Dusseldorf Stephan Rom can’t help with the eureka moment of a sudden business idea at the kitchen table in the student flat share. “That wasn’t the classic, romantic start-up story,” he says, describing the founding of the online retailer Sensoo.
It was a rational decision, born out of discussions with his father and employees of their family business, Rom1961. The sofa manufacturer, which until then had only sold its products through specialist retailers, wanted to use the potential of e-commerce. But the medium-sized company could not afford to waste money with an ill-considered idea and cannibalize its own business.
The result is a start-up that has its own product and is aimed at a different customer group. Thanks to the support of the family business, Sensoo has mature technology and could soon be profitable.
Founder Stephan Rom says: “It was clear to us from the start that we needed our own brand for this.” They want to show that the sofas from Sensoo don’t have much in common with those from Rom1961. “Rom1961 offers very strong personalized sofas as a mass product,” explains the entrepreneur. Because it’s complicated, customers need a lot of advice. “That’s why we only sell through specialist retailers, not online.”
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1,000 sofas are expected to be sold this year
This faced Rome with the same problem that many furniture manufacturers have in e-commerce: customers don’t want to buy a sofa they haven’t sat on before. His solution: The customer can individually adjust the firmness and backrest height of the Sensoo furniture for each seat of the sofa after purchase. In addition, the price of the sofas is significantly lower. The start-up also wants to win younger customers with this.
He was thus able to quickly win over the employees of the family business, which Rom runs with his father in the third generation, for the new project: “Because it is a completely different target group, it is not seen as a danger but rather as an opportunity.” To the team of In addition to new colleagues, Sensoo also owns long-standing employees of Rom1961.
Customers often don’t want to buy a sofa they haven’t even sat on before.
(Photo: OJO Images/Getty Images)
Pierre Haarfeld, furniture market expert at the e-commerce consultancy Etribes and founder of a furniture start-up in online retail, sees this connection to the experienced medium-sized company as the greatest advantage: “Very good margins are achieved right from the start thanks to the good purchasing conditions,” explains he. As a rule, it is different with start-ups. Although the founders are absolute brand professionals, they have no idea about the product. That is why the initial margins there are usually too weak.
So far, Sensoo’s plans seem to be working. This year, the start-up is expected to generate seven-figure sales, with up to 1,000 sofas to be sold. For comparison: Rom1961 sells around 30,000 sofa sets a year and thus generates a turnover of 70 million euros.
“Our goal is to generate a significant part of the group’s sales with Sensoo, it should definitely be eight figures,” says Rom. “By the end of 2023 we want to at least generate the fixed costs, so we want to have such a volume that the business is self-financing.”
Also sold via the Otto.de marketplace
What is important to the entrepreneur: “We are self-financed, we have no external capital for this.” However, this also limits the advertising opportunities for the new brand.
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But that’s exactly where furniture expert Haarfeld sees the start-up’s biggest problem: “Building up traffic for your own online shop has become too expensive,” he points out. Unless a company has a strong brand. “But Sensoo is still a long way from that.”
The challenge is the great competition, also from generalists. It is therefore essential that start-ups like Sensoo master the active management of the various online platforms. So far, however, Sensoo is only present on the Otto.de marketplace. However, the expansion to other marketplaces is planned.
Rom1961 is not the first medium-sized furniture manufacturer to enter e-commerce under a new brand. A few years ago, the family company Wimmer Wohnkollektionen from Waldkirchen in Bavaria founded the online shop Kautsch.de. Other spin-offs followed under brands such as Wahuboard.com and Jona-Sleep.com.
Until then, Wimmer was almost one hundred percent dependent on stationary furniture stores. Expert Haarfeld sees Wimmer’s step into e-commerce as a role model: “On the one hand, they were able to better meet the requirements for their own change in the core brand and, on the other hand, they could reduce their dependence on traditional sales channels.”
Even Ikea has struggled with e-commerce for a long time
The potential for additional sales is high. According to Statista estimates, 8.7 billion euros will be sold in online furniture retail this year. E-commerce only accounts for a good 15 percent of the overall furniture market.
Even market leader Ikea has struggled with online trading for a long time. It is significant that the market leader for online furniture sales in Germany is not a specialist retailer, but the Otto.de platform.
The Swedish furniture manufacturer had problems entering the online trade itself.
(Photo: imago images/Bihlmayerfotografie)
After initial skepticism, the specialist retailers also understood that Sensoo posed no threat to them, reports entrepreneur Rom. Some now want to show the products in their exhibition and sell them through their own web shop.
Stephan Rom has been working towards his current role in the family business for a long time: “I’ve known since I was 15 that I wanted to join the company.” After studying business administration in Maastricht, he did internships at the furniture retailer Musterring and at the Otto Group and an advertising agency.
At Rom1961, he first worked in the US business and then managed his own shop with a showroom in the most important sales market, France. Now he is taking the next step with Sensoo. “Innovation is in our DNA, we like to invent things,” he says, “and that’s exactly what connects our two brands.”
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