It's a little intimidating: The 17-pound (or so) behemoth catalog that arrives on your doorstep once a year from Restoration Hardware, the high-end furnishing brand, is arresting if not archaic, arriving once a year in June. The delivery of the catalog consistently sparks chatter on furnishing and design social media sites, but I stop to wonder, "Where's the innovation in high-end furnishing?" Enter Bryght, a Canadian-based brand positioning itself as a leader in high-end design without the high-end price tags (or hefty paper catalogs). Bryght's team consists of savvy tech savants, not airy designers. However, Bryght sticks to what is knows best: online experience and e-commerce, leaving its cherry-picked furniture designers and logistic gurus to take care of the rest. I sat down with Bryght's founder, Aamir Baig, to uncover how how the company is bending tradition in the furnishing industry.
Justluxe: There isn't a Bryght catalog, a store-front for Bryght, nothing that really seems traditional in terms of luxury furnishing with Bryght. What inspired creating Bryght?
Aamir: We saw an opportunity to make a difference by making the process of acquiring designer furniture substantially more efficient. By selling online, working directly with the designers and factories where the products are made and by grouping orders for batch production and batch shipping – we are able to offer excellent products at amazing value and zero risk to our customers. We're excited about what we're building here and we believe we can make a difference in the way people furnish their homes.
Justluxe: Luxury furnishing without luxury pricing. How does this work?
Aamir: Traditionally luxury furnishings are sold through local luxury furniture stores in every city. These stores normally have a small assortment with small inventory which they have purchased from a distributor which in turn procures from factories. These stores also are typically in expensive areas of town with high operating costs as well as sales personnel on commission. The result is prices that are typically five times that of how much the designer or factory makes the pieces for. The internet offers an opportunity to change how this process works. We work directly with the same factories and designers, feature a wide variety of collections online and group orders for batch production and shipping. We carry minimal stock and the fact that we operate online means we don't have to operate showrooms across the country nor hire sales people. As a result, we can typically price our products at 50% of the price luxury stores sell at. Some of our collections are offered in the same stores selling Minotti, Flexform, Walter Knoll and other luxury brands at substantially lower prices. In terms of service and satisfaction, we go a step further and offer a 100% satisfaction "no questions asked" return policy to give our customers the peace of mind that their home decor should be exactly how they want it.
Justluxe: How are your array of designers selected?
Aamir: We have a design curation team guided by very established and seasoned designers. Our team looks at what the market trends are, what our customers are looking and asking for and then select designs that match those and our quality standards. I am not a furniture designer, trust me!
Justluxe: The free returns, the free shipping, etc. This seems like a customer service mantra like Zappos. What spurred such an offering, particularly in an industry that this is unheard of?
Aamir: We reasoned that if you're buying furniture online, without touching, feeling and physically looking at the product – the buying experience would just not be right if you had to pay high shipping and restocking fees for something that wasn't what you were expecting. We then asked ourselves if we can operate a profitable business model while offering this level of unparalleled service guarantee. So far the answer for us has been "yes," and we're committed to continue offering this level of assurance.
Justluxe: What are the furnishing trends you're forecasting for the rest of 2014 and next year?
Aamir: We are seeing both pastel and vibrant colors, wood and metal combinations, and continuation of mid-century and Scandinavian design influence. Furnishing is like fashion, however style is timeless but trends come and go like the wind. This is another great reason Bryght has an edge, as our company is completely online.
