According to a 2024 survey, 86% of consumers start their research online. This statistic highlights the importance of providing furniture companies with a seamless and engaging digital experience. Shoppers today expect more than just attractive furniture—they want inspiration, customization, and convenience throughout their buying journey. Meeting these expectations isn’t without its challenges, particularly when it comes to increasing online traffic, driving engagement, and converting interest into in-store visits.
This blog explores some customer experience challenges furniture companies encounter in providing excellent customer experiences, including improving their digital footprint and driving online interest into in-store visits.
Three key challenges to delivering a great customer experience
1. Building a robust digital presence
Consumers often begin their furniture-buying journey online, researching styles, comparing prices, and gathering ideas. However, they can struggle to visualize your furniture in their home, so furniture retailers must go beyond static images to help them.
Your customers expect fast, intuitive, and visually rich online platforms that make browsing enjoyable and efficient. Poor navigation, slow load times, or lack of interactivity can quickly drive them away.
Yes, reinventing websites and platforms to provide a richer and more interactive experience might seem like an overwhelming undertaking, but it’s no longer an option for businesses that want to continue thriving.
2. Driving traffic from online to in-store
Although online research is often the first step in the buying journey, many customers still prefer visiting physical stores to see, touch, and evaluate furniture before committing to a purchase.
However, successfully driving web visitors to stores can be challenging for several reasons:
- Online and in-store experiences often feel disconnected. Customers may find a product online but face difficulty locating it in-store, leading to a frustrating experience.
- Features like online inventory checks, store appointment booking, or virtual try-outs can create a more seamless transition but are often missing.
Creating a cohesive experience online and offline can seem like a huge undertaking for furniture retailers, but it’s an essential step in turning browsers into buyers.
3. Supporting every stage of the buying journey
The customer journey in furniture shopping is complex, spanning inspiration, imagination, personalization, and purchase. Each stage requires tailored support, yet many companies lack the tools to meet these needs effectively, such as:
- Inspiration: Customers seek ideas and visual guidance but often navigate static galleries lacking context.
- Imagination: Tools that allow customers to project furniture in their own spaces are becoming essential but are still underutilized in the industry.
- Personalization: Standardized furniture offerings no longer suffice for customers who expect customizable options that reflect their personal style.
- Purchase: Cumbersome processes, inconsistent pricing, and lack of inventory visibility can derail the final step.
Let’s explore some of the ways that digital tools can help address these customer expectations.
How digital tools address customer experience challenges
1. Inspiration: enhanced visualization and interactive tools
Inspiring customers starts with helping them imagine possibilities.
Instead of static images, advanced tools like 360-degree product views or virtual walkthroughs of styled rooms help customers explore items from different angles and visualize their real-world applications. This shifts the experience from passive browsing to active discovery.
For example, a retailer offering customizable storage solutions can use these tools to let customers experiment with different layouts and configurations online. Such immersive content inspires customers while increasing time spent on the website and the likelihood of conversion.
2. Imagination: bringing concepts to life
The imagination phase is about bridging the gap between ideas and tangible possibilities.
Customers want to see how furniture will fit and look in their spaces, but static visuals and vague measurements often fall short. Digital tools can elevate this experience by making visualization intuitive and realistic. For example:
- Interactive 3D room planners that let customers input their room dimensions, add architectural elements (like windows and doors), and experiment with furniture layouts in real time. Customers can visualize how a specific sofa fits alongside a bookshelf or how a dining table looks in their room.
- Augmented Reality (AR) integration apps that allow customers to project virtual furniture directly into their living spaces, such as our product configurator. This creates an immediate and realistic way to assess whether a piece will work in terms of size, color, and style.
By enabling customers to design their projects in a few minutes with user-friendly interfaces, companies empower buyers to feel more in control of their decisions. This imaginative step becomes a natural bridge from online interest to in-store exploration, where they can finalize their design with expert assistance.
3. Personalization: tailored options for every customer
Why does personalization matter so much?
The answer lies in a psychological phenomenon called the IKEA effect. Studies show that consumers place higher value on items they’ve had a hand in creating—even when the process is simple.
Businesses can foster deeper emotional connections with their products by giving customers the tools to design and visualize their own storage solutions, driving satisfaction and loyalty.
Retailers specializing in modular furniture or customizable closets can particularly benefit from such features. These features allow customers to experiment with design options online and later review them in-store with a consultant, creating a sense of ownership and commitment before purchase.
4. Purchase: simplifying the final step
Even after customers find the perfect product, challenges in inventory visibility, pricing clarity, and order processes can derail the sale. Digital solutions ensure a smooth, stress-free transition to purchase, for example through:
- Integrated stock and pricing visibility: customers can confidently check what’s in stock or on backorder before making a trip to the store.
- Omnichannel checkout options allow customers to start their purchase online and complete it in-store or vice-versa. For example, they can reserve a product online for in-store pickup.
- In-store self-service kiosks allow customers to pick up where they left off online, refining their designs or exploring new ideas.
- Equipping sales teams with tablets gives them real-time access to inventory, customer projects, and sales data, improving the overall in-store experience.
Streamlining the purchase process ensures customers leave with a positive final impression, building trust and loyalty for future transactions.
The next step: embracing the future of furniture retail
As personalization and technology continue to shape the furniture retail industry, businesses that embrace these trends will stand out as leaders. Whether through 3D configurators, AR tools, or greater personalization options, investing in transformative customer experiences is the key to long-term success.
Ready to take your retail business to the next level? Discover HomeByMe. With our web-based 3D room planners, intuitive product configurators, and seamless integration across online and in-store channels, we empower businesses to create engaging, customized experiences at every stage of the buying journey. Let us help solve your customer experience challenges!
