Inside Wayfair’s Massive First Store, Designed To Give Ikea A Run For Its Money
Source: Fast Company, Grace Snelling
Photo: Grace Snelling
After two decades of selling furniture online, Wayfair opened its first physical store in Chicago.
Out in the northern Chicago suburbs, a new 150,0000-square-foot behemoth of a home goods store is giving Ikea a run for its money.
The towering white and purple building, opened in late May and designed by the architecture firm Gensler, is Wayfair’s first large-format brick-and-mortar store. Since launching in 2002, the company has specialized in direct-to-consumer online retail, developing a reputation for carrying just about every sofa, side table, appliance, and tchotchke under the sun. In 2023, the company reported an end-of-year net revenue of $3.1 billion, and it currently boasts 30 million products on its website.
Now, Wayfair is the latest in a stream of online retailers who are choosing to go the old-fashioned route and sell their wares in-person. While thousands of stores shut their doors during the “retail apocalypse” just a decade ago, interest in in-person experiences shot up post-pandemic. According to a study from Capital One Shopping, U.S. brick-and-mortar retail sales totaled $7.07 billion in 2023 (up 5.14% from the year before), and projections indicate that sales will hit $8.34 trillion in 2026. Even digital-native Gen Zers aren’t above putting some shopping cart wheels to the ground, with 64% reporting that they prefer to shop offline. Fashion brands including Skims, Revolve, and Halara are among those that have recently opened brick-and-mortars for the first time.
For a home goods store like Wayfair, there’s the added motivation of letting customers test out products like couches and mattresses before they make a final decision—especially when the company’s website presents such a dizzying array of options. Wayfair has experimented with smaller stores in the past, including another Chicago location for its specialty brand Joss & Main, but the new site is its first large-format offering.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, I convinced my girlfriend to join me on an expedition to Wayfair’s store. We made our way to Eden’s Plaza, where the store now occupies the site of a former department store that’s been abandoned since 2018. According to Gensler’s lifestyle sector leader, Aaron Birney, bringing life back to the location, which once also housed a beloved local coffee shop, was a major upside of the project.
Gensler overhauled the building’s shell from a brick facade to a purple and white exterior, complete with a vibrant mural. On one side, there’s an outdoor gathering space that’s connected to The Porch, the store’s attached café that doubles as an ode to the former coffee shop.
Upon entering the store itself, we weren’t sure which way to go. The two-story floor plan doesn’t have a set path, so we ended up wandering to the central atrium first, which houses smaller products like decorations and silverware. As it turns out, we were perfect models of the consumer behavior that Gensler’s designers predicted. Birney explained that his team imagined the design process like an urban planning exercise, with a town hall surrounded by 19 different “neighborhoods,” or departments. On the first floor, small items are easy to spot and take right to the cash register.
“We know from our own research that when people are in task mode, they want to be able to get in and out,” adds Lara Marrero, Gensler’s retail and consumer experience leader. “That’s why we have really clear signage throughout the space.”
For shoppers interested in what Marrero calls a “slow experience,” the second floor houses more products geared toward an extensive browse, like room displays, mattresses, and appliances.
Marrero says one of the main challenges in designing a store with a large inventory of products was “showing abundance without making it feel like an endless array of the same thing.” To do so, Gensler’s team focused on creating visual hierarchies in each neighborhood to help keep shoppers on track. They also worked to emphasize tactile experiences, like a wall of cabinet hardware or a realistic staged stovetop area. Then, Wayfair’s merchandising team stepped in to help determine which products should be featured, as well as which should be at the top of the visual hierarchy.
LIKE IKEA, BUT NOT IKEA
Most shoppers’ closest point of reference to the Wayfair brick-and-mortar experience is likely Ikea, and for good reason: Both are large, immersive home goods stores that are designed to serve as a one-stop shop for interior design.
Perhaps the most obvious difference between the two stores is the navigational experience. Whereas the Wayfair store allows customers to decide how quick their trip needs to be, from my experience it’s almost impossible to escape from Ikea in under an hour (or three). That’s because the store’s pathway encourages all shoppers to move along a predetermined path through every department, often resulting in an extra plant or table lamp finding its way into the cart.
Wayfair’s “choose your own adventure” style navigation means it’s possible to cross from one end of the first floor to the other in just a couple of minutes. For shoppers on a mission, that’s a plus, although those looking for a more guided experience might feel a little lost and find themselves in a traffic jam with other customers. Overall, Ikea has a more organized vibe at the cost of whittling away a few extra afternoon hours.
Wayfair’s staged room designs do seem to be a play on Ikea’s in-store format, or something similar, at least. But the Wayfair store doesn’t feel quite as immersive (and not necessarily in a bad way). Most Ikeas tend to be artificially lit with fully enclosed room set-ups, so that you can walk into a bedroom and it feels so real you’re tempted to lie down and take a nap. You definitely won’t feel that compulsion in the Wayfair store, where most of the staged rooms are two or three-sided and open to the atrium, which provides sunlight throughout the space. It might be harder to fully picture yourself living in the Wayfair store, but you won’t emerge to realize it’s dark outside and you’ve been staring at accent chairs for four hours.
In terms of fun factor, the Wayfair store has a few tricks up its sleeve. To start, there’s a whole mattress selection room that’s organized on a scale of firmness, which is painted in an easy-to-follow wall mural. In several areas of the store, there are dedicated consultants to help customers customize their own furniture with details like signature wood stains and upholstery. And we experienced possibly a bit too much child-like wonder at “the shower experience” station, where shoppers can test the function of Wayfair’s various shower heads and faucets.
Ikea currently has the upper hand on Wayfair in the food and drink department. The Porch’s offerings reminded us of a sad Panera, and while the menu likely has something for everyone, there was nary a meatball or novelty gummy candy in sight. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with either store. If you’re looking for a streamlined shopping experience, Wayfair is the better bet; but if you want to take your time envisioning the perfect apartment and enjoying some Swedish fare to cap it off, stick with Ikea.