Appetite for Home Collectibles Driving E-commerce Amid Slowdown

MILAN — The Red Sea shipping delays, inflation and the housing market’s slowdown dampened the online spending frenzy for cocooning and beautifying the home in 2024. But despite the downturn and tariff jitters, major online players, including fashion platforms, continue to see the home category as a prime catalyst for business.

Big furniture players turned their focus away from selling e-commerce channels as the focus turned to better performing facets of the business, like contract and hospitality. This trend offset the spending slowdown that gripped developed markets like the U.S. and Europe.

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“Online growth slows amid U.S. saturation and return to physical stores, but remains supported by omnichannel strategies, direct e-commerce and digital innovation,” Claudia D’Arpizio, senior partner and global head of fashion and luxury at Bain & Company, told WWD ahead of Salone del Mobile.Milano, which kicked of Tuesday and will run here until Sunday.

Online Outperformers

In its last Luxury Monitor, Bain said the online channel overall is entering a normalization phase following post-pandemic swings. As consumers seek value purchases, the secondhand market is gaining traction. One such online marketplaces is 1stDibs, which said its net revenue rose 4 percent to $88.3 million, year-over-year in 2024. In terms of furniture, sales were driven by high-end consumers with an appetite for midcentury modern pieces and the Togo chair by Michel Ducaroy. Lighting’s top sale was a Taito Brass Ceiling Light by Paavo Tynell from the 1950s at $242,922.

Within the fashion space, home continues to represent a huge opportunity.

In 2022, Mytheresa launched Life, its lifestyle category that includes furniture, lighting, textiles, tabletop, decorative objects, pet and travel accessories. About 60 percent of sales come from the platform’s top customer tiers, “demonstrating a strong appetite for pieces that elevate their homes with style and individuality,” said Richard Johnson, Mytheresa’s chief commercial and sustainability officer.

Among the strongest performers were luxury design brand L’Objet, Ginori 1735 and home design firm Les Ottomans. In terms of fashion brands active in home, Missoni for textiles and LaDoubleJ for tableware, among other, resonated with its clientele, he said.

“The momentum for the category is clear. As our top customers continue to expand their investment in design, our ability to engage them across both fashion and interiors strengthens our relevance in their lifestyle choices. The intersection of these worlds is where we see a powerful opportunity — not only to inspire, but to redefine the luxury shopping experience and build a closer, more meaningful connection with our customers,” Johnson said.

In January, Mytheresa chief executive officer Michael Kliger said his aim is to create a 4 billion euro online juggernaut in the luxury fashion space by operating the Mytheresa shopfront alongside those of Net-a-porter and Mr Porter.

Despite the market malaise in 2024, Abask managed to pull off a stellar year, said Nicolas Pickaerts, cofounder of Abask, with revenue tripling compared to 2023.

“This exceptional growth was fueled by robust demand across all markets, particularly in the U.S. Our expanding product offering into new rooms and categories, including The Closet and The Artists Studio, and the rising global appetite for unique, handcrafted home design pieces have been key drivers of this success,” he said.

Abask was founded by Matchesfashion founder Tom Chapman and Pickaerts, its former e-commerce director. Given their logistical expertise, they make it possible for consumers worldwide to shop their home design objects and gifts with the guarantee that each item will be shipped in 48 to 72 hours no matter where one is in the 165 countries where the e-commerce site is available.

Baby Steps

Italian e-commerce site Giglio.com said sales of its home category outperformed its overall performance. In 2024 sales dropped 18 percent to 46.2 million euros, but home showed promise over the past year, its CEO Giuseppe Giglio told WWD. Giglio.com launched its lifestyle department in November 2023, after launching the online business in 1996. The Giglio family independently operates five physical boutiques in Palermo, Italy — a business that originally began in 1965.

“Despite not having a specific recognition in the industry, during the gifting seasons sales exceeded 1 percent of total revenues. So the lifestyle department has proved to be a good solution for our customer base who has been recognizing Giglio.com as a major fashion destination,” he said, adding that the category was led by home textiles, with brands such as Etro Casa and Fendi Casa leading gains.

This year is showing positive signs, Giglio said.

“Our journey into the design industry confirms that the consumers’ habits in fashion and homeware are more and more connected and share a common space. “We are confident though that the outlook will improve during the upcoming months.”

Sites like Abask, Artemest and Invisible Collection are havens for small, ultra high-end companies to globalize their businesses and sell their goods internationally. U.S. consumers have proven among the most reliable high-ticket shoppers. Sites like these satiate the appetite for luxury home goods in cities like Dallas and Boston where high net worth inhabitants are on the rise.

“Since the creation of Invisible Collection in 2016, the American market has been our leading market for what we sell — collectible design — accounting for over 60 percent of our market share. The region has had a deep appreciation for French decorative arts for over a century and has supported exceptional artisans since the Gilded Age,” said Isabelle Dubern-Mallevays, cofounder of the London-based platform.

Invisible Collection was founded in 2016 by Dubern-Mallevays, a former journalist and former creative director of Dior Home and Diptyque Home; reinsurance risk specialist and art collector Anna Zaoui, and luxury in-client strategy specialist Lily Froehlicher. The site sells furniture and decor pieces by leading designers: Italy’s Osanna Visconti and Allegra Hicks and French designers Thierry Lemaire and Garcé & Dimofski among them. The U.S. has been a main driver since the start.

“When we started Invisible Collection, Americans were already familiar with the first designers we showcased and their furniture, and they’ve followed us as we introduced new and emerging designers over the years. The American press also has a deep and nuanced understanding of European design, which has played a key role in educating and inspiring collectors. It’s a very mature and enthusiastic market with half of the world’s art collectors live in New York,” Dubern-Mullevays said.

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