Furniture.Com: Turning Visitors Into Buyers

Andrew Brooks, president and CEO of Furniture.com Inc., wants his customers to feel pampered--as if they'd just nestled onto one of the plum-colored velvet slipcovers he's selling. That's why two-year-old Furniture.com overhauled its service in January, adding software and computing power so the company can collect more telling information on its customers. Brooks is betting this will lead to products and personalized services that convince his clientele to snap up everything from Shaker tables to Frank Lloyd Wright lamps.

It has been a pretty good bet. For starters, after analyzing Web surfers' behavior on his site, Brooks found that a high number of visitors were interested in sofas costing $700 to $1,100. The problem was, they decided not to buy when they clicked over and learned that delivery would take up to 12 weeks. So the company persuaded a designer to come up with new couches, available in July, that can be delivered within three weeks of an order.