Cover image via Freepik.
With the explosive boom of online shopping in recent years, many people have turned to virtual storefronts to browse and buy everything they need for their homes. It’s easy to see why–you can easily browse and compare a wide selection of possibilities from the comfort of your own home. Internet shops don’t have hours of operation to account for, or sales people following you around the store.
This may have you wondering: Will furniture stores near me still be around in a few years? Will I still have the option of visiting local retailers in person? Is everything going to be online in the future?
While it’s impossible to tell for certain, we can say one thing–brick-and-mortar furniture stores aren’t going anywhere! Even with the rise of e-commerce and all our advancements in virtual convenience, in-person browsing has features and benefits that even the best online shopping experiences can’t replace. The future of furniture shopping will offer a blend of both experiences, allowing retailers and customers to make use of the unique advantages from both traditional furniture shopping and virtual storefronts.
Benefits of In-Person Browsing
What sort of features keep local stores in business in the age of online shopping? No matter what conveniences are offered by the internet, there’s certain things that you can only get when going shopping in person.
Image via Google Maps.
When buying furniture, comfort is a huge priority. After all, what’s the use of paying premium prices for a luxurious chair if you don’t even want to sit on it? Certain pieces may look comfortable, but it’s truly impossible to tell what furniture will feel like until you’ve tried it out for yourself. That experience is only possible when checking out furniture in-person! The importance of try-before-you-buy cannot be overstated, especially when it comes to high-use pieces like a new bed or dining room chairs. Sitting on and physically testing out a piece of furniture also allows you to get a better sense of the size, the quality, and the practicality before you make an expensive commitment.
Furthermore, visiting a store often means having access to samples of fabric and wood that you can see and feel for yourself, rather than relying on swatches viewed on a screen. Virtual displays are only as good as the device they’re viewed on, and different screens are notorious for having different color balance, brightness, and other variations that can affect how colors and textures look. By handling the materials yourself, you can get a better sense of what your furniture may look like when custom-ordering in your preferred fabric or wood-stain, and many stores will let you take home swatches to view under the lighting conditions in your home so you know exactly what to expect.
Image via England Furniture.
Customer service is also another benefit to shopping for furniture in-person. When you browse for furniture at a physical location, the employees are always there in case you have questions or need advice before making a purchase. They can help you better understand just what you might want or need out of your furniture, and help you find exactly what you’re looking for. By speaking with knowledgeable sales people about the furniture they work with daily, you can learn far more than you might while browsing an online storefront. On top of that, many furniture stores that you visit will offer their own delivery service—Moore’s Furniture is just one of many that has a white glove delivery service. We don’t just drop a box of parts at your door, but instead make sure the piece is settled safely into your home, fully assembled and ready to use!
Another aspect of customer service, and one that is often overlooked, is the customization options offered by retailers that are harder to find in online storefronts. Here at Moore’s, we work closely with the various manufacturers who’s furniture we offer, and this relationship allows us to provide a wide variety of customization options beyond what we typically stock. We’re more than happy to pull out catalogs and let you flip through them, or to call up manufacturer representatives and ask about certain specifications—we’ve done it before for custom couches with extra-sturdy frames, or unique pieces not typically sought out!
No matter what the future of furniture shopping holds, one thing is for sure—you can be assured that in-person shopping isn’t going anywhere.
Virtual Advantages
Despite all the services available in-store, online shopping is so prevalent for good reason! Having a robust online presence is important for any furniture store that wants to be accessible and convenient in the modern age.
Image via Freepik.
An online storefront has many advantages that can’t be replicated in a physical space. When viewing a product catalogue, many web stores have organization features that make it easy to find what you’re looking for, such as filters or search options which can narrow down the products shown, doing away with all other clutter and distraction. With the right tools and a robust, well-designed webpage, you can find what you want right away! A good storefront will be able to showcase a wide range of products, without being overwhelming–when designed with user experience in mind, an online shopping experience offers the full depth and range of choice in an easily-navigable catalogue.
Image via Moore's Furniture.
Furthermore, virtual catalogs aren’t limited by physical floorspace or warehouse size, and thus can display far more stock all at once, without having to rent out a larger space. This allows for a much larger variety, and means online retailers can offer a range of stock physical stores might not be able to carry.
Speaking of variety, online storefronts and especially manufacturer sites often have better ways to showcase custom design options. While seeing fabric swatches in person can tell you a lot about the piece you want to get, it can be hard to properly visualize what a full piece in a certain pattern or color might look like. Will it be too busy? Will it look too yellow, or more brown? By using 3D models and interactive tools, manufacturers like La-Z-Boy and MAVIN allow you to make a virtual mock-up of different furniture pieces! You can mix and match pillows, body fabrics, wood colors, table styles, and more with their tools, so you know exactly what to expect.
Above all, online shopping is simply more convenient. You don’t have to put on shoes, get in the car, follow directions and go from store to store comparing prices and stock. Instead, you can kick back on the couch with your laptop or phone, and instantly have access to thousands of storefronts, brands, and designs with the click of a button. No hunting down sales people for a quote, or wasting gas driving around—a peaceful and streamlined shopping experience is at your fingertips!
With all the features offered by virtual storefronts, its easy to see why so many people turn to the internet to find what they need when shopping for furniture! Needless to say, online shopping will definitely shape the future of furniture stores.
Online and Offline
So with all these features from both experiences, what can we assume to find in the future when looking for a new couch or dining room table? What will the shopping experience look like for people who come into a store or choose to browse online?
To start with, as technology grows and more and more people become familiar with navigating the internet and online shopping spaces, we can expect to see websites become more and more integrated into the shopping experience. Physical locations may also allow you to order your furniture entirely on the web for pick-up or delivery, which is a service offered on our website at Moore’s Furniture!
In fact, having a well-designed and up-to-date online presence is a must for any store that wants to keep up with the times and move into the future. Showcasing what’s on offer, having clear and accurate information, and giving customers a way to contact the store itself are all crucial for fostering a convenient and streamlined shopping experience. Smaller businesses like Moore’s can also take advantage of services utilized by bigger corporations without compromising on the availability and accessibility of a small local business, such as being able to talk to a person rather than a machine.
Some of those services include the aforementioned visualization services. Want to design a custom piece in-store, but having trouble picturing it? We offer an interactive display with our MAVIN products called the MAVIN Design Pal that lets you create a mock-up in-store with the help of our sales people! Digital advancements like this will become more and more common as companies invest more into virtual features for customers, with more offerings from manufacturers and more ways to ensure you get exactly what you want out of your furniture.
Image taken at Moore's Furniture in Pottstown, by me!
Ultimately, the future of furniture is not purely digital nor fully offline—rather, we can expect a mix of the two. Brick and mortar stores offer benefits that cannot be replaced with online storefronts, but by updating to the times, we can work in tandem with the effortlessness and convenience offered by online shopping to create a better customer experience.
Here at Moore’s Furniture, we’re committed to providing the best service possible and keeping up with the pace of the modern world so that we can serve our customers the shopping experience they deserve. Stop in to a furniture store near you, and see what our showrooms have on offer today!
