Living in residential housing without a lot of space as an undergraduate inspired Frédéric Aubé to launch Cozey, a direct-to-consumer modular furniture brand, in 2020. The Cozey concept became so beloved by consumers that, within five years, it was generating millions in annual revenue. Now, to fulfill even bigger ambitions, Frédéric and his team are heading into retail. In this limited podcast series, Road to Retail, we follow the Cozey team as they open their first-ever store, in Toronto, Canada.
Why open a retail store?
Most founders with digital-first brands arrive at this crossroads at some point in their business journey. For Frédéric and his team at Cozey, moving into retail wasn’t a necessity.
After all, the Canadian furniture-in-a-box company generates tens of millions in annual sales solely online. But Cozey doesn’t want to be just a direct-to-consumer brand.
“Our long-term vision is nothing less than to become the world’s leading furniture retailer. We have lots of room to catch IKEA,” says Frédéric. “And if we want to be really good at it in 20 years, 25 years, 30 years, then let’s start learning today.”
Expanding into retail was something the team wanted to do for a long time, and the approvals of permits as well as construction of the space took Cozey longer than anticipated.
“It’s been a long journey. We’ve been thinking about it and working on the store concept and actual construction for over, like, a year and a half now,” shares Felix Robitaille, Cozey’s marketing director and one of Frédéric’s childhood friends.
Felix and Frédéric grew up together in Sherbrooke, Québec, where they played hockey and explored old abandoned buildings. Now, bringing things full circle, Cozey’s first store is located in a historic century-old building.
Listen to the first full episode of the series to hear more of Cozey’s founding story and how the team prepared for opening day.
An environment to experience the brand
Cozey’s store is situated in Toronto’s West Queen West neighborhood, an area dotted with boutique businesses, renowned restaurants, and craft cafés, and an ideal location for the city’s dwellers to stroll by and shop.
But Cozey’s goal isn’t about making in-store sales.
“We don’t want to force them to close a sale here in the store. That’s not the point,” explains Felix. “We want to focus on the experience. If you provide a great experience and a great product, then sales are going to follow naturally.”
A big part of that is the store design, which focuses on bringing Cozey’s online experience to life, from cloud-like window displays to mock living rooms.
“You’ll see inside the store, there are several rings, which are rounded rectangles that frame every setup of the store. And those are meant to sort of simulate what you would see in [our] ecommerce photography,” creative director Christine McPhee explains. “This symbolizes the fact that we’re a product-focused company, but we also tried to create these really warm, welcoming living room environments.”
Because Cozey’s store is set up to feel like a living room, instead of having a cash register, sales associates are equipped with iPads loaded with Shopify POS, allowing them to lounge with customers on different sofas while chatting or completing a purchase.
For more on how the Cozey team managed their first day running the retail store and how they provided the Cozey experience to customers, listen to the second episode of Road To Retail.
Testing and learning with Shopify POS
Before opening Cozey’s first brick-and-mortar, the brand’s team tested out retail with a pop-up.
In the summer of 2023, Cozey set up a small showroom in STACKT Market, an industrial complex near Toronto’s lakeshore. The area is filled with businesses and restaurants operating out of repurposed shipping containers.
“It [was] just experiential. We didn’t expect to make any sales, but it’s one sofa [on display] that you can come and try and discover Cozey,” recalls Frédéric.
The pop-up was a marketing opportunity. And, when the team initially launched it, they didn’t provide a way for customers to purchase pieces onsite. However, the consistent demand had store manager Taurean Scotland implement Shopify POS.
Cozey used Shopify POS to capture information from those who stopped by its pop-up, and was able to use that info for continued marketing and future sales, since one of the biggest advantages of Shopify POS is its ability to build out customer profiles and capture emails.
“I think in two days, not even, we were set up, capturing transactions, and ended up making hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in that container,” says Frédéric.
Taurean shares, “We use it as a source of email capture. So if customers wanted to order a swatch, we were able to use the POS as a way to track. And from there, you’re able to create a customer profile.”
Customer profiles, emails, and transaction data—from online to pop-up to brick-and-mortar—Shopify POS’s streamlined system brought simplicity to Cozey’s team.
As Frédéric says,“It’s simple for the customer, and it’s simple for our team. And it’s really the backbone of Cozey.”
For more on what Cozey learned from its pop-up and retail experience, check out the final episode of this limited series.
Every step on this road to retail journey, Cozey has leaned on Shopify to bring its experiences to customers. To learn more about how different tools and services from Shopify can help you on your own road to retail, check out Shopify POS.
