7 Essential Features for a WOW Online Furniture Store

We live in the age of the internet where you can find almost anything online. The internet has simplified all aspects of our life and the e-commerce website is one such industry where convenience shines. In a world where time and money is everything, most of the shoppers are making their purchases online. This also means that if you are an online retailer on the lookout for customers, you might want your web-based storefront to be well equipped.

Things get a bit more complicated if you are planning to or currently operating an online furniture store. But that’s for later, right now, let’s just talk about furniture in general. We know how people have always invested good money to decorate their homes with designer furniture.

Earlier, it required much time and effort just to find such stores that sold suitable furniture, sometimes even covering lots of distance for one. But now you can easily search for it online. You can easily browse loads of furniture designs through these stores besides ordering them online from the comfort of your home.

StoreHippo, as an e-commerce solutions provider, understands the importance of a website; what it means for furniture designers and store owners and how not having one will make them lose loads of business to the competitors with websites. But having just a website in today’s times is not enough, you have to make it better than your competitors to gain more sales.

Unlike other e-commerce sites, furniture website development requires some essential and distinct web design features. Below are 7 of them that can take your business places:

Essential Features for an Online Furniture Store

Detailed Product Description

In brick and mortar stores, we are used to store-representatives offering us the desired information and answer to our queries. However, when we talk online, there is usually only a product description available. So, what you can do from your end is to make that description as good as possible. Try adding details like the type of design, wood, fabric, dimensions, colour, brand etc. Use images as well taken from different angles. A picture of the furniture in a well-furnished room might give the buyer a good idea about how it will look like in real home.

Managed Product Catalogue

An ideal e-commerce website should be set up such that it provides better convenience than going to an actual furniture store. For that to happen, you need to choose an e-commerce software that offers easy-to-navigate features besides a clear-cut, intuitive flow for your customers to follow. Other things you can do to effectively manage product catalogue are, including search bar at the top, main product categories beneath it and the related items in the description area.

Review Section for Products

Nowadays, many e-commerce solutions include a customer review section for the products to help online shoppers with the buying process. It can be considered as an equivalent to the recommendations you get from your friends and family before purchasing any product. These online reviews are vital to virtual shopping and serve as an excellent selling tactic for online businesses. We strongly recommend the use of video reviews with tutorials on how to use and some detailed personal experiences.

Subscription Box

Those who have been running an online furniture store for some time now know how hard it is to include all furniture designs to their e-store. The demerit of this is, if the visitor didn’t find what he was looking for in the first time, there’s a slight chance he will visit again and e-commerce is all about staying connected in order to get more business. So, if you create a subscriber box to offer auto updates on new arrivals through newsletters, you can easily remain connected with your potential customers and over time, can build your own email list to furthermore sales.

Transparent Shipping Options

Transparent shipping options, whether your e-commerce website offers free or not, is another important aspect of checking out online. Though free shipping in many cases ensures a guaranteed sale, there are other shipping options as well that that scored high, one includes providing an estimated shipping total during the early stages. You would be surprised to know how many shopping carts are abandoned every day because of an unexpectedly high total after adding shipping. Do not let this happen to your site.

Go Mobile

Since most of the online searches these days are taking place on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, it is much better to apply the mobile-first approach from the start. Your online furniture store will not only offer convenience to your online shoppers but also the freedom to access your web store from any device of their choice. Just make sure your new responsive site is handling all the features and functions of your e-store flawlessly, offering your users a vivid browsing experience that compliments their overall opinion of your brand.

Effortless Checkout Procedure

Last but not the least comes the online checkout procedure. Another important reason buyers abandon their purchases is the often ignored, overcomplicated checkout procedure. Buyers usually avoid going to the brick and mortar stores because of the long queues and a lot of time waiting in line at the cashiers especially during the peak hours. So, if your e-commerce solution also presents a similar scenario to your customers, they will instantly turn over to your competitors. Also, avoid mandatory registration before purchase.

Conclusion

Now that we know creating and operating an e-commerce webstore that is appealing both practically and aesthetically is not an easy task, it is time to start working on all the elements mentioned above so as to make your website as functional and attractive to your visitors as possible.

Applying these features will further ensure that your online furniture store has all the required features which will not only enable the smooth business process but will also enhance the user experience on your e-store besides leading to increased sales.

Storehippo offers all the above features and so if you don't have a store yet you should start 14-days free trial and check the awesome range of features.