Interview with Oluwaseun Omotoso, Leading E-Commerce Furniture Entrepreneur and Founder of ZR Tales, often referred to as “the Uber of furniture”

Recognized for her business’ impressive 5year revenue growth, Oluwaseun Omotoso is attracting media attention for ZR Tales’ impact and originality, proving that great businesses can thrive without borders, warehouses, or conventional business models.

In this interview we speak with Oluwaseun Omotoso about the bold strategies, systems and entrepreneurial spirit behind ZR Tales’ success.

Oluwaseun, you’re being recognized as one of the top innovators in Nigeria’s furniture e-commerce industry. Let’s start from the beginning, how did your journey into furniture with ZR Tales begin?

Thank you. ZR Tales Furniture started in 2017 while moving houses with my sister and we needed to buy furniture.

We were moving out of our parents’ house for the first time and were furniture hunting for the first time as well. It was at this point that I discovered a gap in the market.

Affordable, well-designed and quality furniture wasn’t easily accessible to buy online. Most of the quality furniture we found were either overpriced or out of trend and we had to go window shopping at big showrooms to see them, which was exhausting.

Being in fashion business at the time, I couldn’t understand why furniture wasn’t easily available for convenient shopping on the internet. Why wasn’t furniture purchase as straightforward as buying a simple, yet elegant dinner dress? I wanted people to be able to buy furniture from the comfort of their homes and delivered to their doorsteps.

So, I took everything I had learned from fast fashion and applied it to furniture and that’s how the journey begun and today, people can trust buying good, stylish and affordable furniture online.

You mentioned that you used to be in the fashion business. Did you quit fashion for furniture?

Fashion was the first business idea I conceived and registered out of my love for clothing, but I have done other businesses before it. I like to solve problems.

I started fashion as a means of meeting a personal need. I remember how difficult it was for me to get the kind of designs I really liked to wear because of my personal style preference and so I started making clothes for myself.

Many people will see me wear my clothes and ask if they could buy, so I began making clothes for women that loved my style and that was how the business started.

Fashion was doing quite well for a business that was a fresh startup, within 2years we had rolled out several ready-to-wear collections that were getting the attention of stylists, media coverage and runway opportunities.

But when I discovered the gap in furniture, it was a bigger opportunity for me because it was beyond me or my personal need. It was an opportunity to be a pioneer in a very promising industry.

There were a lot of people doing e-commerce fashion in 2014 when I started, but there was hardly anyone doing e-commerce with furniture.

Every furniture seller had a showroom where they displayed their products because no one was going to spend ₦500,000 on a living room settee they had not set eyes on.

Though at the time I discovered furniture in 2017, it was more of an expansion as I was running both the fashion and furniture business, however, as time went by, I saw the huge opportunities in furniture and decided to make a full transition in 2018.

Interestingly, Fashion prepared me for all the breakthroughs I made with furniture as the two businesses used similar methods of operation which I already gained experience navigating.

One of your most notable innovations in furniture is your Infamous Furniture Model called DFM. It is said to be the model that nick named your business “the Uber of furniture” Can you explain what that is and how it came about?

Absolutely. In 2020 during the global pandemic that caused a lot of businesses to shut down, we were faced with challenges fulfilling furniture orders.

In fact, we were at the edge of a complete shutdown of our online stores like many other furniture sellers, since physical meetings and workshop production were restricted and at some point, non-existent. I started to research on how production could be redefined and the story of Uber stood out for me as a major inspiration.

Uber operated a successful transportation system only through a booking app without owning a single car. I started to think outside the box and eventually came up with the Decentralized Fulfillment Model (DFM).

I brought together a team of highly skilled local artisans in different regions in Lagos, then routed furniture orders through them directly from their own home workshops or studio. This was a brilliant strategy that allowed us to continue business online and even fulfill orders faster.

Interestingly, before the DFM, we ran a centralized furniture production model were all workers needed to resume work physically at the office workshop, but we maintained the DFM after Covid-19 till date. It is a model we have continued to improve on and it has proven to be a very productive model.

I have heard that other top and upcoming furniture businesses have adopted this system. What’s the story there and how does it make you feel that competitors in your field have adopted a model originally invented by you?

Yes, I am aware of this and it makes me feel very flattered that I’m influencing my industry positively. In fact, a known e-commerce brand like us admitted that they were now using the DFM and that was a huge moment for us.

We noticed in 2023 that Top60 Furnishings, a popular online furniture retailer shutdown their physical showroom and started 100% operation online in a way that mirrored our DFM structure.

A few months later, during an industry meeting, one of their team members casually mentioned they had taken a cue from how ZR Tales decentralized fulfillment.

It was an informal nod, but a powerful one and we got a well-deserved applause for it. Even though I was not in that meeting, my representative communicated how much of a proud moment it was.

