Her biggest success was upholstery fabric. Forgot to mention she did a decent amount of wallpaper, probably 15% of her business. Furniture was a very very small portion. I don't think there was much overlap other then both businesses being designy but her store was a furniture showroom. Her sales were nationwide. I think she took a lot of business from interior designers who would sell at a high markup to customers.
As a frequent importer I think the most important thing she built was a relationship with her supply chain in China which was likely unique and an understanding of prices and quality in the industry. Her intimate product knowledge is the biggest difference between her and a normal dropshipper.
It was early days and I think she just had about 200k different fabrics and wallpapers and ruled SEO or at least got a decent chunk. She probably did well because of the bulk import of products. I am not sure but I think all of the warehouses were in the US. We didn't talk to anyone in China. We placed orders through distributors that sold to retail stores. The brands I remember were Duralee, F.S. Schumacher, Ralph Lauren, and others I forget. Customers knew what they wanted, usually from an interior designers recommendation. We could just send them a swatch of a specific run of fabric or wallpaper. It was always messy though because it was almost impossible to guarantee the swatch would match the actual product delivered. Every run of a product is slightly different. It's why people buy extra carpet or wallpaper for high traffic corridors to be replaced early.
