hosting on this open-source platform. Since moving to BigCommerce, Molly Mutt has been able to bring its brand to life by building a fully custom theme. The company also significantly raised its average order size by integrating a custom bundle kit feature that rewards shoppers who add related items to their carts.
“BigCommerce had the most built-in functionality that we needed and it wasn't costing extra. We didn't have to go download an app that's hosted on third-party servers,” said Charles Combs, Head of Marketing at Molly Mutt.
Coco Republic.
Founded in 1979, Coco Republic supplies luxury home decor and furniture to B2B and B2C shoppers across the globe.
After struggling to scale its international business on Adobe Commerce and dealing with the platform's high total cost of ownership, the brand realised it was time to find a new ecommerce solution with robust out-of-the-box tools and B2B functionality. Since switching to BigCommerce, the brand has been able to implement new features and better serve trade customers without having to rely on a team of developers.
“We pushed the envelope of both design and technology to end up with an elegant but effective global solution that is easily maintainable and has a reasonable total cost of ownership,” remarked Jack Kiefer, Global Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer for Coco Republic.
Wovenbyrd.
Known for selling elegant yet affordable furniture, Wovenbyrd has evolved into a highly successful home goods brand in the DTC ecommerce market.
After struggling with its initial ecommerce setup — which combined WordPress, Shopify, and JavaScript — the brand decided it was time to find a composable solution that would allow it to build out the DTC and B2B sides of the business. Wovenbyrd now takes advantage of BigCommerce’s freedom to build custom solutions, B2B Edition, and different omnichannel tools to create a top-tier user experience and scale its business.
“The biggest benefit to BigCommerce is that it enables us to add to it over time. We didn’t want to migrate to a new platform and then have to do it all over again in three years. We wanted a platform that would allow us to continue to scale and enrich the experience more as we grow. We’ve got that with BigCommerce,” explained Ty Baucum, President and CEO of Wovenbyrd.
QE Home.
QE Home was established in 1992 as Quilts Etc. with the goal of providing shoppers with high-quality, stylish, and affordable bedding. Today, the brand is one of Canada’s leading companies in its industry, with over 70 physical stores and a robust ecommerce site.
Before moving to BigCommerce, the brand struggled to scale its business due to hosting on a limiting and costly ecommerce platform. Once QE Home stumbled upon BigCommerce, it had all the tools it needed to build a thriving ecommerce presence — from third-party applications to the multi-location integration that enabled it to launch a Buy Online, Pick Up in Store feature.
“The ease at which we're able to manage the multi-location inventory within the BigCommerce dashboard is incredible. I know that our stores love the programme and the fact that their customers are now getting access to their actual inventory. Our stores feel they're really a part of the whole ecommerce initiative because it extends down to them,” said Ryan Macleod, Ecommerce Project Manager at QE Home.
Chair King Backyard Store.
Case Study: Chair King Backyard Store
Since 1950, Chair King Backyard Store has evolved into Texas's largest outdoor furniture and accessories retailer — known for its high-quality products and top-tier customer service.
Chair King hosted its first-time ecommerce store on an outdated platform that kept it from growing to its full potential and meeting shopper expectations. The brand knew it was time to change platforms and eventually switched to BigCommerce. After migrating tools, Chair King built a custom checkout experience to optimise the user journey. The company also uses third-party applications and the platform's native features — like product catalogue management and SEO capabilities.
“Overall, BigCommerce is a better user experience for our customers, and it's also a better user experience for the team that's supporting it. It's definitely pushed us forward even within our space. I think we have one of the more updated websites for the niche market that we're in,” Remarked Kristen Brown, Director of Ecommerce at Chair King Backyard Store.
Houzer.
For over thirty years, Houzer has supplied customers with a wide variety of kitchen sinks and faucets designed to match any home aesthetic. After originally selling online through different marketplaces, like Amazon, the brand decided it was time to build out the DTC side of the business — which required a dedicated ecommerce site.
Houzer knew it needed a platform that would allow it to manage its complex inventory, integrate world-class technology, and seamlessly manage its robust omnichannel presence. Eventually, it found BigCommerce and hasn’t looked back since. The platform offers everything it needs and more — from robust native features, the freedom to customise, and a strong partnership with Feedonomics.
“If you’re a brand that’s selling across omnichannel and aspires to sell direct-to-consumer, or if you're a brand with complex products or complex customers, there's nothing else but BigCommerce and Feedonomics,” explained Michael Challinger, CEO of Houzer.
Learn more success storeys from BigCommerce home and garden brands by exploring our case study library.
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How BigCommerce helps home and garden companies
BigCommerce offers a variety of functionalities that make it a standout choice for home, garden, and furniture brands looking to amplify their ecommerce presence.
Below are a few key features the platform offers that can strategically scale these businesses.
Site design capabilities.
