Made.Com Online Furniture Designer and Retailer with a London Touch

Co-founded by current Chief Executive Officer Ning Li, Chairman Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh, and Chief Operations Julien Callède, Made.Com is a London-based furniture designer and retailer. The company claims that by eliminating middlemen, a customer is directly connected to a designer saving 70 per cent off the furniture cost.

They believe that expensive designer and high street brands are giving consumers raw deals considering that landlords to agents are all taking their cut. As the customer, you must cater for the amount, and that’s where Made.Com comes in. The company claims to give you the most original and affordable furniture designs by taking the high street head-on.

Made uniqueness

Beyond allowing you to save 70 per cent, there’s no physical store or intermediaries to think about. You have a passionate furniture team giving you a fresh way of accessing the furniture you need. All the corners and red tape are cut, making easy access to great pieces.

Made.Com goes a step further and groups all the orders every seven days. The furniture orders are combined before producing them. It means only what’s ordered is created, which lowers the cost further, and the savings are passed on to the buyer. Made also believes in uncompromised quality. The company claims they work with the freshest and most creative design talent to develop a unique collection of furniture pieces. Once the design is done, accomplished artisans are approached to create the furniture collection. Undoubtedly, the same talent makes expensive furniture you’ll find selling on the high street.

Since the furniture is made to order, the arrival can take longer than you’re buying. With the kind of design quality you’re taking home and the unbeatable price they come with, each of the pieces is worth every hour you wait for it. Made.Com allows you to track your order during its production and shipping in real-time. All changes that might happen are communicated effectively to you.

Made also knows not every piece of made-to-order furniture will be liked and offers a hustle-free return. Once you’ve provided a short explanation by contacting the company, arrangements are made for the furniture to be returned via their partners who delivered it to you. Within a week or seven days of receiving the piece, you can return it to the company and receive a refund. Of course, returns and refunds are a part of the equation, but you might want to know their terms and conditions first.

Online furniture retailer

Made.Com is an online-based furniture retailer and designer that don’t have a physical store, launched with only £2.5 million in March of 2010. Financing the company also involves a series B financing, where the founders received £6 million to help with the operations.

By 2013, Made had set its eyes on the French Market, venturing into France through the help of David Vanek, a digital entrepreneur. Around September of the same year, the company also ventured into Italy and attracted Phillipe Chainieux as the managing director the same month, the previous CEO of Match.com and Meetic. Simultaneously, the furniture retailer also ran its first UK television advert dubbed “Great Design Direct from the Makers.

2013 seemed to be a busy year for Made.com. The retailer was selected as one of the UK’s 25 initial new businesses for Future Fifty, a government program comprising highly growing tech companies that the state seeks to help float and expand. In December of the same year, Ning Li, one of the co-founders of Made and the CEO, accompanied diverse business delegates from the UK and David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the UK, to the People’s Republic of China on a historic trade trip.

Germany is critical, considering it’s the largest European furniture market and has a lucrative potential for a budding online-based furniture retailer. By September 2014, the furniture retailer had ventured into the Netherlands market. In March 2015, Gloria Maria Reuss helped Made.Com to launch their website in Germany. In the same month, the creative director, Chloe Macintosh, decided to step down.

To accelerate Made’s European penetration, the company raised £38 million as its growth capital from Fidelity Growth Partners and Partech Ventures.

Six years after its launch, Made.Com grew to a company with hundreds of employees in seven nations worldwide, with a 50 per cent growth rate in 2015. With 240 employees currently, Made.Com continues to let people think about what they want in their homes and have it designed for them and delivered to their door. With 60 per cent of the total sales of Made happening within the UK, international expansion is one of the aggressive growth strategies the company is working on.