Furniture e-commerce specialist Article is moving further into physical retail.
The digital-first brand will open its second location in Toronto, and it’s first in the city.
The store will be located downtown at West House, a mixed-use development at Bathurst Street and King Street West that features luxury rental residences. This area of the city is one of the most walkable and design-forward, known for modern condo living and vibrant retail.
The 9,600-square-foot showroom will feature curated vignettes, an extensive swatch library, free interior design services and a dedicated children’s area. It’s aimed at Greater Toronto Area shoppers looking for modern, well-designed furniture at accessible prices.
The company says it selected Toronto, as it’s currently one of Article’s strongest e-commerce markets in North America.
The new store announcement reflects a shift away from Article’s original online-only strategy. For more than a decade, the company succeeded through this model to become a leading furniture e-tailer. Since launching more than a decade ago, Article has delivered nearly three million orders to customers across Canada and the United States.
The Toronto furniture store builds on the success of Article’s first-ever physical retail location in Vancouver, designed to test and refine its brick-and-mortar strategy. The company says the Vancouver store has surpassed expectations since opening in August 2024, with in-store average order values exceeding online by more than 20 per cent.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen how physical retail can deepen customer connections and strengthen our presence in key markets,” says Article co-founder and CEO Aamir Baig. “As we expand, we’ll focus on store locations in North American cities where e-commerce performance is already strong, using retail to build on that momentum and make it easier to experience Article in person.”
The Toronto furniture store is expected to open later this year, with U.S. market entry to follow and up to five total locations planned by early 2027.
Article is Canada’s largest online merchant specializing in furniture. The brand’s product assortment is focused on contemporary, mid-century and Scandinavian style categories. It covers living room, dining room, bedroom, home office and outdoor furniture, supported by home decor and accessories like area rugs, lamps, bedding and storage pieces.
Baig, along with Fraser Hall, Sam Prochazka and his brother Andy — all software engineers by training — launched the then-pure play e-commerce brand at the end of 2013, driven by the belief that a digital-first approach could improve and modernize the furniture-buying experience, which they saw as antiquated and not particularly beneficial to the consumer.
The partners started by looking at inefficiencies that existed in the traditional retail model. They discovered that by forgoing brick-and-mortar, they could offer a quality of product that was unrivalled for the price, streamline shipping and deliver a remarkably better experience.
“We were confident we could make beautiful, high-quality furniture accessible,” Baig told Home Goods Online in 2018, reflecting on the first five years in business.
Despite being a Canadian company, the majority of Article’s sales come for the United States. While there are differences between peak shopping periods, the sales mix between the two countries is roughly in line with their respective populations, suggesting Canada accounts for about 10 per cent of revenue.