Digitally native, vertically integrated furniture brand Interior Define hit pause on opening its store in Philadelphia—scheduled to open March 18—when the coronavirus was first surging in the U.S.

Interior Define CEO Antonio Nieves

Interior Define CEO Antonio Nieves

Like many retailers with stores, Interior Define made the tough decision to furlough employees during the early weeks of the pandemic when many municipalities issued stay-at-home orders and ordered nonessential retailers to close.

Interior Define entered 2020 coming off a great 2019, with its Q4 sales up more than 60%, a total of eight physical stores and plans to open six more in 2020, CEO Antonio Nieves tells Digital Commerce 360.

But as the pandemic forced Interior Define to rethink its omnichannel strategy and redefine the value that stores bring to its business. By Q3, the furniture merchant embarked on its new omnichannel strategy, opening up a physical store in Philadelphia in early July and another in Washington, D.C., in November. That made for a total of eight physical stores. Plus, it added a handful of e-guide shops—meaning it has a spot on its website dedicated to certain location and hires local designers to that geography—throughout 2020.

Interior Define is on track to nearly double sales in 2020, Nieves says, which the digitally native brand attributes to multiple factors including pivoting its omnichannel strategy, its business model of making products to order, expanding its product line and benefiting from the overall increase in furniture category sales during the pandemic.

How stores increase sales at Interior Define

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