250 Lloyds Launches Members-Only E-Commerce Site

January 19, 2012  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on January 20, 2012

A new designer-friendly, members-only home furnishings private sale site, 250 Lloyds is going live today.

250 Lloyds aims to offer consumers instant online access to top brands for home furnishings, gifts and home décor items at discounted prices.

The new site, a subsidiary of BLVD Ventures Inc., bills itself as "a next generation social E-commerce retailer built on a robust technology platform." BLVD is spearheading the creation of an integrated online and mobile-commerce platform, and a portfolio of industry-specific social e-commerce ventures.

"Our goal is to improve the online shopping experience for consumers while increasing marketing and sales reach for home furnishings vendors," said 250 Lloyds CEO Sashi Chimala.

Home furnishings industry veteran Eric Bauer, who will serve as director of vendor relations, heads the 250 Lloyds U.S. office. Senior buyers include Vicki Bauer, an experienced home furnishings buyer, merchandiser and interior designer; and Steve Grobe, a former furniture, lighting, rug and accessory senior buyer for Dayton's and Marshall Field's department stores.

250 Lloyds looks to differentiate itself from U.S. competitors in online home furnishings flash sales business by innovating the flash-sale model with several unique sales formats on the site. In addition to daily flash sales, 250 Lloyds will host "Trunk Shows" and "Atrium Events" designed to help home furnishings companies build brand awareness and establish longer-term relationships with customers. "Trunk Shows" feature handpicked merchandise from one or two vendors and last up to 30 days; "Inspire Your Inner Designer"-driven Atrium Events last up to 90 days and are designed to function as mini E-commerce outlets within the site.

"Our intention is to push the envelope on the model and create new channels to make shopping easier and fun for our customers while helping our vendor partners showcase their products to the customer," Eric Bauer said.

The flash sale site model has gained popularity as a purchasing vehicle for fashion and home furnishings. The incidence of Americans visiting flash sale sites increased 68 percent in September 2011 compared with the same period the previous year and increased 314 percent compared to the same period two years ago, according to Experian Hitwise, an Internet-tracking firm.

250 Lloyds can be followed in the Two-Five-O blog; Facebook and Twitter.