Tips for buying furniture online

It is easier deciding the furniture you want to purchase when in a showroom as you are able to touch, feel and even sit on the piece of furniture you have your eyes on. Let’s not call it old fashion purchasing as we may feel too old, but the traditional way of buying furniture.

Nowadays however a big chunk of the UK furniture market is made up of the online furniture stores. A study from two years back found that half of the UK furniture purchasing was done in a physical store where customers actually get to see the products they want to buy in real-life. An interesting parallel to this number however comes from the same study that has shown half of those customers also searched for online reviews before deciding which showroom they should visit.

The conclusion would be that online presence and online reputation of a furniture retailer is essential for the success of the business regardless of how the selling is done, in a showroom, online or both.

The trend is clearly towards online furniture purchasing as it is expected to surpass the traditional way of buying furniture in a few years.  In this regard a few tips and best practices for online purchasing would be welcomed as they will help anyone looking to purchase a piece of furniture from a website.

Common sense website analysis

First and foremost, if it’s a website that you haven’t heard of before do a short basic analysis of the website just by using your common sense. Is it a nice looking website? Do they have proper contact details available that ensure transparency? Is it up to date (e.g. if they have special offers verify that they are not expired for a long time)? The answers to these questions can help you make the difference between a quality and up to date website and a website built just for scam (scammers don’t put much effort a quality build).

Social media presence

If everything looked good after the website review above, check out their social media presence. This research can include social network checks such as number of followers, how often they post something new and what people say about them. If the website you are on has a solid base of followers with good reviews then it can be a good sign that this is a legitimate business. Also try to find websites that offer you guarantees and the return possibility if something goes wrong with the shipment or you simply don’t like what you ordered.

Choosing the right product for you

Now that you know this is a legitimate website selling furniture online you need to make sure that what you are going to buy will suit your needs in terms of dimensions, build material and looks. Measure the dimensions of the place in your home where you want the piece of furniture to be installed and compare these dimensions to those found on the product specification. If it fits then you know that from this perspective you are good to go. Next, closely study the pictures available and make sure that the material and the colour will match those already present in your home, this way you’ll avoid purchasing a piece of furniture that may seem out of place.

Compare prices with the competition

Last but not least, once you have decided the item that you want to purchase try going through the process once again but this time on a different website. Why? Simply because it is possible to find the exact same product sold by another retailer but at a cheaper price. This is what comparing the prices means actually – decide for the furniture item you want to purchase and then try to find the exact one but at a better deal.

Follow your instincts

There you go, these are the most important tips and best practices that you should keep in mind when ordering furniture online. Remember to always use your common sense when choosing which website you’ll be ordering from and don’t hesitate to follow your instincts. If they tell you that something isn’t right either with the quality of the products or the website itself just move on, there are plenty of online furniture retailers out there.