flash sales

I met Braden Richter for lunch in Hollywood last week. The first thing I noticed was the laptop. In addition to being one of those radtastic titanium PCs that weigh next to nothing and can be tossed safely from an airplane, his screensaver was a picture of his son playing football that could have been a poster for Friday Night Lights.

Braden is a Los Angeles based furniture entrepreneur. As he detailed his career path for me I was slackjawed. He humbly talks about going from UCLA to making “some stuff” for someone he knew… which of course became Shabby Chic. Braden quickly left school and started a furniture manufacturing company to support Shabby Chic (literally… I think he made the stuff under under the slip covers). From there they expanded, and then they expanded again, producing furniture for every major retailer I’d pinned, googled or ogled.

Braden’s obvious talents are threefold. He knows everyone. He produces quality. He can forecast business trends.

Flash sales are awesome. I love them so much that I have a portal that brings all the flash sales to your inbox. What’s been missing has been a curated flash sale.

Enter LuxeYard. The sales are “flash” but they aren’t flash in the pan. The home furnishings are exquisite and almost without exception they are from the US. Basically you are buying from the manufacturer and skipping the retail markup.

LuxeYard is changing the landscape of flash sales in one incredible way, concierge. Let’s say I’m walking through the mall and I see the side table I must have but it’s the wrong size/price/color/finish, I snap a picture of it with my phone and upload it to the site and explain what it is about it that I need. LuxeYard’s concierge then goes about the business of sourcing that item from their vast network of furniture manufacturers and offering it to you at a wholesale price. Now, if you share that with your friends the price can go down.

LuxeYard members have the ability to push product prices down for
featured Group Buy items. Members leverage social media and social networks
to encourage others to purchase a product, which in turn drives the price down.
For example, members may purchase an item for $100; share the information on
Facebook encouraging others to buy the same product; and two days later find out
that customer demand, which they helped drive, dropped the price to $50. Everyone
who purchased the Group Buy Item will pay the final lowest price.

This week there’s a group buy for a 16 bottle wine cooler by Kalorik. It’s already below $200. I’m anxious to see how low these things can go.

There’s also a room planner which will allow you to enter images and dimensions of your room… this would have saved me about 80 bazillion returns over the years.

LuxeYard also features trendsetters. This week Nicky Hilton will share some of her favorites. Past trendsetters include Jonathan Shokrian, Amanada Rosbrook, Forbes Riley, Faye Resnick, Bobby Berk, and Daniella Clarke. If you check out the LuxeLife it’s like Pinterest went Luxe.

I’m excited about LuxeLife. I look at Braden Richter and I see a man who has a deep understanding of the furniture business and an uncanny ability to to predict it’s trends. Social shopping has always existed. I’ve shopped with friends since my adolescence, now all these years later Group Buys offer us the chance to shop with our friends and be rewarded for it. I have a feeling that I’ll be sharing group buys here. Maybe y’all can help me make this home office into a space I can enjoy a little.