Fresh off my latest Ikea spending spree (I want all the entertainment centers!), I hear that Canadian home décor flash sale site HomeSav.com has just raised a $1.2 million round of seed funding from a mix of angel investors and entrepreneurs, including the founders of Shopper’s Drug Mart and the founders of Canadian high end home furniture retailer ELTE.
Founded in 2010, the site is already experiencing the rapid home décor flash sale success that other home décor sites have seen. In its first year, HomeSav.com’s membership has grown by more than 1400% to over 100,000 members, one-third of whom have signed up for the deals through Facebook and Twitter links.
Like other sites in the home goods flash sale genre, HomeSav.com operates as a members only site (though it isn’t by invitation only, like Gilt) that offers deep discounts of up to 80% on luxury home items for a limited time. The company claims that it currently sees over 100 purchases a day.
Unique to HomeSav.com is its “Inspired Picks” category, in which chefs, designers, and connoisseurs will identify their favorite products for customers to purchase. HomeSav.com currently has some 50 experts lined up to make their picks over the next several months.
"Consumers are eager to buy home products, but are overwhelmed by the vast selection of products, and the lack of guidance available to them,” said co-founder and co-CEO Alex Norman in a statement. “They are looking for high end products at economical prices, but bargain shopping involves extensive searching that people simply don't have time for. HomeSav.com provides a solution to that."
The company looks like it’s poised to follow in the footsteps of other great home goods flash sale sites, like One Kings Lane and Gilt Home. Last week, One Kings Lane announced its $40 million Series C round, bringing the company’s total raised to $67 million since 2009, and that follows on the company’s “explosive 2010,” in which annual sales jumped more than 500%, with 75% of those sales coming from repeat customers.
The high demand for discounted home furnishings has prompted other companies to get in on the action as well, including Gilt Groupe, which acquired Decorati earlier this year and launched Gilt Home, as well as Amazon’s flash sale site MyHabit, which recently announced its plans to expand to the home goods space.
Check out Vator’s recent interview with Gilt CEO Kevin Ryan for more info on the flash sale phenomenon.
