David Light has had over four decades of experience in the corporate environment, the last 20 years of which he served in various consultancy organisations in an executive management role. But he also has a connection with the furniture industry, with his family having been in the business for generations. Eventually, David made his way into the furniture industry, albeit through a different circumstance, alongside an opportunity that presented itself.
“My son, Adam, had previously started an online business using a dropship model in the home category in 2011, for which I helped him with the business’s technical, financial and marketing aspects,” David relates. “By early 2014, we identified that a pure play online retailer using a dropship model was unsustainable unless scaled substantially.”
It was then they decided to look towards furniture as a means to scale the business. The father-and-son team first trialled Scandinavian-designed furniture manufactured to their specifications in Adam’s prior business, resulting in an immediate and incredibly positive response. This would lead to the establishment of the business IconByDesign, which was launched in 2015, and the opening of two physical stores in Sydney and Melbourne.
IconByDesign was founded on the principles of authentic design based on a clean, minimal, timeless and elegant Scandinavian mid-century aesthetic. The brand has a focus on sustainable and artisan manufacturing, solid wood and sustainable materials, at a price point that overcomes the challenges of Australian manufacturing and global brand distribution infrastructures. Staying true to these principles has helped the business achieve a great deal of success in such a short period.
With IconByDesign’s burgeoning success in Australia, David and Adam were thinking of what could be next for the business, with the idea of expanding overseas looming large in their minds. “We have known since the start that our offering and business model are received well, and Adam and I wanted to explore other markets to continue the growth trend of IconByDesign,” David explained. Eventually, they set their sights on the US market, for the potential to achieve success while focusing on a single market.
Anticipating the challenges ahead, David sought advice on the specifics relating to business establishment, legal framework, selection of business locations, tariffs and tax structures, business systems and processes, supply chain and warehouse operations, and marketing relationships. “We initially engaged with a consulting firm to validate the requirements for launch of the business and quickly pivoted to identifying key suppliers for our US business,” he relates. “We could lean on them for support around what was needed to use each of their services and ultimately launch into this new market.”
Another challenge for the pair was deciding where to open their first showroom in the US, as they knew very well from their Australian experience the importance of physical stores to support the online business. “One gets a multiplier effect between online and physical stores [because stores provide] our customers the opportunity to experience our furniture in person before purchasing. This is an important part of the customer journey when purchasing high-quality furniture,” David explains. It was decided that the first store would be located in the Los Angeles area. It took over a year to secure the specific location at the HD Buttercup Design Center in Culver City.
There is also the challenge of ensuring a consistent brand experience in both the Australian and US retail markets, as the pair recognises the need to be mindful of the different market requirements and cultures of each location. For this, IconByDesign ran different marketing campaigns and used different language to articulate the brand in each market. “For example, to align with the Southern Californian clientele, we referred to our products as ‘Australian Coastal’ as opposed to Scandinavian, as we found this better resonated in the US market,” David shares.
Over the past year, the brand has undergone an alignment across the two markets and now bears a consistent brand appearance and experience in both markets. “It has been a great learning and growth exercise for IconByDesign as a whole,” David says.
“We were able to execute a refreshed brand and store layout that has worked well in the US market and we are bringing this back to our Australian business and retail stores. Having a US operation provides natural hedging, since we purchase in US currency and we gain an advantage due to greater volume.”
With a consistent identity in place and having achieved success in both Australia and the US, IconByDesign is looking towards further growth. On the Australian front, the business is looking to solidify its position in the market, with plans for a third Australian store next year. In the US, the brand looks to further establish its presence in the key California market, with plans to open more stores as the market recovers.
“We are also focusing on growing our product range and the depth of our offering, so we are very much looking forward to the next few years of growth for IconByDesign,” David adds.
This article first appeared in issue 46 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
