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Wayfair Is Another Online Retailer Dabbling in Brick and Mortar

Wayfair Is Another Online Retailer Dabbling in Brick and Mortar

(Bloomberg) -- Wayfair Inc., the home furnishings retailer, plans to open pop-up shops in Massachusetts and New Jersey for the holiday season, the latest online merchant seeking to draw in customers through brick-and-mortar stores.

The shops will be open from Nov. 1 to Jan. 2 in the Natick Mall, in Natick, Massachusetts, and in the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, Wayfair said on Wednesday.

Wayfair, which went public in 2014, has ridden the wave of shopping migration to the Internet. The shares have more than doubled in two of its three full calendar years since then and are up 68 percent this year through Tuesday’s close. The shops mark the first time it has offered customers an in-store experience.

“We are deepening engagement with customers beyond our online presence,” Chief Product and Marketing Officer Ed Macri said in a statement.

Wayfair is following other web-based retailers that have entered the physical store space, including mattress-maker Casper. Online cosmetics company Glossier has opened pop-up shops, and techy online toothbrush maker Quip announced this week it will be sold in Target stores. Shoe retailer M. Gemi opened “fit” stores in Massachusetts and New York and ran a pop-up store in Oak Brook, Illinois, where customers try on merchandise and then place orders for delivery.

--With assistance from Matt Townsend.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Wolfson in Boston at lwolfson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.