You are going to start looking for new furniture, whether it is a sofa, kitchen table, or bedroom set, think about how your journey will begin. Are you going to go straight to the store, look online, in catalogs? Seventy percent of customers today do check out websites before going into any physical store. Your website is the first contact that customers will have with your brand, which is why it’s so important to make it customer friendly, and unique compared to competitors. Here are some simple tactics to make your website stand out:
Create An Online Showroom
Your site should be about more than just listing your inventory. Show full pictures of the entire furniture piece, and photographs detailing of the wood, fabric, or other textures so that the customer has a clear idea of how it looks and feels. Keep your inventory and descriptions as up-to-date as your showroom, advertising all current promotions. Consider working with a dedicated web team that can post, update and continuously improve your websites as needed.
Be Interactive
Fun and interactive design experiences can help increase the chances of getting your customers to take the next step in the sale (whether it is buying online or going in-store). Consider this your virtual interaction with customers. Interactive design can be creating product detail pages that showcase a 3-D furniture model that they can change the color of and rotate it 360 degrees. However, creating interactive design doesn’t have to be this complicated, and can be as simple as offering a zoom option on the images to showcase details of your furniture pieces.
Be Helpful
Create website copy (or even a blog) that helps customers with everyday furniture problems, and you add value to your brand and your website. Most customers who visit a furniture websites aren’t ready to buy and are probably still shopping around. Give them the help and guidance they need and prove that you are knowledgeable in your industry. Consider what problems customers encounter when purchasing a new piece of furniture, and write articles about these topics. Doing so makes you more memorable to potential buyers than just showcasing furniture, without explaining how it can be used, how it will improve your customer’s life, or what it does to solve a problem they have.
Develop Trust
A trustworthy website can go a long way, and so can a good first impression. Surprisingly, both of these things go hand in hand when it comes to your website. If you are in a shady neighborhood, where the storefronts are run down, and in disrepair, are you likely to walk into and shop in that store? Probably not. Same goes for your website. Good design can help make a good impression, and help develop trust with both new and returning customers. Using your company’s images (not stock), including testimonials on your site, and keeping your customers at the center of your content are also excellent ways to build and maintain trust with your customers.
Continuously Improve
Your website, like your business, shouldn’t ever stay the same. As new generations come along and need your furniture products, you need to adapt your business to have longevity. Each demographic has different needs, wants, problems they need to solve. Keep your website up to date to reflect the needs of your audience. After a while, also, websites and logos become outdated, and it’s time for a new look.