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Deerfield Furniture Mart: a furniture warehouse you can shop from your couch

A family-owned furniture warehouse near Chicago selling new and gently used pieces at 40-70% off retail. Its new online store, in development now, shows what is actually on the floor, grades every piece honestly, and prices it with the tax already in.

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In development
By Patryk Szady and Joshua Simmons
Deerfield Furniture Mart home page: "Good furniture. Warehouse prices.", a count of what is in stock right now, and a sleeper sectional priced at $1,600

Deerfield Furniture Mart opened in Deerfield, Illinois, in 2020 and now fills a warehouse in Prospect Heights: new and gently used furniture at 40-70% off retail, from retailer liquidations, American makers and the family's own imports. It is the kind of place people love once they find it. The new site's job is to let them find it — and shop it — before they get in the car.

What is on the floor, right now

The home page opens with how many listings are in stock today, and every room on it says how many it has. The shop shows only what can actually be bought unless you ask to see the rest, so nobody drives out for a couch that sold last week. Search takes a room, a brand or a color.

The Sectionals page: 37 pieces in stock, filters for condition and price, and photos of three sectionals with their prices
Sectionals on the day we took this: in stock only by default, with filters for condition and price.

Every piece graded, every price with the tax in

Warehouse furniture arrives in every state, from still boxed to well loved, so the store grades each piece — New, Like New, Used or Fair — and prices it to match. The same model can be on the floor in two grades at two prices, and the listing lets you choose. A Condition Guide explains each grade with a drawing, and shows real photos of pieces on the floor now. And every price already includes Illinois sales tax, which is the store's promise: no surprises at checkout.

The Condition Guide: four grades, New, Like New, Used and Fair, from least wear to lowest price, beside where the furniture comes from
The Condition Guide: four grades from least wear to lowest price, and where the stock comes from.

A checkout that works the way the store does

Pickup is free, and they will help you load. Delivery is never guessed online: the checkout takes the address and the store calls with the exact quote, by distance and stairs, before charging it. You can pay when you collect, or spread the cost over time. When a piece has sold out, "Notify me when it's back" takes an email or a phone number, so the shoppers who asked are the first to hear when the store restocks it.

Two small things we like. "Text this listing" sends a piece, with its price and link, to whoever you are furnishing with, in one tap on a phone. And the cart is honest: it says pieces are not held until you check out, and quietly drops anything that sold in the meantime, so nobody pays for a couch that is gone.

Selling, too

The store started with used furniture and still buys it. "Sell us furniture" is one tap away on every page, in the header on a computer and at the top of the menu on a phone: send a few photos, or text them, and the store makes an offer.

The Sell us furniture page: "Give your couch another life", with a Get an offer button and a number to text photos to
"Give your couch another life." Selling to the store starts with a few photos from your phone.

Run from the same admin

When it launches, the owners will run it from the same admin as every site here, which gained two screens a shop needs: Products, where each piece carries its lots by condition and count, and Orders, the store's online orders with their pickup or delivery details.

Moving over, and what is next

The old store had to be rebuilt from the outside: there was no access to its code or its database, so the catalog was carried over from its pages — products, photos and categories — and every old link is mapped so it keeps working after the switch. The new store is in development now and takes over deerfieldfurnituremart.com when the domain is switched. In the meantime we are testing a planner for its Modular Cloud Couch, where you arrange the pieces yourself, see the result in 3D and share the layout by link.

What we would point out

  • What is in stock today, with sold pieces out of the way
  • Four honest condition grades, each at its own price, with the tax already in
  • A checkout that matches the store: free pickup, delivery quoted by a person, pay when you collect
  • Restock alerts, one-tap sharing and selling to the store, all from a phone

Have a business that needs a website run properly?

We take on a small number of sites — ones we design, run and keep improving, with the people who built them a message away.

You will reach Patryk Szady and Joshua Simmons directly.