Dive Brief:

• Following a year of heightened demand in the home category, direct-to-consumer bedding brand Parachute on Wednesday announced it has expanded into furniture.
• The DTC company will begin selling bed frames, marking its sixth category expansion in the last three years, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
• The bed frame collection is available in Parachute's stores and online. The brand expects to release additional furniture items in early 2022.

Dive Insight:

Both e-commerce and the home sector of retail experienced heightened demand over the past year as the pandemic forced many consumers to stay put. Positioned at the intersection of these two categories, DTC bedding brand Parachute stood to gain.

The company has been on the move over the past few years. Parachute in January inked a partnership with Crate and Barrel for a six-month, exclusive collection, which included sheets, throw pillows, bath towels, blankets, duvets and mattresses. The partnership allowed the brand to enter 65 of Crate and Barrel's stores, expanding its physical footprint — something that has become an important part of direct-to-consumer brands' overall strategies as the costs to acquire customers exclusively online become prohibitively high.

But Parachute has been growing its own brick-and-mortar footprint as well. At the start of the year, the brand operated 10 stores and expects to triple that by the end of 2022, to 30 locations, according to details provided by the company. Additionally, in cities where Parachute runs a store, the brand said it has a 50% higher online conversion rate.

And after a year of growth in the home category, the brand said it has been experiencing "accelerated growth," and expects 65% year-over-year growth in 2021.

The category expansion into bed frames is a natural extension for Parachute, which in 2014 got its start selling linens and has since added mattresses, pillows and duvet inserts, among other things. The company said it received feedback from "thousands" of customers in favor of a furniture offering, opening the opportunity for it to move into the category.

The bed frames come in three upholstered styles — Canyon, Dune and Horizon — and range in price from $1,800 to $3,050.

"Our customers consistently ask us for recommendations for bed frames after they see our photos on social media and on the website so our entrance into furniture is an answer to this obvious customer demand," Ariel Kaye, founder and CEO of Parachute, said in a statement. "We wanted to design our inaugural bed frames using the fabric we know best — linen. This small, distinct line of upholstered bed frames were created to help our customers complete the Parachute bed of their dreams. Each piece is versatile, livable and made of the best quality materials."