Sep 24

Online retailer Made.com opens physical showroom

Posted in: 3D printing, Dezeen Wire, Do not show on the Homepage, Made.com

MADE.com launches experimental showroom

News: online homeware retailer Made.com has opened a physical showroom on the ninth floor of a west London office tower, featuring QR codes and miniature 3D-printed models of furniture.

The 400 square metre Ninth Floor Showroom, located next to the company’s offices in Notting Hill, presents a changing selection of the site’s most popular furniture and lighting products arranged “like a studio shoot”.

Visitors can scan QR codes to find out more about products, play with miniature furniture models and take home postcards and fabric samples.

MADE.com launches experimental showroom

“Furniture and design is a special category in the sense that the products take up a lot of space,” said Made.com CEO and founder Ning Li. “Our business model tries to eliminate every unnecessary cost, like agents, importers, brands and warehousing, including the physical stores. Whenever you have a lot of costs, you can’t pass on the savings.”

Li says the future for Made.com is a “convergence of online and offline”, using the showroom to improve the online retail experience. “It’s very experimental. It’s not something that can replace physical retail, but it’s a good step to bridge the gap,” he said.

MADE.com launches experimental showroom

Made.com isn’t the only company to attempt to move from online into offline retail recently. ”We’ve seen over the last year, especially at Christmas, companies like eBay doing pop-up stores or experiential stores in a physical space,” Li said. “We hope to see more [companies] doing similar things, because it makes a lot of sense for consumers.”

Former investment banker Li launched Made.com in 2010 with backing from Brent Hoberman, founder of furniture and homeware website MyDeco and holiday shop Lastminute.com. Made.com now employs 70 people and ships several containers of goods to UK customers every day.

MADE.com launches experimental showroom

The showroom opened last week during the London Design Festival and is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday at Newcombe House, 45 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3LQ.

Earlier today we reported that online design retailer Fab.com is to merge its UK and German sites into a single European store.

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Mar 07

Neo Collection by Made.com

Posted in: Made.com

Neo Collection by Made.com

Crowd-sourcing design brand Made.com of London have launched these simple bikes with coloured wheel rims.

Neo Collection by Made.com

The designers at Made.com showcase their ideas on the website and ask visitors to vote for their favourites.

Neo Collection by Made.com

Only the winning designs are manufactured and those who voted can buy the resulting products at a discount for taking part in the process.

Neo Collection by Made.com

The bikes in the Neo Collection function as either single or fixed-gear cycles and are available in black and orange, white and blus or silver and black.

Neo Collection by Made.com

See also: Dezeen’s top ten bikes.

Here’s a bit more information from Made.com:

MADE.COM’s Latest Product Release: The Neo Bike Collection

MADE.COM, a company that offers quality designer products at factory prices, is proud to announce their latest product range, the Neo Bike Collection.

The Neo Single-Gear Bikes are sporty, contemporary bikes that can be used as single or fixed-gear. With a strong steel frame, they are both durable and lightweight. The range comprises the black frame with orange rims and white frame with blue rims, both £199, as well as the premium silver frame with black rims, £249.

This collection was chosen for its modern functionality and affordability. Bikes are also extremely popular in the current interior market and the Neo Collection will be at the forefront of a new generation of single-gear bikes. Another designer product with its price stripped bare.

About Made.com

Made.com cuts out the middlemen to drastically reduce the prices of designer furniture. It works by showcasing furniture designs on the website and asking people to vote for their favourites. The crowd-sourced designs go into production and the people who voted can go on to buy them at a discount as a thank you for their part in the selection process. Orders are then placed direct with a manufacturer for mass production in container quantities. Once completed, the orders are shipped to the UK and their progress is traceable in real time on the web site. The upside of this business model is no unsold inventory and no wastage as the factory only manufactures the exact number of items ordered.

Made.com is the brainchild of 28 year-old serial entrepreneur Ning Li who co-founded the firm with Julien Callede and Chloe Macintosh. Made.com has raised a 2.5M£ round in early 2010 with some successful European entrepreneurs such as Brent Hoberman and Michael Birch (through their VC fund PROfounders Capital), Marc Simoncini (owner of Meetic.com and match.com in Europe), John Hunt (the Seattle Coffee Company sold to Starbucks, Syzygy)

See also:

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Veloheld by
neongrau.id		Moof by Sjoerd Smit
for Areaware		Alta One bike by Frost Produkt, Norway Says and Bleed
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