Two years is a very short time to judge the shelf life of any company let alone one that is setting new benchmarks in the country.
However, there is one such company that has fast become the undisputed leader when it comes to online sales in the furniture sector that has been traditionally been dominated by much larger competitors. This company is ISHO.
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Exactly a year has passed when ISHO recorded an 800-900 per cent increase in online sales during last EID and the company seems to be on an upward trajectory.
During the pandemic last year, ISHO started delivering across the country when other brands consolidated their businesses.
Major cities like Chattogram, Sylhet and Khulna became major business locations and are part of the 48 cities that ISHO delivers to currently.
A digital-first approach and being online and tech ready during Covid also resulted in a 10 times growth rate, which, by all account, is unmatched by anyone in the industry.
Founded by Harvard Alumni, Rayana Hossain, the brand is known for introducing cutting-edge products and global designs. She is one of the only female founders in an industry that has been overwhelmingly male dominated.
The company started out with a presence online with only 22 collections and 380 products. Today, ISHO boasts a total of 35 collections with over 1,600 products that include many industry-firsts that also cater to pet-owners, gamers and parents amongst many others.
The dramatic growth of ISHO doesn't stop here and it currently has one of the largest furniture showrooms in the country with a whopping 20,000 sqft area housed over 8 floors with complete furniture solutions along with accessories for bedroom, office, living room and dining room.
It also has its own design studio which offers interior services for offices, homes, restaurants and hotels. Moreover, their own unique Innovation Lab incorporates technology with revolutionary designs to create furniture that is functional in today's changing world.
The Lab runs on input from a multidisciplinary team made up of designers, engineers, marketers and an innovative think-tank.
One of ISHO's core propositions is to promote minimalism and sustainability, which has also contributed in pushing the perception needle of furniture buying in the country.
For the brand, in basic terms – less ornamentation and carving is more – which means that consciously less wood is used thus making it a more sustainable brand. This is a huge change to what audiences have been used to buying historically.
According to the brand's website traffic influx data, its web hits, page views and unique visitors increased by 52 per cent, 5 per cent, and 61 per cent consecutively between July 2020 and March 2021, reinforcing ISHO's position as being the number one online furniture brand in the country.
In addition, Alexa site rankings, a service that ranks millions of websites in order of popularity, shows that ISHO is now amongst the Top 3 most popular furniture brands in Bangladesh along with Hatil and Partex.
The many milestones that ISHO has achieved in such a short span of time are a testament to the founding philosophy and to the relentless pursuit of disrupting and bringing much-needed innovation to the furniture industry.
Right from its designs to matching established companies like Urban Ladder, Pepperfry or Made.com.
ISHO has become the only South Asian e-commerce player with backward integration in manufacturing.
With this in mind, it should come as little surprise that when a poll amongst its customers on why they like ISHO was conducted recently many responded that it was because of its global designs.
Thus, perhaps giving us a glimpse of why ISHO has become the most preferred furniture brand in the country and on that occupies the number one position in online sales currently.
