Made.com

Made.com was born from a simple question: why does designer furniture have to cost a fortune? Ning Li, a Chinese entrepreneur with luxury sector experience, and Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, understood that the traditional furniture supply chain — designer, wholesaler, distributor, retailer — multiplied the cost of a product three or four times before it arrived in a living room. By cutting out the middlemen and selling directly online, Made could offer authentic design at democratic prices. The model was elegant in its architecture. Made worked with emerging designers paying royalties, produced in Asia on order (limiting inventory risk), and shipped directly to consumers. The website had a curated aesthetic, the marketing campaigns were sophisticated. The promise was 'great design for real people' — not Ikea, but not Heal's either. During the pre-pandemic years of digital growth, the model worked. Made expanded across Europe — France, Germany, Benelux, Italy, Spain — becoming one of the continent's largest D2C furniture retailers. The 2020 pandemic initially seemed like a windfall: people stuck at home were investing heavily in their interiors, and Made was perfectly positioned to capture that demand. This is where the seeds of crisis were planted. Like almost all furniture retailers, Made ramped up orders in advance to meet growing demand. But global supply chains seized up: containers were scarce, ports congested, Asian factories shutting down for COVID. Products ordered months in advance were stuck for months, some for a full year. The result was paradoxical: Made had warehouses full of merchandise it couldn't deliver, and customers waiting eight, ten, twelve months for sofas. Trustpilot reviews collapsed. Negative word-of-mouth spread. And when the logistics crisis finally began to resolve — in 2022 — demand had already turned. With inflation and the energy crisis, consumers were no longer buying new furniture. Made found itself trapped: enormous stock it couldn't sell, margins eroded by cost inflation, and a customer base that had lost trust. The LSE listing in June 2021 — 16 months before the bankruptcy — proved the worst possible timing to go public. The stock price fell 85% in months. In October 2022, Made announced it was seeking investors or an acquirer. It found none. On November 1, 2022, it appointed administrators. Next, the British retailer, acquired the brand, domain and designs for £3.4 million — less than Made's quarterly advertising budget in its glory years. All employees lost their jobs.