Ep 164. Designers Are Using This Secret Weapon. Why Aren't You? - Interview with Wayfair Professional

22:48The other thing is, and this is also, this comes up a lot too, is that we do actually have a ton in our reno category space. On my side, what we try to lean into the most is we'll do a lot of, like, finished recommendations. But as you know, we are virtual. So that is really more for us to say, like, we recommend this and we have this available. The coordination sometimes needs to be a little bit more streamlined up front. But then if we're going to go straight into a space that has all that dated existing finishes, existing flooring, existing anything else in the space, you know, it's something that we use as a challenge.

23:23And we kind of like lean into it where we can, right? We can make it fun and funky. Or we can say, like, hey, we think we should change out X, Y, and Z. here's some like ways that we can do that so a lot of it is about us sort of um getting creative um because of the way the benefit of our team working in Wayfair professional and Wayfair overall is that you know we're a team like our whole role is to help our customers use us to outfit their spaces so like that is our goal and that's what we want to do and if you tell me hey we're keeping everything it's like all right let's do this okay this is why I knew I was going to

23:58Natalie Palmer:love this episode because I'm like I know that I don't even know all of your raises services I did not know that you could do like hardware recommendations and you guys have a cabinet selection too I'm still learning so much more I feel like you guys have so many like hidden gems within your service offerings that I didn't even know about um okay so this this to me like kind of buttons up like design but I would love to know more about like the install and consolidation process? Like, when are these items getting delivered? Does the owner have to be there and be unboxing? What can you guys help with on that front for installing?

24:34Yeah, great question. So we have the benefit, obviously, of having warehouses all over the country. And we have a lot of partner installation teams as well in many different areas. So the great thing is, say we're having that kickoff call or just in general, right? Someone's saying, maybe you already know everything you want to order and you've got a whole list and you're working with your account manager. You're like, hey, I cannot either. I need this all to come on one day. I need this all or I need someone to come in and build all the pieces if it is some of those flat packed items and put it all together and make it look beautiful.

25:09So we really have a wide array of offering. And then what we try to do is really decide what is the most important of that for you to say, okay, well, I want a piece of this. I want certain things. So what that book looks like is the team is understanding when all that product's arriving in the warehouse, they're consolidating it together. They're ideally bringing it to the property at one day that makes sense for you or makes sense for whoever's going to be there to just let them in, whatever we need to do. And then essentially you decide what service you want to add onto that. Do you want them to build everything, put everything placed in the room as needed?

25:48Do you want wall hangings? Do you want staging? Whatever that looks like, we can build that out. So it's really just about what is the right recipe for what that looks like and what makes sense to add on to the order. So it's great because there's a lot of possibilities. And we're going to align that up, especially with if we're using designers, right? We're going to say like, oh, we're not speccing products that's coming after X date. So we know everything's generally going to arrive by a certain point, and then we're going to schedule that date out from there.

26:17Natalie Palmer:I think that this alone is like so valuable what you guys offer here for the install. And I'll personally shout you out, Erin, because I know for Level Up Your Listing, Wayfair outfitted our VIP lounge. So anyone who had a VIP ticket, you had the cute little armchairs and couches in the front to sit on. And having you help us, Erin was so invaluable because there were certain pieces where it would be like, I'll give an example, like a coffee table. And we were like, well, this one's, you know, let's just say$100 and this one's$150. Let's go with the cheaper one. And you were so good at saying, well, the$150 one comes in one piece and the one that's$100, you have to pay an extra like install fee to put that one together.

27:02Natalie Palmer:And just like little things like that, that clue you in on, you might think you're saving money when you're ordering, but then you find out that you're hit with this install fee or that one comes with more packaging and it's harder to unbox or it's not going to get there in time. So even that, I just think people who feel like, okay, I'm a decent designer. I can pick the items on my own. I can't recommend enough, like just using the service because having somebody to just tell you like a little nugget here and there of like, trust me, this item is actually easier to work with, like eat the cost upfront now.

