Just as you do with many other adult firsts, you probably went to your parents when you started thinking about your first set of matched furniture. If so, you may have gotten quite a negative response. Once upon a time buying large items like pieces of furniture online was fraught with perils, and as such most people have shied away from online furniture stores for years.
But when you look at the history of furniture shopping online, it is easy to understand why the thought makes them uneasy. The shipping costs alone were so high that buying furniture online just wasn’t feasible for most people, and could often be higher than the price of the furniture itself.
You see, sites would promise low prices, then hit you with huge delivery fees on the bottom line of your invoice that make the purchase actually cost more than buying it locally. Worse yet, some of those sites did so without clearly notifying their customers of the extra charges until they hit their bank account. The high delivery costs weren’t entirely nefarious, however, as it was very expensive to have home furniture delivered to a residence.
But not much of that is true today. Society has been shifting to making more and more purchases online, and the pandemic rocketed those trends onto a whole new level. As online shopping has become more and more popular, shipping methods have improved while costs have decreased. Today, almost every online store has a free shipping offer, with some requiring a minimum purchase in either cost or quantity to be eligible.
Shipping isn’t the only aspect of online shopping that has changed drastically in a short amount of time. Now that high delivery costs are no longer an issue, you need additional evidence to present to your parents that shows shopping for furniture online isn’t just safe, it is more affordable and diverse. The next point in your argument should be the pricing and overall costs of ordering furniture online.
There are a lot of aspects of running a brick-and-mortar retail business that just don’t apply to online stores. With a decreased need for human resources and decreased overhead in general, online stores are able to have a much lower cost of goods sold. Most of them pass those savings on to their customers in the form of lower everyday prices.
But you can also find tons of great furniture on sale for seemingly unbelievable prices by shopping online as well. Since they typically have available space for additional inventory, online stores can also offer clearance items at deep discounts. Even if you know exactly what you want locally, it just makes sense to buy furniture online when the prices are lower.
Speaking of which, by going online to order your new furniture set, you also have a much wider variety to choose from. The possibilities are only limited by your own imagination. You should be able to find the perfect furniture you love, rather than settling on what is available at your local furniture store.
The final argument you will hear against buying furniture online is that the quality and service is poor. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The only real difference in ordering online is that there will likely be at least some minor assembly required, but that doesn’t decrease its stability or durability as long as it is done correctly.
Bonus Argument! Some locales do not require that you pay sales taxes on items purchased online. Who doesn’t love lower taxes?
