A Furniture Business by the Numbers
What furniture models does our company actually sell? By the numbers! The results might surprise you…
I was reviewing our sales numbers today for the calendar year to date, and I thought it would be fun to share what I found. One of the things that I enjoy about running a furniture company is the intersection of craft and artistry with business. I like that I get to think about both things every day. So I figure I would crack open the hood of the business and share what I found because, well, I think it is interesting!
First some ground rules!
1. I’m ignoring our smaller products that sell for under $100.00, they don’t really affect our bottom line in a big way, and they would skew these rankings, so I dropped them.
2. The “Showstopper” model is too new to be included in these rankings, but keep an eye on how things progress next year. It is quickly climbing the revenue ladder.
3. These rankings are going to be agnostic to wood type/finish, but I will share more on that at the end.
4. Custom work is a big part of what we do, but I’ve left it off this list because it doesn’t fit cleanly. If we lumped all custom work together, it would probably be our 3rd highest revenue source.
Product Rankings
Sales rankings by volume (Number of units sold)
1. The “Soundcheck” Record Crate
2. The “Sidekick”
3. The “A-side”
4. The “Headliner”
5. The “Double Sidekick”
6. The “Encore”
7. The “B-side”
Sales rankings by revenue.
1. The “Headliner”
2. The “A-side”
3. The “Sidekick”
4. The “Double Sidekick”
5. The “Soundcheck” Record Crate
6. The “Encore”
7. The “B-side”
Very interesting! So what does that tell us?
Well, our larger ticket items tend to drive more revenue than the smaller ones, but actually, we have a pretty decent spread. The volume we sell of the “Sidekick” and the “Soundcheck” makes them an important part of our revenue pie, despite being our lowest-priced pieces.
In fact, while I didn’t share the raw sales numbers, I’ll let you know that everything falls into a pretty reasonable grouping. The “Encore,” consistently in 6th place, is still a solid seller — and it's hot on the heels of 4th and 5th place. That actually makes sense for the “Encore,” since it stores audio gear or a turntable, so people don’t often buy multiples like they might with our vinyl LP storage pieces like the “Sidekick” or “Double Sidekick,” which often sell in multiples or to repeat customers.
In that same sense, the “Encore” can become redundant if someone buys an “A-side” or a “Headliner,” because those likely fill the same role. So, 6th place makes sense here!
The only real outlier is the “B-side,” which consistently trails behind. Still, the “B-side” is an OK seller — we ship out plenty! It’s unique because it’s our lowest-height piece. The data shows that it’s often sold alone, as a standalone piece. That makes sense: it doesn’t pair quite as naturally with our other items, but it fits into spaces where others can’t. It’s more out of the way, lower to the ground. So I’m glad it’s part of our lineup — it fills a niche that nothing else does.
As promised, this was a wood-type-agnostic list — but if you're curious, the ratio of Walnut & Brass sales to White Oak is 8:1.
Yes, we sell eight times as many Walnut & Brass pieces as anything else — it’s truly our signature look.
Author: Peter Huizenga
Peter is the owner of Sidetracked Workshop, and one of the passionate craftspeople here that makes timeless vinyl record storage furniture. He lives and works in Portland, OR