The Evolution of Feather: What We Have Learned.
The consumer goods industry has been experiencing a rollercoaster few years, to say the least. With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, both retailers and DTC businesses scrambled to adjust to a customer environment that was ever-changing. It was crucial to continue servicing existing customers while overhauling many aspects of the business in order to survive our “new normal”.
If your business is anything like Feather’s, then this was not only an unpredictable time for your P&L, but even more critical for the impact it had on your customers. Our learning process impacted many of our customer relationships during this time. The unpredictable environment prompted new challenges regarding securing customer satisfaction.
We navigated an unprecedented landscape that influenced our reliability. Nothing was more daunting than attempting to maintain dependability under these ever-changing circumstances. If you have been part of our journey, you know how much this has affected our relationship with you, our loyal customers, and ultimately, our internal morale.
As we all know, the “new normal” has continued to evolve over the years. The COVID restrictions were just the beginning.. From the extensive labor shortages, to the disastrous delays at import/export locations worldwide, global supply chains suffered immeasurable setbacks. Operational costs skyrocketed while the availability of our collective inventory was extremely limited.
This caused a crisis for the Direct-to-Consumer industry. Many businesses had to completely overhaul their operating models, while others were unable to weather the storm.
Looking Forward:
Feather was no exception to these obstacles. I can remember many strategy sessions where Feather’s executive team evaluated the paths that would lead us towards restoration, reinvention, or into the unknown.
What we learned (and eventually executed) would be critical to our survival as a company. We are proud to have landed on a sustainable business model that develops extraordinary products. After taking a step back and revaluating our mission, we underlined the following:
A business can’t be everything to everybody —focus is key.
Proving operations with a B2B model helps scalability and adoption with consumers (B2C).
Partnering with experts in the industry is key in overcoming previously unscalable costs.
In typical startup fashion, Feather wanted to do it all right away. Ultimately, we learned we needed to narrow our focus, with our mission as the driving force behind our decisions.
In January 2022, Feather was operating in five core markets, servicing eight different types of clients. As an attempt to broaden our spectrum, we began to take on every request we received nationwide. Regardless of our capability and scope, we had high hopes in our ability to execute this idealistic goal.
As admirable as our goals were, we would soon realize the realistic cost of our ambition. With logistics-heavy, physical goods involved, we paid for the increase in revenue with untenable costs incurred for delivery. Ultimately, this hurt our bottom line.
Feather has proudly returned to our roots. We have strong operations in four core markets: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Florida. We have also taken a hard look at our service offering (we’ll be sharing more details in a future post), through the lens of our mission to keep furniture in homes and out of landfills
Our sustainability mission is a key part of who we are. Factory production and shipping are both major contributors to carbon emissions, which is why we made the decision to only service our core markets for the time being - less trucks on the road - and increased quality customer experience.
With ever-evolving home trends paired with low-quality furniture manufacturing have continuously added to our landfills. The more often you’re replacing your furniture, whether it is a new desk or lamp, the more CO2 is emitted in the production and shipping process. We have built our furniture to last, and stand the test of time.
Stay up to date with the latest trends AND reduce your carbon footprint with Feather.
Your Carbon Footprint for newly bought furniture.
Thus far, we have made the following advancements:
Beyond adhering to our vision for the future, we recognized the importance of honing in and growing our B2B model. Owning furniture is a personal thing, and B2C demands a set of requirements that we believe we understand and provide expert support. Most importantly, we learned that partnering with experts will allow us to overcome previously unfeasible expenses. By partnering with some of the top manufacturers, stagers and designers in the country we can provide a fully-serviced B2B offering that is curated and convenient, as well as, sustainable.
As trying as the past few years have been, we’re pleased with how we’ve grown. Ultimately, we leaned into our key pillars. At Feather, we are aspirational, environmentally responsible, and experts in curated design. The future is unpredictable, but we feel strongly that we have perfected a business model that is powerful and primed for progress. It is our privilege to include you on this journey.