Digitally native bedsheet brand Brooklinen recently expanded its product assortment beyond bedroom textiles to include home goods.
Unlike its textiles, which Brooklinen touts that it manufactures itself, the retailer is not manufacturing the home products. Instead, it has selected a “highly curated” group that it sells in its Spaces by Brooklinen section of its site.
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“We were overwhelmed by the breadth of home design options available, and loved the highly curated approach we’ve seen at specialty stores in our travels,” says Brooklinen’s co-founder and chief communications officer Vicki Fulop. “We heard from our customers that they felt similarly and really wanted more of the Brooklinen style throughout their own homes.”
The retailer has more than 100 products in the Spaces section including furniture, lighting and art, which it has sorted into three aesthetic profiles: earthy minimalist, modern glam and relaxed industrial.
These groupings will help Brooklinen grow its business and appeal to more shoppers, says Paula Rosenblum, co-founder and managing partner at retail marketing firm RSR Research.
“What Brooklinen is trying to do is create ‘lifestyle pods’ that appeal to different swaths of consumers,” Rosenblum says.
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Brooklinen would not disclose specifics terms of the manufacturer relationships, such as if they are wholesale, marketplace or drop-ship models. “Our arrangements vary by partner,” Fulop says. “Some brands are active in other marketplace concepts while this is the first partnership of its kind for others.”
Although this is a departure from its digitally native, vertically integrated brand model, that’s OK, Rosenblum says.
“It’s wise to expand,” she says. “Again, the object is to move beyond a category to a lifestyle. I don’t think it will cause customer confusion, it will start as a curiosity and if they get it right, will lead to at least a percentage of others’ sales coming into Brooklinen’s pockets.”
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