Furniture.com back online

Computerworld - Eighteen months after filing for bankruptcy protection and shutting its virtual doors, Furniture.com is relaunching its online-only furniture store this week under new management.
The new group, which purchased the Furniture.com domain name in October, is made up of former Furniture.com employees, including Carl Prindle, president of the new company. Prindle declined to say how much the group paid for the Furniture.com domain name.
Unlike its predecessor, which was backed by Andover, Mass.-based CMGI Inc., the new Furniture.com won't warehouse and sell its own products. Instead, Prindle said, the Waltham, Mass.-based company has partnered with brick-and-mortar furniture retailers Levitz Furniture Corp. and Seaman Furniture Co., both in Woodbury, N.Y., and will sell their inventories.
"We will receive a commission for all furniture sold through our site," Prindle said.
The former Furniture.com succumbed to the same problems as many of its dot-com brethren: lack of a viable business plan and interested investors (see story).
Prindle said the goal of the revamped Furniture.com is to make furniture shopping more enjoyable for consumers and, ultimately, to offer them products from numerous retailers.
"We're planning to aggregate products from other retailers in addition to Levitz and Seaman," Prindle said. "And they'll be shipped within seven to 10 days."
Prindle said Furniture.com will take orders on its Web site and transfer them to its partners for delivery. In addition, he said, Levitz and Seaman will eventually have links to Furniture.com on their Web sites.
He said Furniture.com will offer consumers access to an online furniture magazine and allow consumers to design a room online, pulling in products offered by its partners.
Related stories:

• E-Commerce chronicles: Buying furniture online, Jan. 14, 2002


• CMGI reaffirms commitment to @Ventures, March 9, 2001


• Lack of funding forces more online retailers to shut down, Nov. 13, 2000