Boston – Wayfair’s first big brick & mortar store will throw open its doors in just a few weeks.
The 150,000-sq.-ft. Wayfair store is scheduled to open on May 23 at 10 a.m. local time. Located in Edens Plaza in Wilmette, Ill., the store is billed as a one-stop shop for home merchandise –including furniture, home decor, housewares and home improvement products.
The superstore-sized location marks a departure for the online home furnishings powerhouse, which has been opening smaller-format stores for its specialty retail brands: Birch Lane, AllModern and Joss & Main.
Related: Wayfair’s physical retail strategy: Start small and learn from it
Testing the market at the 10,000-square-foot store level has been a “lower cost, lower risk way” to flex into omnichannel retailing, CFO/CAO Kate Gulliver explained during a pair of investor events last month.
The brick & mortar units, she added, are expected to hit EBIDTA and payback thresholds “on their own merit.”