In the Ikea era, makers and buyers face a disconnect John Humphrey?s family is in the millwork business, assembling cabinets, stairs, and doors?and over every summer growing up in Rhode Island, Humphrey worked with them. That experience led Humphrey to found Greycork, a furniture startup, in 2013. Like so many others his age, Humphrey?s main experience with furniture shopping was at Ikea: walking the showroom floors, finding the specific piece he wanted in a corresponding flat-packed box, and taking it home for assembly. With Greycork, he wanted to provide similar furniture at even lower prices, but shift the shopping entirely to the web, part of a strategy to court the city-dwelling 20- to 30-year-old in the market for a piece of distinctive furniture that wouldn?t break the bank.
Greycork started off with a line of solid-wood folding tables in 2014, but the furniture for which the company is known is its living room collection: coffee table, side table, sofa, and a separate chaise lounge sofa addition. In 2015, the startup raised more than $270,000 through an Indiegogo campaign to begin production. It initially had success with a sofa it could market for $450 that shipped in flat packs and required no tools for at-home assembly.
?All in all, for the target market, it was something they would consider to be decent quality and the price was lower than Ikea,? Humphrey, now 29, says. ?That was a big deal.?
Wanting to live up to its sales pitch of quality furniture, how...