Furniture Shopping: Should You Buy Online or In-Person?
More and more people are turning to online shopping to find what they need. We get our groceries delivered right to our door. People buy shoes without trying them on, and size charts have replaced fitting rooms. What about furniture stores? Can you trust online stores when it comes to home decor and furniture? We wanted to weigh the pros and cons of shopping online vs. in-person for furniture.
Online Furniture Shopping
Pros
The main pros for online shopping in any industry are price and options. Online shopping means you can window shop and compare a vast amount of options. You can find what you’re looking for and find it at a discount as many online stores are more competitive with price.
Cons
This seemingly endless selection can be very appealing as it gives you the illusion of finding the “perfect” item just based on all the choices available. However, it can also be very overwhelming. To get into the true cons of online shopping, we have to look at the pros of shopping for furniture in-person.
In-Person Furniture Shopping
Pros
In-person shopping is the only real way to know what you’re buying. Often, colour and material cannot be genuinely showcased in a photo on a screen, and with photo editing tools, a cheap knock-off can look appealing online. In-person shopping means you can sit on a sofa or touch an armoire to make sure of its quality, is the right colour, and is comfortable. Online stores can easily oversell products. You have no way of knowing if these descriptions are accurate until the item arrives — even many customer reviews are written by the companies selling the item.
No matter how honest the descriptions and how accurate the photos are, there’s always a risk with online shopping that you just don’t have when heading to a brick-and-mortar furniture store.
Another benefit to shopping in person is the human connection. We could all use a little more of this lately, and we’ve been hearing many customers mention how nice it feels to be out of the house and connecting with real people. That connection is nice all the time, not just during a pandemic.
When you shop in-store, you’re also supporting local businesses and the local team that works there. Local businesses and their employees, in turn, spend money and pay taxes in the same community as you, which supports parks, roads, healthcare, education, sports, the arts, and more!
Cons
Most people turn to online shopping for the perceived better price. It can feel as though prices are higher in-store. However, if you factor in the help from sales professionals and designers and not paying for shipping (or return shipping, if the product isn’t what you want), the price is relatively comparable between online and in-store products of similar quality.
The other main con with in-person shopping is the feeling of limited options. When shopping online, you can just keep searching until you find that “perfect” sofa or table. On the other hand, when you walk into a brick-and-mortar store, you’re “limited” to what’s there.
Or are you?
At LUXE, we eliminate these cons by offering custom design so that you’re never limited and can design the exact furniture you want with our complimentary design help. Having our expert interior design staff help you create the perfect piece is something you won’t find with online shopping. We also offer fair pricing on quality home furnishings and discounts on floor models. We eliminate the cons while keeping all the pros. Shop in-person for your dream furniture and never wake up to an online shopping nightmare again. Come into the showroom today.