27:34Natalie Palmer:That was so helpful to have. Yeah. No, thank you. I think that's exactly it, right? We want to make sure people, you understand upfront. It's like, yeah, it might sound a little better right now, but you're right. It's like, no, we know this is going to come fully assembled or white glove delivery, whatever it might be. And that, yeah, the transparency, that's it for us, right? We want to be sure. And that comes with, we have a lot. And sometimes budgets need, you need that. Like, it's okay if we need to assemble something because we need it to be, you know,$75 for this item. But other times, you know, the headache we want to take away is worth that extra couple dollars spend and still being at a pretty good price point, just making sure we're not, you know, we're not overthinking it in that way.

28:16Natalie Palmer:One thing too, I want to chat through is budget. So with Wayfair Professional, I know when you did your intro, you said that this is a complimentary service. What is complimentary? What's included as a Wayfair Pro member? And then what are kind of the additional expenditures here? Yeah, definitely. So it's a great call out. So really for us, it is offering services, design service or complimentary, working with us is complimentary. We really align with what we can do based on what that budget and scope looks like. And it's a pretty wide range too. That's a nice thing. Any sort of really spend project wise is gonna be looked at and reviewed to say, okay, do you need quick sourcing help?

28:58Do you need full design vignettes? Do you need space planning? And then we'll really sort of parcel out what that looks like to help. And again, complimentary, we would meet with you or the customer and say, you know, like, this is how we can help. And then really the only, you know, I would say like fees on top of that is if you get into the consolidated delivery and installation, there is a fee associated with doing that. But like I said, it breaks it out, right? So maybe only some of that you need. And so that would be a fee or the full service, of course, is going to be different, look different in terms of install.

29:31Very comparable in what we'd expect, right? Industry-wide, you know, we're paying someone to do that as a service. So we have a couple layers there too, in terms of hiring for a few items or hiring for a larger scope, really just depends on what we'd like to do and what makes the most sense.

29:47Natalie Palmer:So how that would work if somebody wanted to do the consolidated delivery and install, you guys have local warehouses pretty much nationwide. So you would send everything there. And then on the selected day, it can all be deployed from there. And that's when you have the team showing up to the property to like unbox everything and assemble it based on like the scope of work you wanted. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So what they would do is, yeah, we would be tracking and understanding when all that project's arriving in the warehouse. And then we'd say, okay, perfect. We're going to schedule it for this day.

30:18We're loading the trucks up. We're getting everyone there, we're meeting on that date and time, committing to what that looks like. And then exactly like determining, okay, maybe this is a one day install. This is a three day install. It's a huge property, really just like breaking out what that looks like. And then if it's, you know, with my team, of course, we're gonna have an install guide, we're gonna have, you know, placement of everything based on space planning. Or if it's with a designer, if it's with a contractor, if it's someone who has what they want there on paper, giving that to the team, or if they're there, they can do that as well in terms of walking them through.

30:50So kind of a couple different options, but yes, absolutely. It's really about us coordinating and project managing that to bring that to life for that final install.

31:00Natalie Palmer:I still can't get over that your design services are free. Like, Erin, do you know what people charge for design? I almost don't want to tell you because I think you guys are underpricing this. I definitely, I came into Wayfair about four or five years ago. and yes it's been such it's been very exciting actually because the way we've grown the team we actually support property management hospitality and office so we actually have a pretty wide scope of space types that we work on we're a good sized team within Wayfair of 20 something designers and it's great because like this is what we do day in and day out and that is our focus so we're sort of like this little hidden gem in the Wayfair Pro.

31:44And we want to make sure, you know, our goal is literally to make these spaces come to life and to work with our customers. And we've been just bringing in some really amazing people coming from with a ton of industry experience coming in. So we want to build that out. That's the most helpful for our customers. So that's kind of why I'm here, why I'm doing these things, right, is getting to be able to speak to that.

32:07Natalie Palmer:It really sounds like too good to be true, like knowing what other designers charge out there. And your design services do not stop at short-term rentals only, right? As head of property management design, you guys also do boutique hotels and unique stays. Like what else falls under that if somebody is kind of expanding their portfolio right now and doing some more interesting projects than just single family homes? Can you help with like apartment buildings or midterm rentals? Yeah, that's a great question. Yes. The answer is yes. We have a lot of project types that we support. And we focus on, one of our teams actually specifically focuses on boutique B &Bs.

