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ecommercia

Vintage & antique

Cataloguing one-of-a-kind inventory on Chairish and 1stDibs

A vintage furniture dealer could photograph faster than they could list. Two specialists took over cataloguing, attribution and shipping classification entirely.

United StatesOngoing — 8 weeks to steady stateIllustrative exampleChairish1stDibs

Illustrative example: this engagement is written to show how a team is shaped, what the work involves and how outcomes are reported. Names and figures are representative, not client data. Ask for a live reference on a discovery call.

180/week

Items catalogued

Steady-state throughput

3:1 → 1:1

Photography to listing ratio

2 channels

Run in parallel

The problem

Challenge

  • Single-quantity inventory with no possibility of bulk upload
  • Period and maker attribution requiring genuine domain knowledge
  • Per-item shipping classification affecting margin at checkout
  • A photography pipeline outrunning the listing pipeline three to one

What we did differently

Approach

  1. 01

    Train on attribution first

    Three weeks of supervised training on period, style and maker identification before anyone published. Misattribution is worse than a slow listing.

  2. 02

    Build a house style for condition

    A shared vocabulary for condition reporting made listings consistent and cut buyer questions materially.

  3. 03

    Classify shipping at listing time

    Parcel, blanket-wrap or freight decided as part of cataloguing rather than after a sale, protecting margin.

“Nobody wants to catalog one-of-a-kind furniture at volume. Their team does it properly.”

Head of Ecommerce, Halcyon Home

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