By Maria Cook
Parker Gwen LLC, a Zionsville-based e-commerce furniture and home décor startup, has has partnered with Indianapolis-based Kittles Furniture, which has eight Indiana stores.
Parker Gwen LLC was founded in 2017 by Matthew Phillips of Zionsville and Tiffanie Rosencranz of Crown Point. Phillips said his background in retail led him to pursue e-commerce furniture sales.
“I’ve been in retail my whole career. When I graduated from school, I moved up to Minnesota where Best Buy is located,” he said. “I stayed there nine years, then I left Best Buy to join Groupon in Chicago, then the way I got down to the Indianapolis area is I was part of a new management team to try to turn around H.H. Greg in their last year. We created Parker Gwen to create a digital experience, focused on a little bit better quality for consumers.
“When you look at Amazon or Wayfair, those type of online retailers, they have a massive assortment of options, but the reality is a lot of those options are poor quality or off-trend. So, we wanted to create an environment where it’s more curated for the consumer.”
Phillips said Kittles recently reached out to Parker Gwen LLC to establish a partnership in which Kittles will benefit from the e-commerce expertise of Parker Gwen and Parker Gwen will benefit from Kittles furniture stores. Kittles has invested an undisclosed amount in Parker Gwen, which is already allowing for growth.
“They’re going to help us evolve our furniture and décor business and identify the right products and suppliers. We’re going to be creating our own furniture line in collaboration with them,” Phillips said. “This is an opportunity for them to have a national audience in a digital platform, and they’re excited about the amount of growth we’ve seen in a short period of time. It’s just a good situation for both of us.”
