Yesterday, online furniture and homewares marketplace Temple & Webster revealed it has tripled in the past two years – growing first half sales a massive 218 per cent compared to the same period of FY20. Much of the growth has come from the expanding amount of pies the business has its fingers in: from its furniture and homewares sales, to home improvement (which grew 95 per cent) and a growing B2B offering.However, the primary reason the business has done so well through the pandemic is Temple & Webster’s team. “I think the reason we’ve been able to do so much better than many of our peers in our category is because of the resilience and agility, as well as the flexibility and commitment, of our team,” Temple & Webster chief executive Mark Coulter told Inside Retail. “We’ve had to change frequently over the last 10 years, so agility and flexibility has kind of been built into our culture. We always say to expect change, and if you don’t like change, don’t work for us.”An openness to change and growth opportunities is critical to doing business in the modern world, Coulter said, and is one of his key takeaways from operating through the pandemic. In saying that, having the right team is only half the battle. A business also needs to have a product to sell, and Temple & Webster has been heavily investing in making its business as strong as possible.“We’re investing to improve our range, adding new sourcing capabilities, drop-shipping capabilities, and we’re still investing heavily in technology,” Coulter said. Temple & Webster is also investing in more ‘sophisticated’ personalisation options, as well as 3D product images and augmented reality, in order to keep ahead of technological trends. Initiatives launched last year, such as the business’ ‘mood board’ system (which offers a customer a consultation with a stylist resulting in a personalised moodboard, recommended room layout and shopping list), have been expanded to more parts of the business. “[That system] has led to an improved conversion rate, and has had an impact on average order value,” Coulter said. “Customers that interact with it definitely have a great experience, and their items per basket is quite a bit higher than our average.”The keys to Temple & Webster’s successIn general, Coulter said the last few years had been a ‘wild ride’ for Temple & Webster, but that its growth wasn’t simply due to the fact that it was in the right place at the right time. As he sees it, there are three reasons for the business’ success. The first is the furniture and homewares market itself, which has seen elevated spending due to consumers’ inability to travel and a desire to redirect that spend into their own homes. Second, the business’ growth has largely come from the transformation of the retail industry from largely offline to largely online, argued Coulter, which is a demographic shift which is independent of trends such as consumer confidence and an inability to travel. And finally, Temple & Webster’s success is due to its constant focus on increasing its customer proposition.“It’s due to all the things we’re doing to strengthen Temple & Webster’s market share, and to make sure that we’re doing a better job than our competitors,” Coulter said. “It’d say our growth is a result of those last two factors more so than any temporary increase or decrease in the market.”Supply chains improvingOne of the main reasons sceptics were initially wary of online furniture retail was that customers wouldn’t want to buy large, bulky items without first seeing them in person. The pandemic essentially eliminated that argument, with homewares and furniture consistently being one of the highest growth sectors of online retail. However, with more people shopping online, and more people getting Covid-19, Australia’s supply chains have come under pressure.“The last couple of years have been marked with periods where there have been delays in getting items to customers, and that’s all due to Covid,” Coulter said. “If a depot gets knocked out because a worker tested positive for Covid, or truck drivers have higher absenteeism because of Covid, it definitely makes our job harder.“In saying that, it’s starting to work itself out. Different states are taking different views on Omicron. In NSW, where they’re taking a more pragmatic view, businesses don’t necessarily need to close down in those situations anymore.”