32:54We focus on large guest room assortments. We do a lot of bulk ordering, which is really exciting. As you can imagine with our offering, it makes a lot of sense for us. We do commercial office. We do office spaces, small office spaces, leaning into just even small and kind of local places. And then we have large headquarters across the country as well that we're outfitting. So we have a really wide net in terms of our focuses. But the great thing is because of the way our team is structured and designed, we really have designers who have their niche focused spaces that allows them to really tap into what those customers need, the styles they're looking for.

33:34So though we are, we're small but mighty and we have the, I think the strength of a lot of experience within our smaller teams that support these larger verticals. So really, yeah, I mean, we have really just some really interesting spaces that come through. too. And we find that just the fact that we have such an assortment and such relationships with suppliers, that we have just so much of what we need at our fingertips, it works really well for our customers because we can pull pretty much anything we need and we have available. It's great. It's nice not having to hunt that down. I've been elsewhere where really it's tricky.

34:12You can't provide certain things, but we really have such a wide net that it works great for us.

34:17Natalie Palmer:even across budgets too i remember like when i first learned about wayfair like 10 15 years ago it really came across to me as like a very budget friendly retailer and you guys still have those options but there's so many like nice luxury pieces now you guys are um you have paragold right which is your sister company they're kind of the high-end brand so i also want people listening to know like if you have that same perception i did i really had associated wayfair is like a budget brand, you can still find that. But I think if you want that more luxury experience, like that's totally on the table right now.

34:55Natalie Palmer:You guys have so many like high-end pieces as well. We do. And I have that conversation, even in my personal life, probably once a week, I'll have friends and they're like, I didn't know you guys were Joss and Main. And we have these specialty retail brands. We have Paragold, we have Joss and Main, we have All Modern, we have Birch Lane, really leaning into certain aesthetics, right? that you recognize and it's easy to sort from. I find too, the specialty retail brands are really helpful for people who have like decision fatigue where you are like, okay, it's only this amount of product. I can see it aligns exactly with what I'm thinking and here are my options.

35:34So it's great. We find them really successful and it's nice to lean on them as the designers as well. And I think to your point too, Paragold, We just opened two new stores, Houston and West Palm Beach, which is exciting because we're having, you know, in-person presence. So maybe you're like, I don't know, I want to see it. And you're in those areas like you can go, you can touch it, you can feel it. And we have support there, too, who can talk you through everything. So really, it's nice to have sort of both scenarios. Erin, I'd love to ask you about what can you guys offer?

36:11Natalie Palmer:How can you offer help for interior designers? So for everything I've asked you has kind of been from the perspective of like the host or owner. But one thing I've learned, I'm not a designer, but my friends who are have said like, yeah, I'm using Wayfair Professional to like pre-select items. And then I'm like putting together the mood board and then they're taking care of the install. So for any designers out there, like this is a hack right here that I think you guys should be tapping into on behalf of your clients. So how does that relationship work if the designer wants to come to you guys?

36:41Yeah, I love this call out because I think that sometimes we'll bring that up and they're like, wait, the designer, the designer wants to work? Are you sure? Like, you know, there's a little bit of this vibe around it. And it's like, are we competing or can we work together? How does that work? Right. No, it's such a good call out. So, yes, we have tons of design, interior design customer clients of our own who have their own customers. Right. So that is very normal dynamic for us. We do that in a couple of ways. The account managers work with them directly. sourcing. A lot of times it's like, no, you have everything you want.

37:13Here's how you need to bring it to life. And here's the person who can help you do that. The good thing is we just launched my projects, which is huge for us. So this is basically, it's going to make, it will make anyone in the industry's life a lot easier because you can essentially sort everything in your own space online to the specific room, the specific list per space. It's essentially like a much easier way to organize a project scope with all the product that you've pulled in a way that's just, it's just much more of like a project management view in my, in our, my projects. And then the other thing too, is on my side, we work with designers a lot.

