Although the shopping for furniture online is something that’s been around for a few years now, many people still tend to focus on the high street stores by default. Yet there are many very good reasons why shopping for furniture online offers tremendous advantages, both practical and financial.
Here are 10 good reasons to shop for furniture online rather than in store.
1. Price Comparison
It is considerably easier to shop around and compare prices between different online retailers than it is to compare prices on the high street. Trying to compare high street prices often means miles of walking, or even driving about, parking and trying to remember great lists of prices, names and offers. With online shopping for furniture you can easily open up multiple tabs, bookmark products and compare the best offers.
2. Range Availability
High street furniture stores are necessarily limited in space, and can only display a limited range of products. Online furniture stores have no such limitation, and so you are often able to see a much greater range of products. Of course you can also benefit from seeing a greater range overall by comparing a number of different retailers.
3. Delivery Convenience & Cost
It is often assumed on the high street that you’ll pick up your furniture yourself, or accept exorbitant delivery charges. You may also find that the furniture isn’t delivered from that store but from a warehouse, and you may need to wait several days. Many online furniture stores will deliver the next day, and often the delivery prices are extremely low. In some cases there are no delivery charges at all if you buy several items.
4. Customer Reviews
Something which you simply can’t do at all on the high street is to ask other customers what they thought of a particular retailer or product range. shopping for furniture online however offers you the opportunity to read all of the customer reviews for any particular item, range or retailer, giving you a much better idea of customer satisfaction.
5. Geographic Range
When shopping for furniture in the ‘traditional’ way you may be limited in terms of how far you are prepared to travel to view the range in a physical shop. Websites don’t present such a difficulty and in many cases delivery is available across a very wide geographic area, including nationally.
6. Catalogue Turnover
Although new ranges and products are constantly being designed and developed high street stores can’t turn over their stock that quickly, and so you won’t always get to see the every latest items, or even those which were on display a few weeks ago. Online furniture retailers will be able to add on the very latest products as well as maintain a clear display of all items available.
7. 24/7 Opening Times
Let’s be honest, you can’t always get to the high street shop when they’re open. Sometimes things such as work and family occupy your time during the day, leaving you with just the evenings to do your furniture shopping. Fortunately shopping for furniture online gives you the convenience of being able to compare sofas or browse dining tables at whatever time you choose, even if it’s three in the morning on a Friday.
8. Competitive Prices
Online furniture stores are missing something high street stores have – overheads. For this reason you’ll often find that the prices online are considerably lower than the ones on the high street. Obviously physical stores have to pay for extensive business premises, heating, lighting and staff wages, whereas online furniture stores have very few overheads, allowing them to pass the savings directly on to the customer.
9. Take Your Time
If you pop into your local furniture store what you’ll often find is that within two minutes a sales assistant sidles up to you and asks if they can help. A few minutes later someone else will walk by and ask if you’re all right. These people tend to hover, and it can make you feel as though you really ought not spend too long browsing before making up your mind. Shopping online relieves you of any awkwardness or feeling of pressure. Feel free to browse for hours, returning the next day and doing the same thing. It’s entirely hassle free shopping.
10. Specifications & Dimensions
Something that’s really important when shopping for furniture is to know exactly how large it is and whether it will fit; in high street stores the dimensions aren’t always readily clear, and you may need to take a tape measure with you as well as a pad of paper, a pen and a calculator. However, when shopping online for furniture you will almost always find that the exact dimensions of any item are clearly displayed, allowing you to make exactly the right choice so that your furniture will fit just as it should.