Sabai's Phantila Phataraprasit on building a sustainable furniture brand from the ground up

For direct-to-consumer furniture brand Sabai, sustainability reigns.

The brand, which launched in the summer of 2019, and saw a growth spike in both 2020 and 2021 -- much of which was spurred by the pandemic-induced home boom. According to co-founder and CEO Phantila Phataraprasit, much of its growth was thanks to increased interest in sustainability.

Sabai's products -- which range from sofas to ottomans -- are all produced with sustainability in mind. [Sustainability] can be in so many different things and be applied to so many different aspects of a business model," said Phatarapsit. "We try to apply it to every single aspect." She joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's growth.

Sabai sources recycled material for all its products, as well as uses plastic-free shipping. The brand also just launched a buy-back program in the hopes of making it possible for its used products to not be thrown out.

According to Phataraprasit, this has resonated with customers. "We maybe didn't appreciate how much people throughout the country care about sustainability," she said. She had originally thought Sabai would be popular in places like New York and Los Angeles, but it turns out people in smaller even suburban areas were also interested.

Now, the hope is to grow and get the word out even more. Phataraprasit spoke about Sabai's social media plan -- which includes using its Instagram following for product research, while also investing in other smaller, visually-driven advertising channels like Pinterest. The idea with all of Sabai's social content is to build a brand that customers clearly understand its point of view and values.

"The community that we had on Instagram was very much part of [our product development] process," she said.