Garden furniture retailer sees huge online growth during lockdown

Moda Furnishings, the Manchester-based retailer of rattan garden furniture, has reported huge growth of online sales during the UK lockdown.

Its total online revenue was up 177% in April, compared with April 2019

On the Easter weekend alone, Britons spent £1.3m on Moda’s luxury furniture as garden lovers keen to ease the pain of the enforced lockdown restrictions treated themselves to some home comforts.

Private equity firm Endless completed the acquisition of Moda Furnishings last September.

Based in Eastlands, it was established in 2014 and has grown rapidly in sales and profitability, specialising in premium rattan garden furniture through its website and two showrooms in Manchester and Caterham, in Surrey.

The glorious weather much of the UK was experiencing is likely to have contributed to the sales performance, as did a website upgrade the company invested in and launched on March 25.

Moda has seen significant online growth over the past six years via an ecommerce website built by Manchester digital agency Fluid Digital and promoted with a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

Jonny Brierley, Moda chief executive, said: “At a time of so much anxiety and tragedy we are pleased that our furniture has been able to play a small part in making these unprecedented circumstances more bearable for people.

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted this situation or the demand we would see for our range.

“However, I’m thankful that we had the new site in place so we could cope with the surge and people weren’t going away frustrated by a site that was slow and ultimately unable to process their order.”

Adam Hindle, managing director of Fluid Digital, said: “There’s so much uncertainty and negativity surrounding business at the moment, but Moda is one of the few companies that is performing very well.

“The new Magento 2 site not only gave it the power it needed to cope with high demand, but also improved the experience for the consumer so they could make their new purchase with ease.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close