How To Start An Online Furniture Business?

1. Is Online Furniture Business Profitable?

Amongst all related ventures, selling furniture online is one of the most profitable niches in e-commerce marketing due to new developments in technology. This means various aspects of a furniture store can be operated online now: from interior designing, customer demands, and warehousing to marketing channels and logistics. To make things more promising, household furniture is rated as one of the three best-selling online shopping categories.

While setting up an online furniture store, you must create a proper e-commerce site that distinguishes your online store from someone who is selling their household furniture on eBay, Craigslist, or Etsy. However, you don't require top-notch tech skills to run your online store. All you have to do is follow this listicle step by step in the recommended order.

1. Zero in on the right supplier

Identify a good supplier according to your online business’s demands. It’s only about one supplier, out of a dozen, who you should rely on. The supplier can be from a foreign country or your own depending on the sector you are supplying for. You should also decide on the logistics to deliver orders to your customers’ doorsteps.

• Contract sector- Public places like restaurants, hostels, hotels, and office spaces require a different kind of furniture compared to one’s home, which many would prefer to customize. Hence, the supplier must be able to deliver standardized furniture pieces like commode chairs, folding chairs, stacking chairs, stools, wardrobes and drawers, mirrors, glasses, and lamps in bulk within a limited timeframe.

• Domestic sector- Many online furniture stores prefer to import high-quality, durable furniture for the household sector. Some of the in-demand verticals within this sector are kitchen furniture, study room furniture, cushions, curtains, and king-sized beds. Hence, in this case, your priority in selecting a supplier should not solely be the prices of the furniture, but to see if they can manufacture furniture in the latest designs.  

2- Pick a great e-commerce website builder

Remember, to run an online furniture store while liaising with wholesale furniture manufacturers, you have to build an e-commerce website from scratch. If you opt to hire an e-commerce website builder, you don't have to learn coding or designing. You can just select the templates that work for you. E-commerce website builders like Builderfly, Magento, and Shopify have all the tools and the best instruction manuals to build an impressive e-commerce website for your online furniture shop.

2. How To Create Online Furniture Stores?

Following are some points to keep in mind while creating your site:

• The Understanding offline shopping experience for UI design interface

Design your online store according to the way customers are used to shopping in the physical world. Be it categorizing furniture based on types like sofas, recliners, or chairs, or focusing on 3D visualizations through video content — try your best to replicate your customer’s offline shopping experience with augmented reality. For example, your customer can select design patterns and overlay them on furniture to see what they would look like. Or they can view the reviews and suggestions of previous customers when they select a product. All this has to be incorporated for a mobile view as most customers shop on their mobiles rather than on PCs these days.

• Certain shopping categories you can consider

Categorize your furniture as ‘collections’. This could be living room collections, bedroom collections, best-sellers, ‘most frequently bought together’ collections, or collections based on the budget range. Remember, with an offline furniture store, an average customer would be more than willing to search for the product physically. However, when it comes to an online furniture shop, they prefer a search engine to assist them and a clear, consistent, and logical template.

3. Brand & Domain Name For Online Furniture Business

To share your website address with everyone, you will first need to decide on your domain name. The best tips are to keep it short and make your brand name the domain name. Remember, your brand name should be about your company’s objective and the customer’s experience of your offerings. For example, RoyalOak gives the idea that the furniture will be polished, and the customer will have luxurious and elegant styles to choose from.  

4. Website Information- Online Furniture Stores

Your description must mention the material of the furniture, whether it’s wood, textile, metal, plastic, glass, steel, or plywood. It must also include information on the dimensions of the product, weight, and available colors. This should be accompanied by photographs of high resolution, with great lighting, and from all angles. While deciding the price, please remember the psyche of that online shopper; it's easier for them to compare prices of different online furniture businesses to understand potential discounts and deals.

5. Competition Research In Online Furniture Business

Remember that the prices home-buyers can afford will vary from the price range that hotel or hostel owners can. Home buyers do not mind shelling out higher prices for one furniture set as long as it meets their vision of aesthetics. On the other hand, business owners are looking for furniture in bulk at discounted prices. Price your furniture according to the quality of the material. A  teakwood dining table will cost more than a DIY plastic dining table. Selling good-quality furniture at a reasonable price is one of the best ways to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty in the long run. Ensure that you thoroughly research the prices charged by competitor retailers and do not lower your prices below the cost price just to gain an edge over your competitors.

6. Set up Online Payment For Online Furniture Business

Ensure that you have the most popular gateway options that both your domestic and international clientele can use. You must eliminate the possibility of them patronizing another online furniture shop just because of the payment platform. Categorize your payment options into net banking, credit and debit cards, wallet payments like AmazonPay or GooglePay, and EMI options. Popular website builders like Magento ensure that these payment options are embedded and integrated into the template itself and will work in just a few clicks. Butterfly, as a website builder, charges zero transaction fees no matter which payment provider you offer, and hence many online furniture businesses prefer this.

7. Furniture Business Shipping

Here are a few things to consider while providing a seamless delivery experience to your customers — the taxes based on local, national, or international delivery, whether the products will first be stored in your office or warehouse or will be directly transported from the supplier’s warehouse to your customer, and the mode of transport.

8. Online Furniture Business Website

Before publishing the website, preview the same and test it for common glitches like images that take a long time to load, links that do not redirect you to a page, and payment cards and gateways not working. Also, consider if the overall design format is pleasing to the eye. You can also ask your friends and family to go through the website and share any corrections or revisions in the product descriptions or settings that may be necessary based on their experience.

9. Promote Your Online Furniture Stores

Be it newsletters, email marketing campaigns, social media marketing, search engine marketing, or outdoor advertising, go all out in letting the world know about your online furniture shop. Ensure your promotional campaigns include discounts, attractive photos, and a catchphrase that will grab the attention of potential customers. When it comes to SEO marketing, '“buy furniture online” is the top-ranked keyword which ensures around 3400 website visitors a month for online furniture businesses. Certain furniture items, compared to others, have higher SEO rankings.  Remember, it takes a year of dedicated work to ensure that you are listed at the top of Google results.

Depending on the product niche and the target audience, your advertising channel would also vary. For Generation Z, it’s recommendations, social media listings, and influencer marketing that will convince them to give your website a visit. On the other hand, Generation X, drawing high incomes, has their go-to interior designer. Hence, cold-calling and negotiating with interior designers, design studio heads, and decorators work in this scenario.

10. Discount On Online Furniture Stores

While it’s natural for customers to expect certain discounts instead of fixed prices, you can promote these discount offers as clearance sales. They would then not mind waiting for a long time to get the same item at a highly discounted rate. You can also offer discounts if your customers buy goods above a certain price, or offer a discount for a certain furniture set. For example, you can extend a deal on dining chairs when a dining table is brought as well.

Final Thoughts

After zeroing in on the right supplier, creating your website, and promoting it extensively, if your online furniture store takes off, it’s time for you to track and monitor your inventory. This will ensure that stocks are replaced on a timely basis and you never run out of supply. All these steps together should set you up for success with your online furniture business