With sleek, user-friendly interfaces and editorial collections, companies like ZZ Driggs and Feather make furniture rentals look more appealing—and just in time for a wave of renewed customer interest. With so many individuals working from home and discovering new furniture needs, many traditional home goods companies are experiencing delays of weeks, if not months, for shipping. Rentals, however, can be at your door in a fraction of that time.
“We give it a week timeframe from the time you put it in your cart,” Kendra Ovesen, Feather’s vice president of merchandising and the company’s in-house design expert, tells AD PRO. “We were able to quickly react when customers were in that panic mode.” Their streamlined model has paid off: Rentals of their office furniture items are up a whopping 400% year-over-year since March. Moreover, an exodus of city dwellers looking to decamp to suburban and country homes has also augmented the company’s workload. It makes sense, considering that rental furniture is a relatively easy fix for filling non-primary dwellings, while providing customers with the option to ultimately return pieces if and when their moving requires.
Interestingly, ZZ Driggs, which began as a B2B company, launched their consumer-facing division only a few months ago. A planned Manhattan launch was quickly shelved in light of the coronavirus pandemic, with the company instead zeroing in on Long Island and the Hudson Valley. The current interest in rental furniture in those two regions has surprised even the brand’s leadership. “We didn’t think rentals would be as popular in less urban environments,” ZZ Driggs founder Whitney Frances Falk says to AD PRO. “It shows us that people are interested in trying it out, not having the commitment, and having the ability to refresh their space.”
Furniture available through Feather—clearly not your average hand-me-downs.
Photo: Yanic Z Fridman / Courtesy of FeatherOne hallmark of both companies is a commitment to furniture that can last for decades. Fast furniture, like fast fashion, is a trend both brands see as wasteful and harmful to the environment. “We want to pay attention to building furniture the way that it was always intended to be,” says Feather’s Ovesen. ZZ Driggs, for its part, stipulates that every piece on its website will last for at least 50 years, and is committed to supporting emerging independent designers.
Of course, it would be understandable if customers were hesitant to rent furniture as the world is grappling with a highly contagious virus. To that end, both companies have instituted multilayer decontamination strategies to keep their staff and their customers safe. Feather now assembles more furniture pre-delivery and promises contactless delivery. ZZ Driggs even has a quarantine room, where upholstered furniture sits until it can be delivered to a professional cleaner between rentals. “We’re putting all those firewalls into place to make sure we’re accommodating our audience,” Falk says.
Startup founders such as Falk aren’t the only members of the design industry noticing this uptick in rental furniture interest. Jennifer McCloskey, founder of All About the Wow, a staging and styling company, was recently tasked with furnishing a new five-bedroom rental home at the Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club in Surfside, Florida, in a matter of two days. “It’s a great alternative for a speedy solution,” she says of renting. Rental furniture can also come in handy for meeting new social distancing needs. Alexis Rodgers, owner of interior design firm Home With Alexis, is seeing an increase in requests for outdoor pieces. “We are being asked for configurations that would allow for conversation, while still maintaining a distance of six feet,” she comments to AD PRO. “Instead of the usual [requests for] outdoor sofas and sectionals, we are installing arrangements of comfortable, upholstered outdoor chairs in conversational circles.”
Le Klein, an interior designer based in San Francisco, believes that her clients and fellow designers are more open to services like these than ever before. “Having the ability to rent quality, well-made, and well-designed furniture, but not commit to buying it due to the current environment, is an option I think clients will explore more,” she says. “Before COVID, I viewed renting furniture as reserved more for special events and commercial environments. But now, having a platform where I have flexibility in creating temporary spaces for the short term is something I like.” As lockdown orders extend, it seems such needs will only continue to pop up—which means nothing but good news for the rental furniture business.
"furniture" - Google News
July 17, 2020 at 03:31AM
https://ift.tt/3jbegUA
Furniture Rentals Are on the Rise - Architectural Digest
"furniture" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YLhHcA
No comments:
Post a Comment