Eva has experienced over 690% growth rate between financial years 2017 and 2022, servicing over 70,000 customers to date while remaining bootstrapped and profitable year-on-year. From hiring its first employee after six months of launching, Eva now has 25 employees spanning product design and development, marketing, supply chain and customer support.
“Having launched as a single product offering with our award-winning mattress-in-a-box, Eva has expanded into the rest of the home by diversifying into furniture and home furnishings,” Eva founder, Amanda Niu told Retailbiz in a recent interview.
“This has resulted in a 553% growth rate in returning customers since 2017, suggesting a strong customer retention rate and a growing community of advocates. As our product offering expanded, we saw the need to change how we told our brand story. We’ve conducted two significant rebrands since launching, having recently completed a brand refresh we started 10 months ago.
“Having been a pureplay retailer since launch, this year we dabbled in retail with a successful four-day pop-up store on Chapel Street in June. We are now running another pop-up at 181 Brunswick Street in Melbourne from Friday 10th to Tuesday 14th November. Our eyes are now set on expanding into retail further, creating a true omnichannel experience for the Australian market.”
Commitment to sustainability
Initially, Eva was donating returned mattresses to charity as a way to do good and give back to the community. However, after a couple of years, the company switched its focus to sustainability, creating products that last for years while minimising the impact on the planet.
After over a year spent in the rigorous application process, Eva is one of only eight furniture companies in Australia that is a certified B Corp. “We’ve always wanted to do good for our customers and to ensure that we are conscious about the decisions we make from micro to macro level. Certifying as a B Corp means that we can continue to keep making an impact but now with the esteemed company of other industry leaders. It’s also added to the brand’s credibility and story,” Niu said.
“We’ve also launched Reloved, a range of near-new products whose first owners found they weren’t quite the right fit. We believe second-hand furniture can still be high quality, so our goal is to find these products their forever home, at a discounted price.”
Combined with a focus on customer experience and B Corp certification, Eva is doing something that no other furniture and home brand is – slow, sustainable and high quality design, delivered fast.
“All Eva products are designed in-house and take between 12 and 18 months to develop. We use this time to undertake extensive customer and market research, as well as prototype user testing to ensure all products reach product-market-fit. This means only two to three products are launched every year.”
Since 2019, Eva has won three Good Design awards and is the first Australian company to win a Gold Good Design award for a sofa bed. Eva has also won a Red Dot award, recognised as Finder’s Best Mattress under $1,000, and was a top 10 finalist on season four of Australia by Design: Innovations (Episode 6). We have an average 4.8-star out of 5 rating across all of our products with more than 4,000 customer reviews.”
Pictured: Eva founders, Amanda & Ken Niu.