Leading furniture marketplace Homzmart sees record growth amid coronavirus

Homzmart, the region’s leading online furniture marketplace helping to link furniture manufacturers with customers, witnessed a rise in orders and subscribers on its platform resulting in 20 times its growth amid the pandemic. The marketplace now showcases over +17,000 products from over +500 sellers and manufacturers.

As consumers turn to digital and reduced-contact ways of accessing products and services, there has been an increase in spending on home goods and furniture as a result of shelter-in-place orders keeping people in their houses as home becomes a multifunctional hub.

Comparing the average customer base and adoption of the platform, Homzmart witnessed a surge by 16x as it allowed manufacturers to connect with consumer in an online marketplace setting. The number of transactions on the platform involving subscribed businesses grew more than 18x from a year earlier in January.

Mahmoud Ibrahim, CEO and Founder of Homzmart, said: “The pandemic has made it necessary for companies to look forward to the future and stay flexible as the market rapidly changes. Serving the customer of the future requires unprecedented agility—quickly adapting to changing customer expectations. With an electronic furniture market estimated at USD 80 billion in the MENA region, most of the regional home furnishing sector players are just now leveraging the power of technology to digitize their offerings and develop their operations.”

Mahmoud Ibrahim adds, “The digital disruption, accelerated by the pandemic, has made local neighbourhoods and businesses stress on their exposure on virtual platforms. We saw a 4x surge in the number of requests from local suppliers to feature their products on our platform. This falls in line with our mission to support the local community and businesses promote their products while opening the regional borders and overcoming the logistical challenges that accompany it.”

Founded by Mahmoud Ibrahim and Ibrahim Mohamed last year following the success and acquisition of Daraz Group, an e-commerce platform in Asia by Alibaba, the startup is backed by MSA Capital, Oman Technology Fund (OTF), Equitrust, an investment arm Choueiri Group, 500 startups and Nuwa Capital amongst other strategic partners.