Industry E-tail Founded 2000 Parent organization Wolseley plc | Website www.build.com Number of employees 500 | |
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Formerly called Improvement Direct, Inc Founder Christian Friedland, David Boctor Products Plumbing, Lighting, Hardware, Appliances Brands FaucetDirect.com, LightingDirect.com, Handlesets.com, VentingDirect.com Headquarters Chico, California, United States Profiles | ||
Build.com is an online home improvement retailer. The company began selling faucets online in 2000, and now sells many other home improvement products with a focus on plumbing, lighting, hardware and appliances.
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History
Chris Friedland and David Boctor started Build.com in 2000, and since then the company has grown to the third largest online home improvement retailer in the United States, directly competing with giants such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Amazon.
The company began as a Chico State masters project focusing on developing an online business and initially concentrated on selling plumbing products online. Friedland worked at a local plumbing business, Slakey Brothers, at the time and saw the need and opportunity for growth. Faucetdirect.com, the first site, was launched out of Friedland’s apartment and had a total of 3 employees, who built it from the ground up, while helping customers and selling products at the same time. Build.com has since expanded its categories to include plumbing, lighting, HVAC, power tools, hardware, appliances, flooring and, most recently, home decor.
Over the past 15 years, the company’s name has changed twice: from improvementdirect.com in 2006, to Build.com in 2010. In 2007, Build.com was sold to Wolseley Int., the world’s largest trade distributor of plumbing and heating products. This gave rise to a symbiotic relationship with their new sister company, Ferguson Ent.
Since its inception, Build has always focused on the customer experience. When customers call into Build.com, they speak with product experts at the Chico facility, who are trained in every category within the company, from plumbing, lighting and flooring to door/cabinet hardware and ventilation. Each person within the facility has a unique name, making it easy for customers to contact and work with the same person for current and future projects. These product experts also offer support before and after any sales to assist each customer completely.
In 2009 Build.com launched its professional program aimed at providing building professionals the highest service level in the industry. Professionals are partnered with a highly trained account manager who helps run every aspect of their project. Combined with their professional pricing, Build.com gives pros a competitive edge. Professionals can also direct their customers to their own account manager in order to assist the customer with the planning and purchasing process for their home remodel.
Build.com currently employs 550 people at its headquarters in Chico, California. Build.com’s main goal has always been to simplify home improvement. As a pure-play e-commerce site, it can provide more products, finishes and quantities than brick-and-mortar stores, and ships in all 50 states, as well as Canada. As of 2014, it finished the calendar year with a record breaking half a billion dollars in sales.
About the company
Build.com employs approximately 490 people (at July 2015), and is a subsidiary of Wolseley (builders' merchant).
Build.com has received coverage in Internet Retailer Magazine.
Since 2007, Build.com has been named in the Internet Retailer Magazine’s annual Top 500 List of online retailers