With BigCommerce, home and garden brands have the freedom and flexibility to design a site that fully embodies their brand’s identity.
Whether you’re looking to take advantage of native tools or pre-built themes, integrate an outside CMS by going headless, or build a fully custom design — we’ve got you covered.
With our Open SaaS platform, the sky’s the limit. Brands can create as simple or complex a design as they want. Our native Page Builder functionality is a drag-and-drop tool that provides an out-of-the-box solution to customise free or paid themes.
We also offer third-party applications — like Shogun — that offer more advanced design capabilities for brands looking for more freedom to customise.
One of the best parts of BigCommerce is the flexibility to incorporate best-in-breed technology. Companies looking to create a unique frontend experience can take advantage of our composable commerce capabilities by integrating an outside CMS. This decouples the front and backend components of the site, enabling brands to build a one-of-a-kind design that fits their needs.
Businesses also have the ability to build a custom-coded site with the help of a developer or agency partner.
Integrate with backend systems.
As a composable platform, BigCommerce enables brands to incorporate outside technology needed to run their business. This includes back-office tools to manage data and inventory — like an ERP, PIM, accounting software, or records management tool.
Our goal is to allow customers to integrate whatever tools they need to successfully scale their ecommerce business.
Increase sales with omnichannel.
With the conclusion of the pandemic, consumer demands for a customer experience that blends in-person and online shopping is more prominent than ever.
Home and garden consumers expect brands to offer a unified customer journey that seamlessly weaves together a variety of touchpoints to create a frictionless shopping experience. To maximise sales, companies need to build a robust omnichannel strategy that reaches shoppers both online and in-store, through social media, online marketplaces, and more.
With more touchpoints than ever before, brands may feel overwhelmed overseeing their presence through these various channels. Thankfully, BigCommerce offers a native Channel Manager feature that allows brands to seamlessly manage their different selling and advertising feeds through one centralised location. Businesses looking for more robust omnichannel functionality can utilise BigCommerce’s partnership with Feedonomics to effortlessly build, maintain, and grow their different feeds.
Utilising AI features to help scale your business.
For home and garden brands, taking advantage of innovative technologies is essential to grow their ecommerce business. This market trend is here to stay, and we’re already seeing brands that incorporate tools like AI get ahead.
AI can minimise back-office tasks — leading to increased team efficiency — and improve the overall customer experience, making shoppers more likely to buy from you.
BigCommerce offers a suite of AI-powered tools and partner integrations designed to boost engagement, streamline operations, and empower new, creative ways to attract and convert shoppers. Our BigAI Copywriter tool generates product descriptions designed to improve SEO and match your brand’s voice, saving you time and helping you reach more customers.
In addition to using AI to generate product information, brands can use tools like Klevu, which use AI to enhance search capabilities and automate custom product recommendations based on a shopper’s site interaction. In fact, brands that use Klevu’s AI search have the power to increase their search-led conversions by 52%.
ARize is another third-party technology home and garden businesses can seamlessly integrate to generate AI imagery that matches their branding. This eliminates the need for a photographer or graphic designer, saving companies time and money.
UntilGone is an example of a BigCommerce home and garden brand that takes advantage of the platform’s ability to integrate the latest technology into its ecommerce site. This online daily deals marketplace uses Google Cloud for Retail to generate personalised emails with recommended products based on a customer's shopping or browsing history. After incorporating AI product recommendations into its transactional emails, UntilGone saw a 200% increase in revenue by the end of 2023.
B2B functionality.
As we continue to grow into a digital-first society, it’s only natural that more B2B transactions will take place online vs traditional offline methods. In fact, a research report by Gartner estimates that 80% of B2B sales interactions will take place digitally by 2025.
This means home and garden brands that sell wholesale need to offer a modernised B2B experience that’s as seamless as the B2C user journey.
BigCommerce offers a robust selection of B2B tools designed to build a world-class customer journey for these shoppers. With the ability to support multiple payment options, build customer groups and price lists, create multiple storefronts under one account, and so much more, these brands can create a seamless and modernised experience for wholesale shoppers.
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Final Word
Today’s shoppers expect nothing but the best from home and garden ecommerce brands. As this industry’s market share continues to grow, it’s more important than ever for businesses to build a world-class customer experience that integrates tools and functionality designed to draw in shoppers and help them feel comfortable purchasing from your online store.
Learn more about how BigCommerce can amplify your brand’s online presence by visiting our Home, Garden, and Furniture Solutions page.
FAQ about home and garden ecommerce
Haylee Reed
Haylee is a Content Marketing Writer at BigCommerce, where she partners with the SEO team to craft narratives and blog content. She earned a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin and afterward spent a year abroad to pursue a Master's in International Management from Trinity College Dublin. When she’s not writing, you can usually find Haylee with her nose in a book, enjoying live music or scoping out the best local coffee shops.