Dovetail Furniture Puts on an eCommerce Masterclass

Under the leadership of CEO Marco Petruzzi and CSO/CMO John Genova, Dovetail Furniture has grown massively over the last few years — the company’s highest growth rate since their founding 30+ years ago.

Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment this year, Dovetail is on track to more than double their online sales thanks to a comprehensive ecommerce strategy. To gain deeper insights into their success, we spoke with John Genova, Dovetail’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer.

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How They Got Here

Dovetail began its eCommerce journey in July 2022 by partnering with CommerceBear to enhance their catalog and build a presence on various online retailers, including Wayfair, Perigold, Overstock, and Houzz.

Their evolution has been impressive:

• 2022: Invested in refreshed imagery, including lifestyle and dimension line images
• 2023: Published half their catalog (600 SKUs); surpassing $1m in online sales
• 2024: Listed the rest of the catalog, hitting triple-digit revenue growth from 2023

With a small team supporting their ecommerce initiatives, it’s impressive what they’ve managed to accomplish in a relatively short period of time. As they look forward, they have no intention of slowing down and plan to invest further time and attention into their ecommerce strategy.

Keys to Success

John at Dovetail attributes their success to the simple tactics below:

1. Compelling Copy: High-quality content — including brand statements, descriptions, bullets and titles — provides consumers with essential details to make informed purchasing decisions.
2. Enhanced Imagery: Diverse digital assets — such as lifestyle and dimension line images — are crucial in giving customers confidence to buy products online.
3. Channel Relationships: Building strong relationships with channels has been beneficial for understanding how to fully leverage these platforms to get Dovetail’s products seen more broadly.
4. Channel Promotions: Participating in channel-specific promotions has recently become a key growth driver for Dovetail. They began participating in promotions to increase discoverability and sales during channel-specific promotional periods.

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How They Plan To Grow Further

After two years of setting up their presence online, John and his team are now shifting focus towards:

1. New Product Introductions: Expanding their online catalog and ensuring that all products are optimized for discovery and that the catalog remains current with the latest offerings.
2. Leveraging More On-Channel Promotions: By participating in promotions, Dovetail increases product discoverability across all channels. Advertising is not part of their strategy and won’t be until they feel they’ve exhausted promotions.
3. Expanding to New Channels: Dovetail is beginning to explore new channels to list their catalog — with a multi-channel presence, they increase discoverability.

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Key Takeaways When Thinking About Your Own Ecommerce Strategy

Dovetail Furniture’s eCommerce success has been driven by straightforward yet effective tactics — enhancing content, publishing SKUs, adopting multiple channels and participating in channel-specific promotions.

As John Genova puts it: “There’s nothing magic to what we’re doing that others can’t do.” Dovetail is a testament to the potential of embracing online channels in today’s furniture market with a simple, yet effective eCommerce strategy.