The Digest | New Jersey Magazine
Issue link: https://magazines.vuenj.com/i/1546512
VUE: Tilebar was born online; you're now aggressively introducing physical showrooms. Everyone's spent years hearing that e-commerce would replace retail. Why is the physical experience becoming more important to Tilebar and what have you learned about the relationship between the digital world and the physical retail world? Ira: Tile is an interesting product, very tactile. ere's a finish to it, there's a color to it, you really do need to touch the tile. If you see clients when they come visit our showrooms, they run their hand across the product all the time. Very hard to do on a computer screen. e company did it very successfully by providing samples, but that was probably the last piece of the experience that could only add to it, it couldn't hurt. And I think now, the pairing of the digital, all the digital tools that exist, the room visualizers, everything they see on Pinterest or online, or create themselves, with a physical experience, where you come in, you have a nice cappuccino, you sit down, and we start to talk about your home, and our design advisors start to give people feedback and opinions on the products they're looking at; it suddenly brings it all together. It's almost like one plus one is now three for the consumer. VUE: You grew up on Long Island and now you're opening the newest showroom in Manhasset, alongside the country's most recognizable luxury shopping. What does opening this mean to you personally, and what would you want someone to feel the moment they walk in the doors there? Ira: I know this community well, and this is actually more of an emotional reaction for me. I grew up in Old Bethpage, on Long Island. e first house my wife and I ever bought was in Port Washington, just north of the Manhasset store. So I felt like I knew the customer already. at customer on the Island is a design-forward, passionate customer that appreciates better things. And I wanted to deliver them an experience they probably never had in their neighborhood before. Eli is also from Long Island, so I think we collectively have our roots there. VUE ON | HOME & DESIGN 80 V U E H A M P TO N S . C O M