With Fresh AI, HomeThreads Could Be the Next Unicorn
Antoine Grant has been envisaging businesses since the fifth grade, starting with a fictitious card and brochure company that became a reality, fueled by demand from his fellow classmates. Today, at 38, the Los Angeles-based father of two is ready to make his mark with direct-to-consumer HomeThreads, the company he purchased earlier this year. One thing is for certain, the former Wayfair executive wants to take HomeThreads all the way and his outlook is bullish: He’s convinced sales will jump from about $35 million to the billions in the next four to five years.
Grant points out that a recent report from Research and Markets pegs the total combined value of the furnishings, home decor and improvement market at $340 billion in the U.S.
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Grant bought HomeThreads independently in May, backed by venture capital firm Sandbox Studios led by managing partner Jackie Fast, along with other supporters.
One way the ex-McKinsey consultant plans to achieve his goals is through AI, he said, just a few weeks after making a speech at tech-business zeitgeist summit InBound by HubSpot in Boston on the future of AI in Home Commerce.
Grant told WWD in an interview that the new technology is designed to offer real-time solutions to common e-commerce challenges and frustrations like filtering the clutter, and a higher-quality experience. What makes this new product different that that of his competitors is that it is designed to further enhance accuracy in product information, ensuring real-time inventory updates and a more personalized shopping experience. “It’s about providing precise and relevant information and a tailored experience that makes online shopping as seamless, if not more, as the best of in-store shopping,” he noted.
Over the next few months, Grant explained customers will notice a more intuitive homepage, search and email interactions, all personalized to their individual tastes, transactions and constraints. “We aim to revolutionize the home design industry as a technology-driven brand offering expertly curated and high-quality home furnishings with first-class customer service,” he said.
He garnered a deep understanding of the home furnishings e-commerce business during his tenure at Boston-based Wayfair, another furnishings e-commerce business, where he was a general manager spearheading its plumbing, vanities and hardware arm, which generated a combined revenue of $1 billion in 2022 and where he helped drive double-digit growth through the COVID-19 pandemic.
HomeThreads started as an e-commerce company strictly selling direct-to-consumer decorative bedding and accessories in 2017 and quickly grew into into a business that supports a curated mix of domestic and foreign brands such as Italian bedding, bath and leisure wear firm Frette, Ralph Lauren Home and U.S. design-forward and heritage brands based in the furniture heartlands of North Carolina, like Caracole and Bernhardt. Founded by Brad Bruckner and Neil Marcus, HomeThreads is run out of White Plains, N.Y., and Boca Raton, Fla. Before Grant came on board, the HomeThreads team had already been using 3D visualization software to allow customers can see things in their homes before they made the purchase, using artificial intelligence to help our customers find complementary products.
Grant wants to take this a step further by inspiring the customer to “upgrade the entire project or space that you’re in.…There are things we can do to prepare folks before the purchase and after the purchase to make it enjoyable experience,” he added, noting that his children are six and three, and he expects his own home will evolve with HomeThreads.
He also emphasized that there is still a need for human beings in the furniture business, one the main reasons that this new project is flanked by experts, interior designers and even real estate agents. “People have been saying real estate agents are extinct, right? Well the reason why they are important is because they give you confidence in your decision as if to say ‘I’ll guide you thorough this process…’ and on a smaller scale interior designers, general contractors, electricians, plumbers do this too,” he mused.
Grant’s experience at Wayfair taught him that the logistics behind moving a couch and even decor across the country is complex. With ceramics, he explained, you might find a supplier that actually has a 3 percent or 4 percent damage and defect rate? “Figuring out why or how to elevate or how to partner or how to share best practices from that supplier benefits everybody and business overall, and that it is extremely difficult to communicate what a tangible item looks like through a screen.” He also learned the importance of layering product lines so that a high-ticket sofa might be paired with a $250 piece of wall art.
Grant recognizes that 2023 and early 2024 are encumbered by a series of challenges, inflation and rising interest rates among them. Though earlier this year Claudia D’Arpizio, a Bain & Co. partner and Global Consumer Products and Retail lead, said sales generated from digital channels are expected to represent 10 percent of the market by 2027, outperforming at almost “double speed,” versus all other channels. In key markets like the U.S., premium brands dominate, though awareness regarding high-end brands represents both a hurdle and growth potential.
“Digital channels are increasing their importance (and the pandemic has accelerated this trend), especially in terms of the ability of autonomous information and navigation of the product offer, opening up omnichannel offers,” she pointed out, explaining that this combination of physical need for interaction and increasing “online” exploration has catalyzed high-end furniture brands to increase their outreach favoring the opening of smaller spaces oriented more toward the conclusion of the transaction than the display of the offer.
Grant said he is angling to reach loyal shoppers the moment they reach adulthood.
Encouraging data shows that within the next five years, 40 percent of all shoppers will exclusively shop online. “That means there’s going to be an influx of folks that are going to start their journey online. We see this as a giant opportunity.”
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