Spurred by pandemic, Durham e-commerce startup Spoonflower plans hiring spree
Like many e-commerce startups, Spoonflower, a Durham-based company that sells custom fabrics online, thrived during the pandemic.
With in-person shopping curtailed by the pandemic and shoppers reticent to go to crowded stores, many turned to online sales for the first time. For Spoonflower, which sells fabrics from wallpaper to pillow covers, it meant attracting hosts of new customers who had never shopped for fabrics online before.
Customer behavior essentially changed in a matter of weeks, Spoonflower CEO Michael Jones recalled. What started out as moderate growth last January turned into rapid growth by the end of the spring.
Growth that would have take three to five years to reach before the pandemic was accomplished in just one year, he said. The 12-year-old company ended up having a record year in 2020, growing sales by 162%.
“It’s been less of a bump and more of an acceleration,” Jones said in a telephone interview. “And it has continued in 2021.”
That growth is now translating into tangible gains for the company. On Tuesday, Spoonflower said it is opening a new manufacturing space in the Tri-Center South industrial park in Durham.
The new facility — where Cree LED light bulbs were once made — is quite an upgrade from the old one. The company will go from 25,000 square feet of manufacturing space to 110,000 square feet.
Jones said the quadrupling of space not only allows the company to give employees more room to socially distance, but also room to add more machinery and new products. That will help it deliver items to customers faster and allow it to sell new types of fabrics, like for apparel.
“We have had a lot of request for more apparel products, so that people can make clothing,” Jones said. “And for more fabrics for home products.”
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A rise in homemade goods
Spoonflower lets artists upload their own designs to its platform, making it easier for them to create custom products. The company also launched a recycled canvas that can be used for outdoor pillows.
In the past year, Spoonflower has benefited from a rise in small businesses and individuals rushing to sell homemade goods online via Shopify, Etsy and other platforms, Jones said.
Fabric for masks has become incredibly in demand, for example, with individuals on Etsy selling more than $300 million worth of masks last year, the company reported.
“You have seen more mom-and-pop stores pop up “ Jones said. “It’s almost like there’s been a renaissance in the creative space.”
To manage the company’s growth, Jones said, Spoonflower plans to go on a hiring spree. The company currently has around 350 employees working in Durham.
Spoonflower will hire around 100 employees in the coming months, across all positions: from marketing and engineering to customer service and sewists.
Sewists, in particular, are a strong need for the company, Jones added. It currently employs 31 of them, and it hopes to bring in around 20 more.
Spoonflower has raised $25 million from investors in the past, according to venture capital tracker Crunchbase.
Could it be in the market to raise more money in the near future? Jones said it’s a possibility.
“We are able to run off our profits and the money we have raised before,” Jones said. “But as we look forward, we will certainly explore those options. We really think this is a time for growth.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
