Wayfair Is Opening Its First-Ever Physical Furniture Store

Online furniture and home furnishings seller Wayfair is set to open its first-ever namesake store next month, the company announced. Parija Kavilanz reported for CNN.

Wayfair's large-format store, spanning 150,000 sq ft and located in Edens Plaza in Wilmette, Illinois, will open to shoppers on May 23. I Photo: Wayfair

The large-format store, spanning 150,000 sq ft and located in Edens Plaza in Wilmette, Illinois, will open to shoppers on May 23. It will also feature an onsite restaurant called "The Porch," the company said, taking a page out of Ikea’s store setup.

Although this will be the first brick-and-mortar location for the Wayfair brand, the company has experimented with opening test stores for some of its other owned brands, including Joss & Main and AllModern, as reported by Jordan Valinsky and Samantha Delouya for CNN.

The move to expand its flagship Wayfair brands into physical stores comes as the company faces sluggish sales and an increased need for spending on advertising.

"Wayfair’s online business has been tremendously successful at generating sales. Unfortunately, it is not profitable because of the amount of marketing that has to be done to attract and retain customers," said Neil Saunders, retail industry analyst and managing director at GlobalData Retail.

Furniture stores need to always be advertising, Saunders added, because people generally don’t buy furniture very often. Wayfair constantly needs to remind customers that it exists as a result.