The Container Store cleans up with a Netflix series
The Container Store experienced record sales over the past few months and the revenue spike is being attributed to a partnership with Netflix that has paid off big time.
The Container Store’s products are featured on Netflix’s series — “Get Organized with The Home Edit” — aimed at helping viewers get their homes in order, according to Cheddar. In September, when the show debuted, the retailer experienced a sales increase of 17.8 percent and elevated sales continued into October.
The show features the two founders of The Home Edit, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, helping clients, including celebrities, declutter and organize their homes. Ms. Shearer and Ms. Teplin use a line of home organizing products by The Container Store created specifically for the show. The Container Store’s e-commerce business was up 86 percent in the second quarter.
Some critics have been less than thrilled with the show itself and its product marketing focus, which New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka says turns the program into an “elaborate infomercial” rather than entertaining television.
If the show is an elaborate infomercial, it is one that seems to have appeared at the right time. People are spending more time at home than ever due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and, in some cases, have more time to spend on addressing long put-off home-related tasks and projects.
“Get Organized with The Home Edit” isn’t the only Netflix series geared towards home decluttering to have an impact on U.S. consumer habits.
In early 2019, the series “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” had fans of the show looking not so much at what brands they were using as which ones they were not. Promoting the “KonMari” method of home organization, Ms. Kondo encouraged viewers to rid themselves of clutter in the form of products they owned that did not “spark joy.” This led to a nationwide spike in donations to thrift stores and speculation that categories like fast-fashion, built around disposable, short-shelf life products, would take a hit.
Ms. Kondo is also getting her own product line in another Netflix/Container Store tie-in, according to the KonMari website. The Container Store x KonMari collection will consist of 100 organizing tools made of premium, sustainably-sourced materials like bamboo and recycled fiberboard. The assortment will be released online and in stores in January 2021.