Wayfair is an online store where you can find furniture and other household goods for affordable prices.
Because of how affordable the prices can be, you may wonder if Walmart owns Wayfair.
After all, Walmart also offers exceptionally cheap prices on the items it sells.
Here’s what you need to know about Wayfair, its competitors, and why it’s been struggling to perform well financially.
Does Walmart Own Wayfair?
No, Walmart does not own Wayfair.
One of the biggest reasons many people think that Walmart does own Wayfair is because you can often find Wayfair items on Walmart’s online store.
That isn’t because Walmart owns Wayfair.
Rather, it’s because Wayfair and Walmart have a partnership.
Wayfair is one of the many companies that use Walmart to sell its goods.
It’s a third-party seller on Walmart’s online store.
Wayfair handles most of the logistics still, but it piggybacks on Walmart’s popularity to push some of its products.
Since it gives the company a broader reach than it has on its own, Wayfair isn’t the only third-party seller to take advantage of this sort of partnership with Walmart.
Although Walmart and Wayfair may be partners, Walmart does not own Wayfair.
Who Owns Wayfair?
Niraj Shah and Steven Conine own Wayfair.
They’re the founders of the company and remain involved with it to this day.
Shah is the co-chairman of the company and also serves as the company’s CEO.
Conine is the other co-chairman of the company and serves as one of the directors of the company.
They started the company in 2002 and have led it since.
Although Wayfair is a publicly-traded company, it has yet to sell to another company.
As such, it’s still the property of the founders and owners.
Who Are Wayfair’s Competitors?
Although Wayfair remains its own company, for now, there may come a time when one of its competitors tries to buy it out.
You may wonder who those competitors are, so you can prepare yourself for either a merger or a takeover.
Here are some of Wayfair’s main competitors.
1. Amazon
There’s no question that one of Wayfair’s biggest competitors is Amazon.
Amazon has a huge marketplace that sells things in practically every department.
Although it does have a limited furniture section, the fact that it exists means it’s a competitor to Wayfair.
In particular, Amazon is a competitor to Wayfair for its small household goods items.
It competes with Wayfair in a few aspects.
The first is affordability.
Wayfair has a reputation for selling items for cheap prices.
While there are always expensive items to find, too, its reputation surrounds the idea of finding good-looking furniture for affordable prices.
Amazon also has that going for them.
You can find both cheap and expensive furniture items on Amazon.
The aspect that makes Wayfair win out against Amazon is that it focuses solely on furniture and household goods.
This allows it to store and organize its warehouses accordingly.
It also means that it has deals with carriers who can manage to deliver large items.
Amazon still has some struggles when it comes to delivering large items.
At the very least, the shipping on those items can be expensive.
Another aspect is the reach that both companies have.
While Wayfair is a pretty well-known name, Amazon is arguably better known.
That means that people are more likely to buy from Amazon than from Wayfair.
Amazon is one of Wayfair’s strongest competitors.
2. Macy’s
Another major competitor to Wayfair is Macy’s.
Macy’s is a department store that is usually located in strip malls and traditional shopping malls.
Along with selling clothes, beauty products, and shoes, Macy’s also sells household goods.
While they do have a few large furniture pieces, most of the items that they sell are small household goods.
That still cuts into Wayfair’s business, however, since they also sell small household goods.
One of the main ways that the two compete is through reach.
Macy’s has a slight edge over Wayfair because it’s a brick-and-mortar store.
When it comes to buying furniture and household goods, a lot of consumers prefer to see or test the product before buying it.
It’s difficult for someone to buy a bed online, for example, because they don’t know how comfortable it will be.
Being able to lay in the bed is a preferable experience.
The same goes for chairs and couches.
If given the chance to test out the furniture, they’re more likely to go to the brick-and-mortar store than buy it online and hope that it’s comfortable.
That’s because returning furniture is a lot more complicated when bought online.
You have to somehow get it back in a box and have people pick it up again.
It’s a waste of time and money.
Since Macy’s has all the furniture right there to try, they’re going to bring in a bit more business than Wayfair.
Macy’s also has the advantage of being in an area where shoppers are browsing.
Someone might not be on the hunt to buy a new household good until they end up passing by Macy’s and seeing it.
As for Wayfair, people only tend to visit the site when they’re deliberately looking to buy something.
Macy’s is a big competitor to Wayfair due to its ability to let consumers try out pieces before buying them.
3. Hayneedle
Although Walmart doesn’t own Wayfair, it does technically own one of its competitors.
Hayneedle eventually sold to Jet.com which then became a subsidiary of Walmart.
It’s a competitor to Wayfair because it offers many of the same types of products that Wayfair does.
You can find furniture, decorations, lighting, and other interior and exterior furniture items.
Wayfair does have a slight edge on Hayneedle when it comes to pets.
Hayneedle has yet to invest fully in the pet department.
However, it does have one aspect that puts it ahead of Wayfair.
Hayneedle has a design program that lets you put together a few different furniture pieces based on the type of design or trend that you want to follow.
This makes it easy to get an idea of what certain styles look like.
As a result, consumers may be more likely to use Hayneedle since they can visualize certain themes.
Wayfair doesn’t have anything quite as formal just yet.
As such, consumers shopping there have to imagine what certain furniture pieces would look like together in a room.
They may find, after buying the furniture and putting it in their home, that the style clashes terribly with the rest of the house.
To avoid that headache, some consumers may choose to shop at Hayneedle over Wayfair.
