Atlanta to be the location of Wayfair’s second-ever large store

Last year, Wayfair generated $11.9 billion in net revenue. This is down from $12 billion in 2023 and $12.2 billion in 2022, according to the annual report.

The company began branching out into physical locations only recently. Wayfair launched its first physical store in 2019 outside its hometown of Boston, and opened another five by 2023. Its first large-format store opened in Wilmette, Illinois, midway through 2024.

Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah said during a second-quarter earnings call last year that the stores were averaging thousands of shoppers per month.

“A core part of our strategy is building a bridge to help shoppers make the leap from the physical store experience to our online platform,” Shah said during the call.

The new store is taking the place of the Walmart at 1801 Howell Mill Road NW, which shuttered after suffering a damaging fire sparked by an arsonist in 2022.

The location is about 40 miles from a Wayfair fulfillment center in McDonough, which will allow for fast delivery of bigger items like sofas, the company said in the news release.

In the release, Liza Lefkowski, Wayfair’s vice president of merchandising and stores, said the store will offer a selection of items across all styles and budgets.

The announcement comes as Wayfair grapples with changes in consumer behavior amid inflation, high interest rates and global trade policy, among other market-moving factors.

During Wayfair’s second quarter earnings call last year, Shah said consumers are cautious in their spending on home goods and furniture. The company’s credit card data suggested that it was down by about 25% from its peak in the fourth quarter of 2021. In the third quarter, Shah added it also saw a broader pullback by shoppers in the lead-up to the election.

“Attention is focused away from the home right now, and when customers are in the market, it is increasingly for lower investment, lower consideration purchases versus larger ticket items that represent our traditional area of strength,” Shah said during the third-quarter earnings call. “We remain optimistic that pieces are coming together to support a category recovery in the quarters to come.”

In the fourth quarter, Shah said the forward outlook, especially in the core of its business — which is big and bulky furniture — is “as unpredictable as any point in the past four years, with uncertainty over the state of inflation, global trade policy, and interest rates, among other factors.”