Despite what certain pyramid schemes and the Internet would have us believe, age is not the enemy. And just as humans grow wiser and more interesting as we get older, most of our favorite things — good wine, leather boots and Grammy’s costume jewelry — look better as the years wear on. Add to that list ecommerce retailer Joss & Main.
Launched in 2011 as a spin-off of and sister brand to Boston-based Wayfair, Joss & Main began as a membership-only website that offered exclusive flash sales on well-known home furnishings brands to its customer base. In 2016 in response to customer feedback, the company ditched the flash sale in favor of a new business model that included both curated sales and a new permanent catalog. Oh, and now Joss & Main is not just for members. Anyone can pop on over to shop on-trend products and great deals.
Lighting & Decor recently caught up with Yonca Heyse, General Manager of Joss & Main, to find out more about the site looks like today.
Lighting & Decor: Who is Joss and Main’s customer?
Yonca Heyse: I like to call her the home decor enthusiast. She’s savvy and style conscious, and she’s constantly looking for new ways to create a certain feeling in her home.
L&D: How does Joss & Main capture her heart?
YH: Joss & Main has a curated assortment (both from a style and price point perspective) of all the things that our customer needs to outfit a stylish home or apartment. Plus, our customer experience is fun and addictive.
L&D: Let’s talk about those price points.
YH: Our goal is to be a great value for our customers. We have an analytical team that constantly thinks about the types of products our customers want. Do our customers prefer real wood versus a veneer that has a lower price point? Then, they make sure the product assortment reflects that customer need.
L&D: What types of home furnishings are Joss & Main customers most interested in?
YH: Furniture is a big category for us, but the customers who come back most frequently tend to be looking for home decor [decorative accessories].
L&D: How does Joss & Main leverage its connection to Wayfair?
YH: Joss & Main’s connection with Wayfair makes the shopping experience easier for our customers. We’ve created joint experiences across the website with the goal of making it easier for our customers to transact on the site. For example, you can create an idea board on Joss & Main, add to it from the site, then go to Wayfair and add something else. It’s all connected.
L&D: Ideas boards, we like the sound of that. What are some of the other ways customers can engage with Joss & Main?
YH: Helping customers visualize how items might look in their home — enabling discovery and providing inspiration — is all a part of the Joss & Main experience. We have an experience that we call “Shop the Look,” where customers can browse through rooms and see how some things look together. The hope is that they’ll be inspired to buy the products in combination to mimic that look in their home. There’s also “View in Room,” which lets you see what a product looks like in different rooms. Our customers can also take a picture of a specific home decor product, upload it to the site and Joss & Main will pull up images that match or feel similar.
L&D: Is there an app for that?
YH: This function is part of the Wayfair shopping app for tablets and smart phones.
L&D: What types of celebrities and influencers does Joss and Main work with and what is their role?
YH: We partner with celebrities and influencers that resonate with our customers. This year, we partnered with The Bachelorette’s Rachel Lindsay and her fiancée Bryan Abasolo to furnish their new Dallas apartment. The makeover launched across Joss & Main’s marketing channels, including social media and a curated sale. We also partnered with seven Instagram influencers to promote our #DesignTheOutdoors contest, where followers could submit imagery of their own outdoor space for a chance to win a $1,000 gift card. Each of the influencers had their own $1,000 Joss & Main budget to update their outdoor space.
L&D: What’s up next for Joss & Main?
YH: We want to make sure that every time a customer visits our site, she’s finding really exciting things. So one of the big initiatives we are working on now is creating a compelling assortment of branded products. We want to create an experience around those products. How might we create an experience where our customers are able to find a product that they didn't know that they needed until they saw it? How might we give her an experience where she can easily envision how a mix of products will look in her space?
L&D: Why do you think that Joss & Main is 'killing it' as it gets older?
YH: We always put our customers first. Any time we start a new project, we really try to understand the problem we’re trying to solve for both the tactical customer and the emotional customer. We’re also constantly testing, learning and taking risks. Our team is very connected both to the customer and the trends. At the end of the day, the product is what’s important, and Joss & Main does a really good job identifying the products our customer want.
What else do you want to know about Joss & Main? Share with us in the comments?
