Four Ways Retailers Can Elevate the eCommerce Experience

In today’s crowded online marketplace, consumers are overwhelmed with choices. To stand out, furniture retailers must offer an eCommerce experience that gives consumers the engaging and intuitive journey they have come to expect. This means understanding your customer’s needs and making every step seamless and enjoyable, from discovery to browsing to purchase. Your goal is to meet your customers wherever they’re shopping, helping them find the products they are looking for and making checkout a breeze. Furniture retailers can foster loyalty and drive conversions higher by layering in the features needed to make this goal a reality.

Here are four innovative tactics furniture retailers can use to elevate and differentiate the online shopping experience.

1. Create an Engaging and Friction-Free eCommerce Experience

Customers expect a seamless and engaging digital experience, especially when shopping for home furnishings. Retailers must deliver a fast, intuitive, and consistent experience across all channels—whether on desktop, mobile, or an app. Each channel should embody the soul of the retailer’s brand and be fully linked to the others. Wherever the consumer decides to engage, the experience should be a continuation of their previous experience, creating an easy, intuitive, and connected experience at every touchpoint.

Furniture retailers can offer a visually compelling and friction-free online shopping experience by:

• Creating a Dynamic App Experience: Design an app with customer-centric features like a smart search bar, personalized recommendations, and real-time updates on the latest discounts and promotions. These features make it easier for shoppers to discover products they’ll love and create a more engaging, personalized experience.
• Optimizing Images: Compress images without reducing quality to increase page speed. Customers expect a lightning-fast shopping experience, and even a single-second delay in load time can lead to a significant drop in conversions (up to 20%).
• Integrating Interactive and Streamlined Navigation: Enhance navigation with intuitive menus, dynamic content, and easy-to-use filters that guide customers seamlessly through their shopping journey.
• Friction-Free Checkout: A smooth and easy checkout process is essential for converting browsers into buyers.

2. Flexible Payment Solutions: Giving Consumers A Choice

 Today’s shoppers—especially Gen Z and Millennials—expect more than traditional payment options at checkout. They expect a diverse range of flexible, convenient payment choices. Over half of Gen Z (56%) and millennial customers (57%) abandoned a purchase in the past six months because their preferred payment method was not offered at checkout.

One rapidly growing popular payment option is lease-to-own (LTO). Retailers can easily integrate LTO directly at checkout to meet this demand. LTO empowers furniture retailers to serve non-prime customers—an often-overlooked segment in traditional financing. A clear, easy-to-understand LTO solution at checkout gives customers more flexibility while increasing conversions for retailers. By offering LTO, merchants can:

• Access new shoppers who can drive incremental sales
• Achieve higher conversion rates and lower cart abandonment
• Drive repeat customer purchase rates higher
• Eliminate recourse from customer defaults
• Remove interchange costs related to the transaction
• Get rid of risks related to out-of-window returns

3. Strategic Partnerships: Enhancing Customer Experience while Driving Mutual Growth

Successful strategic partnerships are built on shared goals and mutual success. The results can be transformative when both partners are aligned in their mission to enhance the customer experience.

For furniture retailers, the right partnerships can help tap into new customer segments, leverage data-driven marketing to drive incremental sales and create seamless shopping experiences that drive higher engagement and conversion. We recommend partnerships that focus on:

• Co-Branded Campaigns & Exclusive Promotions: Collaborating on marketing initiatives amplifies brand exposure and attracts new shoppers.
• Shared Data & Insights: Leveraging customer insights from both partners delivers more targeted marketing efforts and higher conversion rates.
• Omnichannel Growth Strategies: Expanding reach through a mix of digital touchpoints, from social media to email and in-app engagement.

At Katapult, sustainable growth happens when both partners bring value. That’s why we go beyond simply offering a lease-to-own payment solution—we work hand-in-hand with our merchant partners to develop custom, data-driven marketing campaigns that reach high-intent shoppers across multiple channels. We are not simply a payment option; we are a growth partner.

This collaborative approach delivers real impact. For example, one Katapult merchant partner saw a 101% increase in gross originations and a 64% boost in conversions through a co-branded holiday campaign, proving that strategic alignment leads to meaningful growth for both parties. 

4. Optimize Checkout and Reduce Cart Abandonment

 Cart abandonment is a significant challenge for eCommerce retailers, with average rates around 70%. A streamlined checkout process is critical to encouraging customers to complete their purchases.

Focus on:

• Guest Checkout: Allow customers to purchase without creating an account.
• Multiple Payment Options: Offer multiple payment methods, including LTO, to cater to all shoppers.
• Transparent Pricing: Ensure no hidden fees or surprises at checkout.
• Autofill Functionality: Make form completion quick and easy.
• Progress Indicators: Add progress indicators to guide customers through checkout.

By anticipating consumer expectations, collaborating with the right partners, and leveraging digital innovation, furniture retailers can differentiate their businesses, enhance the shopping experience, and drive sustainable growth in the competitive eCommerce landscape.

 Want to take your eCommerce experience to the next level? Partner with Katapult today and discover how our lease-to-own solutions and growth strategies can help boost your business.