Aug 17 2007
The founders of modern furniture Web site FurnitureSeen.com are proud to announce the introduction of a service that allows visitors to submit questions about specific items they are looking for. Founders Anita Engs and Susan Reed spend the majority of their days looking at home furnishings, and although they are unable to locate every item, the new, free service allows them to offer practical suggestions to shoppers.
Engs and Reed created FurnitureSeen.com because they were frustrated with the amount of time and effort shoppers must devote to locating original, modern home furnishings. The site features hundreds of products from more than 80 vendors in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago, and has the goal of connecting architects, interior designers, set designers and consumers with modern furniture showrooms and studios.
FurnituresSeen.com doesn’t sell any products; it simply puts the site’s users in touch with a local producer or seller. The site’s other key ingredient is that any home furnishing product shown on the site be “modern.” Although a subjective classification at best, this qualification makes the site a rich hunting ground for like-minded consumers and design professionals. In its quest to bring it all to the buyer, FurnitureSeen.com has become a “great equalizer” for smaller designers by including them alongside established, well known designers.
In order to quantify the Web site’s services, Reed and Engs conducted field studies in San Francisco and New York in which they attempted to visit as many furniture showrooms as possible in each city. During six hours in San Francisco, the pair – who stopped only for coffee – visited 12 showrooms, spent $35 in parking and covered a 10-mile radius. In a similar experiment in New York, Reed and Engs mapped out a route and decided to spend between 20 and 45 minutes in each showroom. During their six hours in New York, the pair – who stopped only for a 20-minute lunch – visited 20 showrooms, took six subways and walked for miles.
The experiment Reed and Engs conducted left them exhausted, and illustrated the value of FurnitureSeen.com, which provides a convenient, time-effective way to shop for home furnishings. In one hour, customers who use the site can “visit” four cities, “shop” at more than 80 showrooms and view more than 1,000 pieces of modern furniture. At FurnitureSeen.com, users can also print specification sheets and e-mail showrooms to obtain additional information.
The capability of FurnitureSeen.com visitors to ask Reed and Engs questions about specific modern furniture adds to the site’s convenience. Shoppers can save time and money by beginning their search for home furnishings online, narrowing down their choices and then planning a direct and efficient shopping trip.