This was also the beginning of a friendly business relationship between TOP60 furnishings and ZR Tales, as we have partnered on some projects together. That confirmed to us that our model was working, not just internally, but as a framework for others in the industry. That kind of organic adoption says a lot about the originality and effectiveness of what we built.

How would you say this has shaped your recognition in the industry?

It showed that we weren’t just doing business, we were innovating. I am happy that I am influencing my industry positively especially since innovation isn’t something common in the field even among successful entrepreneurs.

When your ideas start becoming standard practice in other companies, that’s how you know you’ve made a mark and you’re in the right path. I consider the DFM one of our most significant contributions to the furniture e-commerce ecosystem in West Africa.

ZR Tales has seen obvious growth since launching the DFM in 2020. For a business that operates fully online without a physical presence, your current revenue numbers are drawing public attention in 2025, compared to that of your competitors. What do you think made that kind of success possible especially in a sector like furniture that is just fully embracing e-commerce?

I would say it takes a deep understanding of your customer, effective quality control, and relentless problem-solving.

What a lot of people don’t know is that the DFM is not the only innovation by ZR Tales, I have designed other successful models like the ZR Flat-rate Model that helps the logistics part of our business grow.

Success is gained by consistency and that involves a lot of hard work while being focused on solving problems and products people need, not just what you want to produce and also, building trust through delivery consistency and after sales services.

We didn’t just want to be visible, we wanted to be reliable and efficient. When I created the DFM in 2020, the idea was simple but powerful. Instead of pre-producing furniture and storing in expensive warehouses, we activated a network of trained artisans who could begin production only after an order was placed.

This cut overhead costs drastically and gave us the flexibility to offer a wider range of products while still delivering fast. And for over five years, we’ve been able to fulfill thousands of orders quickly, cost-effectively, and with personalized touches that traditional manufacturers just couldn’t compete with.

Customers noticed, the market responded and now, in 2025 with hundreds of millions in sales revenue, we’ve gained the attention from both the media and the industry.

I cannot overemphasize that what helped us stand out wasn’t just innovation, it was consistency, and the fact that we built a fully digital, trust-driven business in a sector that had barely scratched the surface of e-commerce.

We created fulfillment systems that worked across cities without a single workshop. That’s not just e-commerce if you ask me, its revolution and I feel very privileged to be at the forefront of it. The media attention ZR Tales is getting now in 2025 is a result of five years of quiet disruption. The revenue is just the proof.

You have consistently been among the top sellers on Jumia and Konga for years. How did you achieve this level of consistency?

ZR Tales is a top-performing furniture brand selling on the two biggest e-commerce platforms in Nigeria and West Africa, Jumia and Konga.

Our performance is tied to understanding both design and distribution. On Jumia alone, we’ve moved thousands of units in categories like living room sofas, dinners, dressers, and bedroom furniture. We optimize every product listing, pricing model, and quality.

Being a top seller on Jumia and maintaining a quality seller status on Konga, wasn’t accidental, it was an intentional, data-driven growth. We also built strong customer relationship on our official website. We are very big on customer feedback as we see them as an opportunity for growth.

We understand that one bad review can take away from 10 great reviews so we continuously work hard on putting a smile on our customers faces and leaving it there.

I like the sound of that. Speaking of relationship and trust, how has your website contributed to building confidence among customers and partners?

A lot, actually. That’s a really good question. Beyond marketplaces, we developed our own website to give customers a more personalized experience, product ccustomization, delivery timelines and real-time support. It became a place where buyers felt they were buying directly from the source, not just another vendor.

Interestingly, this also helped us gain recognition from a major logistics provider, ABC Cargo Express LTD, who recognized us in 2023 for being in the top 3 of their highest-volume shippers.

That built even more credibility for our business as customers could trust that their furniture orders would be delivered to them in good time, as they could track their item on the ABC Cargo website.

What is your day-to-day role at ZR Tales, and how have you led the company through its major transitions?

As Founder and CEO, I’m involved in everything from product development to sales forecasting, but more importantly, I’ve created systems that allow the business to scale beyond me. I lead production, innovation, and partnerships. I also drive hiring and training for our artisan network.

One of the biggest transitions I led was the ZR Flat-rate model in 2018 with ABC Cargo Express LTD. This was the first model designed by me to enable a more cost effective and affordable logistics rate for people buying furniture from the other 35 states in Nigeria.

The model helped the business to expand properly and integrate other states like Abuja, Rivers and Enugu among many others. Taking the business from being a Lagos only to a nation-wide business.

What is next for ZR Tales?

We’re building a stronger digital infrastructure to support even faster fulfillment. We’re also preparing to expand globally, especially in the United States of America. But beyond growth, we want to keep innovating. If the DFM can help us, and now others, why not build the next model that moves the entire industry forward?

Oluwaseun Omotoso’s story is one of clear vision, gritty execution, and measurable success. In a field where logistics often break great ideas, she has built a system that works — and inspired others to do the same.