37:55Like I said, they're bringing us everything in and maybe we're saying, okay, you know, we're, we're going to like go through this. I think you should change this. I think you should change this. Like, let's talk about this supplier. So sometimes we have that dynamic. Sometimes we also have the dynamic of they're coming in and they may not have a ton of time on their hands. And they're like, you know what? I need your help. Can you guys work with me? Design. I'm going to review and approve everything and determine. But basically it's like we're bringing that to life for them. And that's our service to them.

38:22Right. So it's not a comp. We're not being competitive in that way. Right. We really want to support them. And they're using us for the product as is. So it It makes sense on our side to support as well.

38:33Natalie Palmer:So how can someone sign up for all these services? This is complimentary, you said, but where do they need to go? If they just go to like Wayfair.com, they have to sign up specifically for Wayfair Professional, right? Yes. So they sign up for Wayfair Professional. And then essentially they fill out some information. We reach out to them. And we just like keep things moving. The great thing is it is a person. You're talking to someone, right? And then we're going to figure out. Can you get assigned like a rep dedicated to you at that point? Essentially, I think we look through everything and we determine, okay, okay, great.

39:06Who's going to be best to support you and what you need? And that's a real life person. They're going to reach out to you. Don't be alarmed. They're going to call or email, right? But they are there to support you and essentially say, okay, like let's have a conversation. Like, oh, you've got a project up for me. Okay, perfect. I'm going to talk to Erin. I'm going to tap on her designers, right? so the great thing about that is I always say and on a few of these other podcasts as well the same thing I'm like just ask the question if you're like oh no I have this project it's so it's super quick timeline I don't know how I'm gonna get x y and z it's like great call them be like or email them shoot them a quick message whatever it is because honestly their role it's like we want to help you like that is what we do so it's it's always like use you know use what's at your disposal in that way.

39:55It's never, there's never a bad question. I always say just like make, you know, see what we can do where we want to show you that. And that's how we move forward together. So I have a lot of, especially designers, like you said, there's tons of designers who are like, oh yes. They're like, I just like boom, boom, boom, ask, ask, ask, because you know, they're going to do the backend hard work while you're doing something else.

40:16Natalie Palmer:Yeah. Yeah. I almost feel like with it being like such a free service, it sounds too good to be true for a lot of people and like am I really going to get good quality design work here are they just going to push their own products and like make me buy the most expensive stuff to make a sale but I really feel like if all these designers in our industry are trusting you guys and using you guys as a crutch like us individual owners like that's the stamp of approval like we we can trust you guys still well I think it's always it's always um a testament to I think now like the tastemakers program.

40:48And, you know, you see a lot of individuals and like how they're using us, what they're doing, they're being creative, right? Nobody has time, right? We don't have time to do all the things ourselves. So in the sense of that, it's like, use us, use the things that you can tap into to make your life easier. I think on the, on the design side for us, right? Yeah. If you come in and you're like, no, I can only spend this amount of money and I will tell you what I can do for that kind of money. Right. And we're going to say like, we're going to be honest and straightforward about it, what that looks like.

41:16Because like we said, right, we have a wide range. So, okay, maybe we can get more in for X budget. I'm going to be honest with you. Maybe we should lean more on like core product. Let's lean on like the better X, Y, and D, and then let's fill in elsewhere with something else. So it's really going to depend on what, again, what is like the most important thing for that project or for the individual. And we're going to like really keep that in our minds as we're working together.

41:39Natalie Palmer:Erin, what about terms of post-install? For short-term rentals, I think one of the most important things is the photos and the styling and just that finished product. It's almost like, not to be dramatic, but if you don't get good photos and staging at the end, none of it was worth it. Like that's what's going to get the property booked. So do you resist at all with like photography? Are you there on site? Or is that something that the owner would then have to come for and oversee that? Yeah. So typically that is something that the owner comes in and handles. We're always able to, you know, touch base upon a consult on, hey, maybe we should like stage something a little differently or tweak things in terms of what that looks like.

42:19Absolutely. But yeah, generally that's on the owner or the contact customer. And then I think, you know, you'll see too in some of our social media and some of our marketing, we have a lot of projects that become these really interesting case studies, projects that we love to share on and talk through. Sometimes those, right, become a little bit bigger in terms of we talk about them as a team. We bring them to others to see what we can do. So occasionally those come across our plate and those we do get involved in. But typically, yes, it'd be something where we'd want to make sure, of course, that install, that everything looks amazing and everyone is happy and they are ready to be photographed.

