Online furniture sales: boost your profits

Online furniture sales have grown by leaps and bounds. From large, well-established companies to small structures and niche SMEs, retailers are increasingly turning to e-commerce to boost their sales. In fact, according to a report by Statista, the furniture e-commerce market accounted for up to 12% of total sales in 2019. The basic idea is to take the furniture you would sell in a physical store and sell it online. This is usually done via a recognized e-commerce platform (Amazon, Ebay, Groupon…), or a stand-alone website (like Made.com).

But it’s not as simple as that. Although profitable for both buyers and sellers, furniture e-commerce operates according to a different set of rules – and it’s not enough to have good products, a website and a distribution network. Running an online store requires a solid business strategy. Selling furniture online requires the assimilation of several internet-specific tools, and retailers must learn to master them if they are to increase sales. In such situations, how can furniture manufacturers ensure that they continue to convert potential customers and make sales?

Here are five ways for furniture retailers to keep their e-commerce business profitable:

#1. Keep your website up to date

In the age of online shopping and digital marketing, a company’s website is its business card, so to speak. It’s the first point of contact for any potential customer. That’s why it’s crucial for companies selling furniture online to ensure that their website is attractive and up-to-date.

Updating a website has two important aspects:

• the first is ease of discovery. This requires companies to ensure that their website is known to the general public. The best way to achieve this is through search engine optimization (SEO). Indeed, a good SEO strategy will enable the website to achieve higher organic search engine rankings, which will increase the number of leads.
• the second is user experience. Its aim is to retain visitors to the site. E-tailers need to ensure that their e-commerce site has a clean, original theme, with pleasing colors. The site must be intuitive and easy to navigate. Essential information should be available on the home page itself.

Last but not least, the website must be bug-free. The best way to ensure this is to have the site checked by a developer from time to time.

#2. Your customer service must be impeccable

impeccable customer service for successful online furniture sales
No matter how reliable the products, how solid the company or how good the service, there will always be tricky situations to deal with your customers. From an obscure product description to a major delivery error, worries always arise, even when you’re very well prepared. And online furniture sales are no exception. Many e-retailers fail to realize that it’s not always the incident itself that causes customer dissatisfaction, but rather the poor handling of the problem. Furniture manufacturers and retailers therefore need to ensure that if their customers run into difficulties, a support system will come to their aid efficiently.

Setting up customer service for online furniture sales sites is a step-by-step process.

The first step is to include a form for customers to register their complaints. In addition to a form, a live chat system can be installed, enabling visitors and customers to enquire directly with the online merchant. This function offers greater interaction, which is increasingly appreciated by consumers.

If the e-commerce company has a larger budget, it can set up a 24/7 live telephone customer service, which can help customers whenever they require assistance. As well as setting up these services, retailers also need to ensure that any questions asked by customers are dealt with as quickly as possible.

#3. Voice commerce: prepare for the new revolution

Improving the customer experience, again and again, is your mission to stay one step ahead of your competitors. With the explosion of smart devices like Google Home or Alexa, voice search has become the new avenue you’ll need to explore to stand out from the crowd. Voice commerce allows customers to find products simply by making a voice request. First appearing in 2014, voice commerce gained popularity in the year following its launch and shows no signs of slowing down to date. In fact, it’s estimated that voice search will be preferred by 55% of users by 2022.

Many online furniture retailers have yet to grasp the importance of this new search method. So there’s still room for newcomers to make their mark among the competition. But don’t worry, you won’t have to reinvent the butterfly yarn: voice commerce works in part like SEO – it uses words to search for products that match a user’s spoken description. Furniture manufacturers will therefore need to use these “spoken” keywords in their furniture descriptions. In this way, their products will be more quickly associated with verbal requests.

#4. Trust, the driving force behind online furniture sales

As you already know, if an Internet user can’t trust an online store, he won’t buy there, even if you offer extraordinary discounts. In a physical store, your customer can judge the quality of the furniture for himself, touch the fabric, appreciate the finish… But in online furniture sales, the apprehensions of Internet users are much greater. Furniture manufacturers and retailers therefore need to find other ways to reassure consumers. One of the most effective solutions is customer feedback.

When prospects see testimonials from previous customers, they imagine themselves in their shoes. It also gives an impression of transparency on the part of the merchant, which in turn creates a feeling of reliability. So make sure your product pages include the most recent reviews. Don’t hesitate to contact your most loyal customers to ask them to comment on their purchases and their interaction with your online furniture sales site. You can even publish these reviews on your social networks or integrate them into your emailing campaigns.

#5. Online furniture sales: showcase your furniture

One of the main reasons why online furniture sales have not yet reached their full potential is the unavailability of physical furniture. What’s more, buying furniture is expensive, so people are often reluctant to take the plunge, even if a free returns policy exists. This is why many Internet users end up resorting to physical stores. The good news is that this problem can easily be avoided thanks to 3D visualization. CGI furniture rendering enable you to place your product in any environment that reflects your world. What’s more, thanks to modeling and the development of new technologies, we can now create real interaction with the customer. They can view the furniture from every angle using a 360° viewer, or personalize the item using an online configurator.

And contrary to what you might think, such services are relatively affordable. Compared to a traditional photo studio, 3D is almost half the price, and requires far less time and effort. From simple photographs of the furniture, or simply drawings, the 3D artist is able to model the item and insert it into a photorealistic scene, create a 3D animation or 360° view. These 3D furniture renderings are highly customizable, and can be adapted and reused: rendering on a white background, visual packshot, photo of a furniture collection, etc.

Ultimately, online furniture sales have nothing in common with physical sales. On the one hand, customers have access to hundreds of online stores, open 24 hours a day, and can order with just a few clicks. On the other, they can’t see the product in person until they’ve bought it. Having an ecommerce site and well-oiled logistics isn’t enough. As an online furniture manufacturer or retailer, you need to make the most of this sales channel and boost sales by building consumer confidence in general and applying the 5 tips mentioned above.

Are you convinced that beautiful visuals or interactive tools will improve your marketing? Contact Le Studio 3D today and tell us about your project. We’ll produce visuals that are sure to win over your customers.