Lovesac builds a customer experience platform for life with Adobe Commerce

To be recognized as the fastest growing furniture retailer in America is a major achievement. To hold the same title 10 years later is virtually unheard of, and yet that’s exactly where Lovesac finds itself. The direct-to-consumer furniture brand continues to win customers over with its sustainable high-end products and “designed for life” philosophy, while reshaping the way people buy furniture online in the process.

With more than 100 retail showrooms across America, Lovesac made its name selling the outrageously comfortable premium foam-filled Sacs that share its name. Today, the majority of its sales come from its Sactional sofas, a unique modular seating platform.

“Our products are designed to grow and evolve with customers’ needs,” says Sue Beckett, vice president of digital marketing and ecommerce at Lovesac. “Everything we make is backwards compatible, which means our community keeps using them instead of throwing their old furniture into a landfill”.

For Beckett, planned obsolescence is an outdated business philosophy. That goes for the way Lovesac’s ecommerce team makes technology purchases as well. With a mandate to set the business up for growth and continuous innovation, Beckett and her team moved Lovesac’s online experience to Adobe Commerce, powered by Magento, knowing that the platform would support its ambitions today and into the future.

Sustainable commerce on a sustainable platform

“We needed a platform that was flexible, scalable, and that could accommodate emerging technologies like AI, as we continue to integrate them into our digital customer experience,” says Beckett, who oversees all of Lovesac’s digital marketing and digital customer experience.

She is the first to admit her company has come a long way since launching its first website, driven in part by shifts in customer behavior but also by new capabilities in its ecommerce platform. The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated Lovesac’s transformation, validating the company’s investment in digital experiences.

“Ecommerce wasn’t even a part of our business 10 years ago,” says Beckett. “Fast-forward to the COVID-19 pandemic and within weeks, 100 percent of Lovesac’s sales were being made through our website”.

Lovesac has not only built a robust online experience in recent years, it has also differentiated its website by turning it into a personalized virtual showroom. The crown jewel is an interactive product configurator for its ‘Sactionals’ sofas, which allows customers to build, customize, and visualize their purchase on any device, without leaving their homes.

Adobe Commerce, which Lovesac implemented with support from Blue Acorn iCi, an Infosys company, allows the company to personalize its digital customer experience from start to finish. For instance, first time visitors are greeted by the Lovesac homepage, as well as an introduction to the brand and its products. Meanwhile, shoppers who visit the website via digital ads are directed to a relevant product detail page or to the Lovesac product configurator, depending on which ad they clicked on.

The Adobe Commerce promotions engine was an added bonus for Lovesac’s ecommerce team, as they often run unique promotion campaigns for their Sactionals and needed a platform that was highly adaptable to their needs. Adobe Commerce’s flexibility is a key differentiator for Beckett, who is adamant about tailoring Lovesac’s online experience to its customers and how they want to engage with digital content.

“Today’s digital experiences don’t start with your company’s products or business objectives, they start with what your customers want. We want Lovesac’s website to deliver on that expectation with highly tailored experiences that put shoppers in control, and Adobe Commerce is a large part of why we can do that,” she says.

COVID-19: a digital turning point

Lovesac went live with its new website in August 2020, less than one year after beginning to build its online experience with Adobe Commerce. The rapid implementation was driven by the need to shed its previous web platform, which could no longer support the company’s needs, as well as by a radical shift in customer behavior in response to COVID-19.

For Beckett, her team’s ability to pivot under pressure was the key to launching Adobe Commerce and adapting to a digital economy overnight. “I’ve been so impressed with the way our teams responded to constantly changing circumstances,” she says. “Our digital and ecommerce teams had to rethink how we advertise and support contactless delivery. Our retail sales team had to shift their focus to virtual demos and online chat. The list goes on, with everyone working together to bring Lovesac’s curated showroom experience to our online audience”.

Beckett also attributes Lovesac’s success during the pandemic to a thriver’s mentality. Supported by the company’s new ecommerce platform, her team was able to lean into change and stay connected with customers despite all of their sales moving online.

“With new services like virtual appointments and the option for customers to book an in-person showroom visit at predefined times to stay socially distant, we’ve not only set ourselves up for success during COVID. We’ve set ourselves up to thrive for the long term,” says Beckett.

“The shift to online shopping put pressure on Lovesac to pivot their digital experience from one focused on knowledge and research into a modern transactional journey. We helped them to create an immersive showroom experience that caters to all customers on all channels, from tech-savvy digital shoppers to people who still prefer to complete their purchases in-store,” says Chris Guerra, Co-CEO of Blue Acorn iCi an Infosys company.

Flexibility pays off

Lovesac’s results speak for themselves. Since going live with its new website, the company has seen double-digit growth in its conversion rates and average order values. Bounce rates for visitors to the website have also fallen, with shoppers taking more time to read through Lovesac’s information pages and interact with its product configurator.

Crucially for Beckett, Adobe Commerce has positioned Lovesac to keep improving its online experience each day. For example, since launching in August 2020, Lovesac has updated its product configurator with simpler instructions and greater product detail. Its web team has also added inspiration pages to the website so that customers can draw on each other for ideas on how to configure their Lovesac products.

“A piece of clothing or a pair of shoes comes in a handful of colors, but Sactionals have a virtually limitless number of configurations, especially once you throw all the different materials and covers we offer into the mix. With so many data elements to configure, we’re fortunate to have an ecommerce platform that’s flexible enough to showcase all of these options for customers in a digital space, and we’ve done incredibly well in a short period of time,” says Beckett.

Moving ahead with a common goal

A few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine someone spending several thousand dollars on a new sofa without seeing it in person or visiting a showroom. Lovesac has upended the furniture sales model in every respect, proving that with high-quality products, a customer-centric ethos, and the right technology platform, brands can build customer trust and drive sales on any channel.

“Lovesac’s big hairy audacious goal is to inspire mankind to buy less and buy better, so it’s only fitting that we lead by example in the way we run our business and invest in our own future,” says Beckett. “Our teams are fully aligned in their aim, which is to empower Lovesac’s customers to shop the way they want to shop without having to compromise on the experience they receive”.

Alignment is a core value at Lovesac, where there are no competing metrics or siloes between teams. The entire business is oriented in the same direction as they continue to move forward and enhance Lovesac’s omnichannel offering. Whether customers start their journey online and buy in-store or start in a showroom and purchase their Sactional from the Lovesac website, the incentive for employees is the same.

“We feel really good about that model,” says Beckett. “It means that our people are invested in delivering the best customer experience possible, and now we’ve got both the processes and technology in place to make that possible and keep getting better”.