Is Wayfair legal? (all you must know)
If you’re shopping for furniture and/or household items, you can of course choose from in-store and online companies. You’ve probably heard of one such online retailer, Wayfair, whether it’s through targeted Facebook ads or ads on TV.
So, Wayfair appears to be a reputable company, but you might be wondering – is Wayfair legit? You are not alone. Here’s what you need to know!
Will Wayfair be legal in 2022?
Wayfair is a legitimate U.S. business headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with approximately 16,000 employees by 2022. Wayfair has been in business since 2002, during which time it has established itself as a prestigious online resource for furniture, homewares and appliances. That said, the company has been known to send damaged or defective products.
To learn more about Wayfair’s reliability, if furniture is considered good quality, why is it so cheap, even when Wayfair goes out of business, read on!
How reliable is Wayfair?
Wayfair is a very solid company that delivers on its promise of quality goods at low prices.
According to MGTBlog.com, Wayfair “won a number of awards that demonstrate its credibility.”
Additionally, they wrote, “You’ll find a lot of articles about Wayfair on Forbes… which also makes it a legitimate and trustworthy business.”
I have personally purchased a number of items from Wayfair, including large pieces of furniture such as sofas, pantries and mattresses, and I found them to be exactly as advertised.
Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of shopping with Wayfair to better help you realize that, despite Wayfair’s collapse, it is a reputable company.
advantage:
- There’s a huge variety of furniture, appliances, household items, decorations, and more – 14 million different items to be exact.
- An easy-to-use, well-organized website and app
- Good and cheap goods
- Wayfair keeps selling
- Free shipping on orders over $35
- Shipping was very fast (I found it to be faster than stated!)
- Replacement parts are shipped free of charge
- Expert assembly can be added to the order for a fee
- Wayfair credit card that you can use to earn points that can be converted into points on future orders
- 30-day return policy
Now, some disadvantages:
- There is no way of knowing what the product will actually look like or how it will look in your space until it arrives
- You will have to assemble most items as they won’t fit together
- Buyer pays return shipping
- When returning an item, it must be put back in its original packaging
- Customer service is not the best
- The item is known to arrive damaged, defective or missing
As you can see, the pros of shopping at Wayfair outweigh the cons, although the cons do have pros that should give you pause.
Clearly, though, the downside has nothing to do with Wayfair’s legitimacy or reliability.
Is Wayfair furniture good quality?
Wayfair sells furniture at a variety of price points, but even the cheaper items tend to be of better quality than you might think.
In fact, Wayfair does not manufacture any furniture or other merchandise it sells. Instead, they’re made by other companies and sold through Wayfair.
(This includes Wayfair-branded products, such as mattresses, that are made by another company and then given the Wayfair brand name.)
Therefore, the quality of the furniture depends on the individual manufacturer, not on Wayfair itself.
But is Wayfair furniture the same quality as handcrafted antique furniture? No, it’s unlikely.
But for what you pay, you should be able to use your Wayfair furniture for at least a few years, if not 5 to 10 years, depending on the item.
Why is Wayfair so cheap?
According to MGTGBlog.com, one of the main reasons Wayfair is able to sell things so cheaply is because it’s online-only.
Wayfair doesn’t need to pay salespeople because it doesn’t have the real estate (and all the maintenance associated with it) that Walmart or Target owns.
Also, I’d take a wild guess at the lower wholesale prices Wayfair negotiated with the manufacturer, and the company was able to pass on the savings to customers.
Where is Wayfair located?
Wayfair is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and by the way, the company was founded in August 2002.
It was founded by Niraj Shah and Steve Conine, both of whom attended Cornell University and previously founded two companies.
The “temporary headquarters” was at Corning’s nursery, but it didn’t take long to move to Newbury Street in Boston.
Its current headquarters is 4 Copley Square in Boston, but Wayfair has more than a dozen distribution centers in the U.S. and Europe.
Is Wayfair a Chinese company?
Wayfair is not a Chinese company as it was founded and maintains its global headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
However, Wayfair does not manufacture any of the products it sells, and as such, the manufacturing companies may have operations in China.
Take Laurel Foundry Modern Farmhouse’s Parrino coffee table, for example.
While it doesn’t say made in China anywhere on the product page, under the specs, there are other documents.
Among them, the Jiamei TSCA certificate proves that the product is produced by Guangxi Dongchang Wood Industry Co., Ltd.
Likewise, its location is in the Industrial Zone of Dasi Town, Qinzhou City, China.
Is Wayfair owned by Amazon?
Wayfair is not owned by Amazon, although the two companies do compete in furniture, homewares and home decor.
Wayfair was founded in 2002 as CSN Stores.
It actually operates five branded sites: Wayfair.com, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane and Perigold.
Wayfair’s board of directors is currently co-led by its founders Niraj Shah and Steven Conine, who also serve as co-chairs.
Will Wayfair go out of business?
Wayfair isn’t going out of business, as the company still reports $13.71 billion in revenue in 2021.
As of May 2022, however, Wayfair’s financials are in decline, with sales in the first quarter of 2022 down 14% from the same period in the first quarter of last year.
Orders from repeat customers fell 26%, and the number of active shoppers fell 23.4%.
Niraj Shah, Wayfair’s co-founder and co-chairman, was quick to assure investors that “we are well positioned to outperform and take share from the market.”
Additionally, he cited the company’s latest Way Day, the Prime Days version of Wayfair, as evidence that Wayfair isn’t going away anytime soon.
This year’s Way Day “includes two of the four biggest days in Wayfair’s entire history,” Shah said.
So while Wayfair still has cash on hand to continue operating, and in fact is planning to open brick-and-mortar stores soon, the company has to start performing better.
To learn more, you can also read our posts on Wayfair’s return policy, whether Wayfair is out of business, and Wayfair safety.
in conclusion
Wayfair is indeed a legitimate company that has been in business since 2002, expanded globally and even went public in 2014.
Still, the difference between 2021 and 2022 is huge, with Wayfair falling on every key metric; overall, the company needs to pick up the slack and get customers to buy again.