42:56But otherwise, it would be definitely something that like we're there as a consult if needed.

43:02Natalie Palmer:Okay, my final questions before we close out are just what are you seeing like from your desk? I'm sure that you guys do so much research on trends like what's what's popular even regions that are booking well like what are you seeing what should real estate investors and designers be on the lookout for right now? Yeah, definitely. So one thing I think this leans into is our design trends. We have really amazing, thoroughly vetted and deep dive, I guess I'll say, into our design trends that we're seeing. We talk about them a lot at our conferences and going through what we see with our tastemakers and other customers.

43:42And we have them launching again for next year in the winter. but honestly cosmicly what we're seeing a lot more and more and more is that really high themed really unique bespoke experience coming through through our side which has been more and more over the past year um i think i was literally just talking um one of my designers working on a very medieval themed and it's very medieval medieval yes and it's and it's it works really well in that it's leaning very velvets and tapestries and it works it works it's very different um but it works for the space it's in for sure um we also have some um as you can imagine we have access to like tons of wall coverings and different recommendations we have for what we can do elsewhere aside from furniture and so we're leaning into that a lot and just creating like uniqueness in rooms, uniqueness in the space as much as we can.

44:42So I'm seeing that more and more across the team. And then we also, I would say, kind of in a different vein, we're seeing really people coming in and looking for just like bulk of assortment that they can get from us at a really good quality that they need. So OS &E, you know, they're coming in with maybe, you know, something specific to their property, but they need a high quantity or they need it quickly. So it's kind of those like unique and different questions that are coming through. It's like, where can we jump in and help? And that that's something, you know, that we have a whole team as well who focuses on.

45:17So they're going to be the ones who are like really supporting and getting that getting that out to the door.

45:22Natalie Palmer:Are there any new services coming soon or like any new product offerings for how you guys can continue supporting short-term rental hosts and owners? So I think that, so my projects, I think is going to be huge for us. I think that'll be really great in terms of organization and also even looking back on what you've previously done, especially if you feel like you're repeating things, you're ordering things over again, you know, things break. You've got to order it really quickly. It's a really like quick tap in, which is nice. And then on our side, you know, we're speaking, we have a booth and presence at BDNY in the fall.

45:57And then we're real excited for next year with Level Up, which will be really great. So we have a lot of things on the docket, which is exciting. And a lot of speaking events as well, which is great because we love to be out there and just like get our message across, like here where I can say, hey, did you hear about us?

46:14Natalie Palmer:No, and you guys do such a good job of making yourselves very, very approachable. Every time I talk to someone from the team, I learn something new that you guys offer that I didn't even know existed. So it seems like you guys are constantly finding new ways to just help and support. Even today, I still didn't know you guys did cabinets. I'm like shocked to learn that. And online. Yeah. You also have like drapes. You guys have wallpaper selection, like for, I don't know, for the person again, who's just like written off Wayfair that it's just like very budget friendly. Cause that was me for several years.

46:45Natalie Palmer:I really encourage you to like, go look, check out our tastemaker collection again. I'll self promote that. But I think you You guys just have so much you can offer and it's free to sign up for this. So yeah, Erin, anything else you want to leave us on? Oh, no, thank you so much, Nylee. This has been great. Obviously, for everyone, check us out on social. Wait for Professional on Instagram and LinkedIn. We're here. We love to get engaged and see what we can do. Erin, thank you so much. And yeah, go follow them on Instagram. Your guys' social media is actually really good. You do a lot of hilarious memes.

47:20Natalie Palmer:And I love like the case studies. You do a good job of like this project started here and this is what we were able to do. So informative and entertaining. We love that. Awesome. All right. Great. Thanks, Natalie. Thank you. And with that, it is now checkout time. Thanks for listening and I'll see you back here next week. Lastly, as Airbnb hosts, we all can appreciate a good five-star review. So you already know a great review on this podcast would mean so much to me. please subscribe review share and connect with me in the show notes below bye