Because the two companies are so similar, every little difference can determine which will come out on top.
Until that moment, Hayneedle remains one of Wayfair’s major competitors.
4. Overstock.com
A final competitor to Wayfair is Overstock.com.
Similar to Hayneedle, Overstock.com sells many of the same types of products as Wayfair.
You can find indoor furniture, outdoor furniture, and even furniture for kids and babies.
It offers the same sort of sales as Wayfair and also cheap prices.
It shares a similar business model in that it buys items on clearance, then resells them at slightly higher prices.
The two companies are very similar, but the main difference between them is Wayfair has a bit better reputation than Overstock.
That might be down to the quality of the products, the quality of the customer service, or the quality of the company as a whole.
However, reputations can change, so Overstock.com might overtake Wayfair one day.
The two are similar enough that they’re likely sharing consumers already.
Overstock.com remains one of Wayfair’s biggest competitors.
Why Is Wayfair Struggling Financially?
Another reason why you might think that Walmart owns Wayfair is that the company has been struggling financially as of late.
While the company started strong when it first opened, it has started to see declines in active consumer use.
There are several reasons why this might be happening, as well as other factors, which are contributing to Wayfair’s financial struggles.
1. High Advertisement Costs
One of the reasons that might be contributing to Wayfair’s decline is its high advertisement costs.
Because of the number of competitors that it has, Wayfair has to constantly advertise itself to remind consumers that it exists.
In a world dominated by Amazon, it’s easy for slightly smaller companies to fall by the wayside.
Due to the kind of customer service that consumers can get from Amazon, it tends to make it a consumer’s first choice.
Wayfair has to spend a lot of money to inform consumers that they can provide them with their needs just as well.
The problem with advertising costs is that they can grow and grow without much of an effect.
If people prefer to shop at Amazon or another store, they’re going to continue to shop there.
In Wayfair’s case, they’ve been spending a lot of money on advertising while still having their active consumers decrease.
Essentially, this means that they’re not making that money back.
Advertisement costs are one of the biggest reasons why Wayfair is struggling financially.
2. Association With Cheap Products
Another problem that might be contributing to Wayfair’s financial struggles is its association with cheap products.
While everyone loves a good deal, it isn’t necessarily a good deal if the product that they buy is cheaply made.
This means that the product breaks easily or doesn’t look great.
While you do get what you pay for, Wayfair tends to advertise itself as a store that sells expensive furniture for cheap prices.
While you can certainly find great deals on expensive furniture, some consumers have likely also found that some of the pieces either use cheap materials or aren’t that high-quality.
If enough people experience this, the complaints grow and become more widespread.
A new reputation forms that Wayfair sells cheap products rather than high-quality products at cheap prices.
When people buy furniture, they want products that will last for some time.
They’re expensive and burdensome purchases that people don’t always like to make often.
When they feel as though they got burned by a company, they’re likely not going to purchase from them again.
If enough Wayfair consumers feel as though they’re not getting quality products for the amount that they’re spending, they might look elsewhere for better products at similar prices.
A poor reputation for selling low-quality products might be one of the reasons why Wayfair is struggling financially.
3. Too Many Competitors
A final reason why Wayfair might be struggling financially is the sheer number of competitors that it faces.
Whether it’s Amazon, Overstock.com, or Macy’s, Wayfair is trying to sell products in a crowded market.
It may have had the advantage initially.
Amazon was still small, and there weren’t other stores like it.
However, with time, more stores opened with similar business models and target audiences.
To survive, Wayfair may need to continue to innovate itself and find new ways to serve its consumers if they want to hold onto them.
Otherwise, they’re going to continue to see a decline in active consumers.
Wayfair may be struggling financially due to all the competitors taking consumers from them.
Why Does It Take So Long To Get Furniture From Wayfair?
One of the problems you might face when buying something on Wayfair is that you have to wait several weeks, if not months, before your furniture arrives.
There are a few reasons why your furniture may take so long to arrive.
1. COVID-Related Delays
One of the biggest problems affecting all furniture sellers is COVID.
Although most factories are now open and running, the pandemic caused a huge delay.
People with extra money from stimulus checks spent it on improving their homes with new furniture.
This caused demand for furniture to rise when there wasn’t any way for the supply to meet that demand.
Instead, people bought what was in stock, but once the stock ran out, the orders started to pile up.
Once factories reopened, there was a massive mountain of orders that they needed to fulfill with more orders getting added every day.
Since they can only produce so much in a day, it’s done little to match demand.
That means people have to wait longer to get the furniture pieces that they bought.
2. Custom Pieces
Some of the pieces on Wayfair have a few pieces that you customize.
Whether it’s the size of something or having a label put on something, when you customize something, it takes longer to make.
That’s because the manufacturers have to specifically take that item and customize how you want it.
This is different than if it was on an assembly line.
It’d just go through the various parts of the line before it’s done and ready to ship out.
Since custom items aren’t as efficiently made, they take longer to make and thus arrive at your home later.
3. Large Pieces
If you order a furniture set, you’re going to receive several, large, orders.
The problem with that is that this means the carrier can only have so many items on their truck.
They have specific weight restrictions that they need to adhere to.
That means they’re not able to carry as many things as they might like.
Since they have to be mindful of how much they can carry, some things get left behind for the next carrier to pick up.
It makes logistics a bit more complicated when they need to deliver large or heavy items.
Since they have to deliberately make room for such items, it may take them a while to organize the schedule or route to accommodate it.
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