Transform your retail store website
From online catalog to an extension of your sales staff with these furniture website tips that are sure to increase sales!
Is your furniture store website delivering quality leads, capturing details on every visitor, and assisting consumers in their research so they move closer to making a purchase? If not, it’s time to turn your website into a great salesperson with these furniture website tips.
Ditch the Digital Brochure Approach
Interactive technology on a website makes the online consumer experience engaging and personalized, much like the fancy websites of big box stores and e-commerce heavyweights.
“Websites tend to be very much like an online brochure, with products and price listings and some basic content visitors can read through,” says PERQ Co-founder Scott Hill. “By keeping people on the site longer and providing richer engagement with the brand, you build up mindshare, which quickly moves them closer to purchasing.”
Increase Engagement Time on Website
Furniture stores can drastically increase website visitor engagement by offering interactive quizzes and helpful tools to create a guided online shopping experience.
After implementing PERQ’s technology last year, Knight Furniture & Mattress in Texas experienced a big lift in online engagement and in-store sales. “It’s increased time on site by about double,” says Knight Furniture Vice President Joey Gunn. “I needed my website to be better than all of my local competitors, and I really wanted to take it to the next level. Something not many companies do is remember to adapt your website to mobile. It keeps them on my site longer and off my competitors’ by adding value.”
Generate Better Lead Information
Many furniture websites only gather lead information if a visitor fills out a static “contact us” form, and that basic information offers little help in closing a sale. Be sure to entice online shoppers into giving you detailed information about themselves (and their purchase preferences) by offering valuable research in return.
Help shoppers narrow down the best kind of mattress for their sleep habits or pick a sofa style through fun, quick quizzes that don’t seem obtrusive. In return, furniture retailers capture higher quality leads that result in more sales. In analyzing clients’ data, we’ve found interactive content generates 500% more data collected than websites without an interactive experience.
Track the Customer Journey
It’s important to track individual website visitors to see what pages they’ve viewed, how long they spent on each page, as well as everything they clicked on. In-depth analytics show retailers what’s successful and what isn’t working well on their website. It also gives their sales teams detailed information about each online shopper that can be used to convert a lead.
“We encourage our sales team, before they respond to a lead, to follow that customer journey,” Gunn says. “All of a sudden, we have way more information and customer insight to work with.”
Personalize the Website Experience
Furniture retailers can also leverage a visitor’s internet “cookies” to personalize the website experience. PERQ software tracks an online shopper’s behavior for 180 days, so the websites remember shoppers every time they visit — even greeting them by name. Shoppers don’t even have to re-enter information or see the same offers twice, which moves them onto the next buying step.
To inspire consumers to visit the showroom, serve up smart Calls to Action like personalized promotions. Delivering targeted content and incentives makes the navigation process more intuitive, less frustrating, and entices your consumers to visit the showroom.
Homeowner Janet Dixon bought several big pieces of furniture such as a white high gloss tv unit, after her children left for college. Dixon started her research online and then purchased in-store. She says inadequate search functions and irrelevant pop-up advertisements on furniture websites annoy her.
“Online shopping is only enjoyable when it is easy to navigate and I can go right to what I am looking for without digging and searching through unrelated items,” Dixon says.
Offer a Connected Website Experience
Combine some or all of these furniture website tips to create a connected online experience that guides consumers down the sales funnel, and ultimately drives them from the research phase into the showroom to buy. “Your website is an important thing to focus on. It’s a critical marketing tool,” says PERQ Sales Manager Doug Stump. “Starting there makes sense.”
