Why do shoppers choose to buy furniture online?

What influences a shoppers’ decision to buy furniture online rather than in a store? In April's issue, Furniture News, supported by leading 3D furniture product visualisation platform Chaos Cylindo, presented Understanding the Furniture Shopper, a comprehensive report on how UK consumers shop for furniture – both in-store and online.

Among the areas investigated was what consumers feel about shopping for furniture online, compared to shopping in-store.

The report found that the devices people favour when shopping online are: a mobile/smartphone (46%); laptop (25%); tablet (14%); desktop computer (13%); and smartwatch (1%).

The mobile/smartphone is the online shopping platform of choice for every age group – apart from those aged 65+, two-fifths (39%) of whom said they preferred to use a laptop. Given that 4% of 18-24-year olds responded ‘smartwatch’, it is clear that having a responsive online presence that is fit for emerging devices is increasingly important.

The report also looked at which features of online shopping are most likely to influence people’s choice to buy from the internet, rather than in a physical store.

Today’s consumers are often time poor, and might choose the ability to browse and purchase product from the comfort of their own home rather than make an excursion to a store. Convenience is the principal factor for those opting to shop for furniture online, with choice of price and product also significant.

Other findings included: having the ability to compare products and prices with other sellers is a factor for nearly half (47%) of those aged 18-24; and, across all age groups, having the ability to compare products and prices is more important to women (44%) than men (36%).

And what types of furniture are shoppers comfortable buying online? With the emergence of the bed-in-a-box and modular upholstery, the industry has seen consumers embrace types of furniture online that the industry might never have thought possible a decade ago, with intensive marketing, generous returns policies and compact packaging going some way to make up for shoppers’ need to ‘touch and feel’ products in person.

However, from lower-value goods to high-end products, there remains some variation in how much people are willing to pay for different types of furniture online.

Click here to read the full report.