Connectivity is King: How CITY Furniture Scaled 5x with an AI-Ready, Cloudified Network

CITY Furniture isn’t just selling furniture—they’re delivering experiences. As one of Florida’s fastest-growing home retailers, CITY Furniture has evolved from its 1970s origins as Waterbed City into a household name with over 38 locations and a thriving e-commerce platform. “We’re no longer a furniture company,” said Chad Simpson, CIO. “We’re a technology company that sells furniture.”

This mindset drove a sweeping modernization effort—one that would reform the business, reimagine the customer journey and redefine what retail connectivity should look like. A Network-as-a-Service solution fit for large e-commerce businesses became a cornerstone of this transformation.

Scaling a legacy retail model for the cloud era

CITY Furniture’s growth strategy was ambitious: double every four years, expand into new markets and elevate the showroom experience. But their legacy systems weren’t built for that kind of velocity.

“We’re a 50-plus-year-old company. Most of our applications were designed to run on-site,” Simpson explained. “When we moved everything to the cloud in 2018, we realized we had to rearchitect and redesign most of our systems to operate efficiently with low latency.”

With over one million square feet of distribution space and 24/7 operations, CITY Furniture needed a network that could support real-time data, adapt to seasonal demand and maintain continuity across all locations. In hurricane-prone Florida, moving away from physical servers also meant greater resilience and peace of mind.

CITY Furniture was ready to scale. What they needed was a network solution that could match their momentum.

Building a cloud-first retail network with Lumen^® NaaS

CITY Furniture partnered with Lumen to accelerate their digital transformation using Network-as-a-Service (NaaS)—a flexible, cloud-integrated solution designed for speed, scalability and simplicity.

By deploying a centralized, software-defined network hub at Equinix, powered by Lumen, CITY Furniture streamlined operations and gained the ability to adapt instantly to customer needs, market shifts and seasonal demand. “Our new network hub connects all our clouds,” Simpson added. “Lumen NaaS makes it fast to provision and cost-effective to scale based on bandwidth demand.”

This cloudified retail model aligns with Lumen’s strategy to embed intelligence into the network, delivering frictionless digital experiences at scale. Leveraging ultra-low-loss fiber from Lumen—the same infrastructure trusted by hyperscale leaders for AI innovation—CITY Furniture gains the resilience and agility needed for rapid growth.

CITY Furniture eliminated all on-premise servers, forming a unified digital environment that connects every showroom, data center and cloud hub. “We don’t have a single server left on-prem anywhere in Florida—which, as you know, is Hurricane Alley,” Simpson added. “Now, when there’s a natural disaster, our people can take care of their families instead of worrying about equipment.”

Enterprise-grade results: Real-time data, personalized service and operational agility

With Lumen as a strategic enterprise partner, CITY Furniture gained more than a network—they gained a foundation for innovation, speed and scale.

During high-traffic events like Black Friday, CITY Furniture can scale bandwidth on demand, handling five to ten times the usual traffic without disruption. Real-time data empowers associates to deliver personalized service from anywhere in the showroom, using mobile apps and AR tools. AI integration deflects up to 30% of customer care calls, freeing agents to focus on complex needs.

“We’re proud of our mobile applications,” Simpson shared. “Every sales associate has an iPad, allowing them to transact anywhere in the showroom. That seamless experience wouldn’t be possible without Lumen’s connectivity.”

With infrastructure no longer a constraint, CITY Furniture is expanding in Florida—confident in their ability to deliver consistent, high-quality experiences across every channel.

Retail at the edge: Bringing intelligence closer to the consumer

As CITY Furniture continues to grow, they are investing in edge computing to bring processing closer to the customer—reducing latency and enabling faster, frictionless interactions.

“In the future, connectivity will need to get closer to the consumer,” Simpson said. “More of that processing will happen at the edge—near our showrooms and customers to provide real-time data and faster service.”

AI adoption is accelerating across departments. “AI is real, and we’re integrating it everywhere,” Simpson said. “It’s helping us improve efficiency and deliver better service.”

For CITY Furniture, technology has evolved from a support function to a strategic growth engine. By embracing innovation and investing in intelligent infrastructure, CITY Furniture is reshaping the retail experience. With Lumen solutions driving enterprise-grade connectivity and edge capabilities, CITY Furniture is delivering smarter, faster and more personalized service—at scale.

“Technology enables every part of our mission—helping customers love where they live through seamless experiences,” said Justin Roisman, VP of Marketing. “And Lumen helps us make that mission a reality.”

To learn more about CITY Furniture’s transformation, read the full customer success story.

Visit our customer story library to learn how organizations in virtually every industry are achieving their business objectives.

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