How to Set Up a Successful Furniture eCommerce Store

More people are making purchases online and furniture is no different. Find out how to add a successful furniture ecommerce store to your business.

There’s no limit to what you can sell online. Clothes, toys, books, and now furniture all have their own online marketplaces.

If you already have a brick and mortar store but want to figure out how to have sales online, you can. Or, you might choose to start an online furniture shop without worrying about setting up a physical store.

The growth of online furniture sales is astronomical. Many retailers are finding the addition of eCommerce to their brick and mortar stores a huge boon for business.

Just take a look at the U.S. e-commerce revenue generated through furniture and home furnishings retail sales between 2012 and 2019.

Read on to discover the ins and outs of building a furniture eCommerce store.

Decide What You Want to Specialize In

If your furniture store is ready to expand into the world of online shopping, its hard to know where to start. Before you try to make your store a one-stop shop, consider what you would excel at specializing in.

You could offer:

• Bedroom sets
• Furniture made just for kids
• Bathroom furniture and fixtures
• Furniture for the dining room and kitchen

Offering a specialized area for furniture makes your store stand out. Folks will realize you know what you are offering. This lets them shop with confidence at your store.

Narrow Down Your Niche

When you know what you want to specialize in, narrow down your niche even further.

Once you have picked the type of rooms you are selling for, think about what is needed for those rooms. Consider these items:

• Lighting
• Accessories for a room (such as blankets and pillows for a bedroom)
• Candles and seasonal decorations

A narrow niche of products offered ensures that people will come back when they have a certain need.

Offering tailor-made solutions give your company an air of authority for the room you specialize in.

Consider Who Your Customers Are

• Define who your customers are and what income level you are marketing to.
• Are you going for upper-class customers who have money to spend on quality products to offer?
• Are your customers middle class who need items that aren’t name-brand, but can hold up to wear and tear?
• Thinking about who to market to makes it easy to plan your promotion strategy.

This allows you to narrow down target customers on Facebook and other social media platforms that you will likely advertise on. Learning how to appeal to the right demographics gets you in front of your target audience faster, thereby increasing sales.

Choose the Best Platform for Your eCommerce Furniture Store

When starting your online store, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the different platforms out there.

Search for one that is user-friendly, and makes it easy for you to sell the product without spending a lot of time processing manual updates.

Qualities to look for include:

• Customer relationship management
• Discount and promo code management options
• A payment processor built into the platform
• Wholesale pricing options
• Product option selections
• in-stock out of stock notify

You can check out my eCommerce Launch Guide to help hone in on which eCommerce platform would be right for you.

Finding the right platform with the right capabilities allows your furniture eCommerce store to do the hard work, while you’re focusing on promotion and selling the products.

Besides streamlining your job, you will have all the information you need at your fingertips. As you build your site, make sure to incorporate all the features you will need for success.

Create a Branded Company Logo

Logos do more than look pretty. A strong logo makes your company stand out from others.

The right logo creates a brand folks remember. Customers remember who your company is, and this increases brand recognition.

When hiring an artist to create a graphic for your logo, think about what will help your company.

Consider a logo that is simple and easy to remember. Take a look at what others in the same industry are doing.

Animals, initials, or a specific object stay in the mind of your customers longer. A well-made logo increases business for a furniture eCommerce store.

Build a Mobile App for Your Store

Smartphones are common these days regardless of age group or income level.

Apps are a driving force behind the popularity of these phones. Folks can look up information or buy something they need by pushing a few buttons.

“Mobile apps that help streamline shopper interactions and offer customers enhanced features are the key to tapping booming m-commerce sales,” wrote Ian Murphy for Retail Dive. “The 180 top retailers that offer apps reported that sales resulting from those apps grew 44% in 2015, while overall mobile sales are projected to grow by 15% — still more than twice as fast as overall ecommerce.”

Give your store additional revenue by having an app created.

Not only will a mobile app enable potential shoppers to compare prices while out shopping with ease.

The in-store experience matters more than ever, with 73% conducting research during their visit and 87% of respondents purchasing in person. Sixty-four percent of all shoppers surveyed said in-store visits had a greater influence on their purchasing decision than online research.

Offer Paypal as a Payment Method

Give customers multiple payment options when opening your furniture eCommerce store. While credit cards are standard for online shopping, Paypal should be on the list as well.

Paypal offers benefits including:

• Easier time checking out
• Greater customer conversion
• Preferred method of payment for many customers

Before your store is launched, review why Paypal is the first choice for many shoppers.

Implementing Paypal can make purchases and returns easier for both parties, saving you hassle as you do business. Think about the possible increase in sales before you open your store without it.

Create Competitive Pricing

As you build your furniture eCommerce store, you should keep in mind what price to set everything at.

Think about these details if you get stuck:

• Review what your competition is offering
• Decide how often you want to run sales
• Consider creating a club for loyal customers, and adjust prices for those shoppers
• Offer free shipping to offset purchase prices or ship for free over a certain sale amount

While your prices won’t please everyone, you can create loyalty this way. Offering special discounts or privileges for customers that order frequently will build trust and loyalty for your company.

Choosing to offer greater discounts for those who spend more can result in larger orders. Having furniture shipped directly to your customers home can encourage them to spend more since they don’t have to transport anything.

Make Sure Your Site is Set Up to Convert

When setting your eCommerce store it can be easy to forget the little things that make all the difference in the world when it comes to conversions. Too many people start and finish with the basics, but including things like; shipping time, free shipping, an easy access phone number for help, and trust icons can be the difference in a visit and a sale.

Take a look at this product landing page I set up for an eCommerce furniture store recently.

With this store specifically, we designed a custom theme on the BigCommerce platform. The reason we chose this platform is because it allowed our customer to easily manage their products and inventory online once the design was in place. As you can see, this platform also allows for fairly complex product options, the opportunity to up-sell products and easily integrates with all key online sales channels.

Integrating eCommerce Sales Channels

Integrating your eCommerce store with online sales channels is extremely important, especially if your launching a brand new store or business. Starting out, online sales channels such as Amazon, ebay and Google Shopping will be your primary source of traffic and revenue.

Into the Garden Outdoor had 3 brick and mortar locations in Texas, but they wanted to increase not only their in-store sales, but their reach and sales nationally. BigCommerce made it easy to feed their products to Google Shopping; which allowed us to drive a LOT of highly targeted traffic to their site. Backing this up with Google Search ads, we were able to drive new online purchases to a much larger audience as well as increase in-store sales.

Start Selling Online Today

Adding an eCommerce store will benefit your furniture business both online and off.

Not only will you reach more customers online, you can expand your offerings across the country. Your company will have greater brand recognition, resulting in additional sales.

Build the online store you need, and get in front of customers who are waiting to buy from you. You may find that your online store will reach individuals who previously might not have shopped with you.

Find out how, beneficial online sales can be for your business today.