Online Furniture Store for Retailers - Development, Opportunities and Challenges

1. Online furniture selling is a vital part of the wider eCommerce business industry and an important trend in the existing market. The global market of buying from online furniture store is expected to grow at over 8% in 2023. According to a leading report, the global market for the furniture industry is forecast to reach $985 billion by 2023. A wide range of goods, from inexpensive to expensive showpieces are available in an online furniture store for buyers. Every year, the volume of shoppers is surging, and to meet their demands a feature-rich eCommerce store is a necessity. With the regular advancement in eCommerce, it has become important for furniture brands to create an engaging online experience. The big furniture brands have already invested heavily in creating an omnichannel strategy. So besides their brick-and-mortar store, they deliver a smooth online shopping experience. With the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and no specific end date, furniture retailers can no longer operate from offline stores. Instead, they need to consult eCommerce development services and step up their game by offering personalized shopping experiences. Numerous methods are available to build an engaging online furniture store. Here are some key features that renowned furniture brands implemented to increase their revenue. Features of an Online Furniture Store

2. 360-DegreeView When it comes to online shopping, customers look for a feature to touch and examine the products. To make this a reality, furniture companies can integrate 3D visualization technologies. With technological advancements, customers get the feature to examine the products in great detail through 360-degree spin views. According to experts, “eCommerce website design featuring 360-degree features have 50% higher conversion rates, and 20-25% reduced returns.” When planning to build an eCommerce store, you need to provide customers with the best possible shopping experience. That means a method is needed to create an online experience that will replicate the sense of buying from a physical store. Web-Native AR

3. Having augmented reality (AR) in your online furniture store will increase online sales and customer satisfaction. The best way to stay ahead of competitors is to offer a shopping experience that will keep customers engaged. And the best process to achieve that is by giving real-life furniture experience. According to eCommerce experts, customers that engage with AR are more likely to convert. Web-native AR allows customers to access the product in real-time in their room. All they need to do is select the specific furniture and open a preview of it in their space. Knowing that AR is a crucial trend to integrate, especially for the furniture store, hiring Magento developer functionality for customers to place 3D models of selected products without downloading any app. This has resulted in higher customer engagement and getting higher ROI. is a necessity. They provide Mobile Responsive Approach

4. The usage of mobile gadgets like smartphones & tablets has increased immensely in the past few years. Advancements in technology have changed the way of shopping and everything is available at the fingertips. Customers look for a high-quality, fast, and secure mobile browsing experience. Thanks to the advancement eCommerce business has noticed huge growth. As per the Oberlo survey, mobile commerce sales are projected to reach $7.56 trillion in 2023. in mobile device usage, Furniture businesses that are still not using this are missing out on the opportunity for a growing customer base segment. In contrast, those taking mobile on a serious note has already started enjoying the rewards. Product Recommendations

5. Furniture vendors try to bring personalized shopping experiences across all channels. Offering product recommendations to your customers can put you in the driver's seat ahead of your competition. As per Accenture, 93% of consumers prefer brands that provide them with proper product recommendations. The marketing strategy has changed, and now retailers have started implementing advanced product suggestion tactics. Today, brands consult Magento 2 development company to use personalized shopping experiences across their online furniture store homepages. You can feel personalized services even on the product detail pages, shopping cart, and checkout sections. Brands are giving priority to personalizing their entire website to know their customers better. To focus on individual messaging across different customer segments, extensions can be integrated. Many furniture brands have achieved increased revenue and 80% higher conversion rates in a very short duration. Experts Virtual Consultations When building a mesmerizing furniture shopping experience for your customers, adding a virtual consultation is of high importance. Video consulting helps customers to requirements to purchase through expert advice. According to Magento, customers spend up to 60% more when getting a personalized expert virtual consultation. properly analyze their furniture Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak, furniture businesses had to focus on new sales strategies and channels to engage customers. However, the addition of online consultation has proven to be so advantageous that it will remain, even after the brick-and-mortar becomes fully functional and everything is back to normal.

6. Product Returns Ever since a major shift from physical stores to online platforms has happened, brands have experienced a massive surge in product returns. When it comes to numbers, it saw an increase of 65% in the number of product returns. The best approach to reduce the rate of product return is to add product visualization. Having high-quality, 360-degree visuals can give customers an idea of what they’re buying. They’ll be knowing what product they are receiving. Besides this, features offering a flexible product return policy can encourage customers to engage with your online furniture store. Furniture brands started offering because they realized that it’s an important factor in making a buying decision. By offering a transparent return policy, retailers can improve brand loyalty and prevent losing prospects. Meanwhile, buyers can have trust before purchasing from a brand, knowing that they can return the product if not meet expectations. Numerous top-rated separate department managing return policies to keep their customers satisfied. furniture companies have Multi-Lingual and Currency Support

7. Online furniture stores are successful for customers that sprawl across different parts of the world. If your website is integrated with the option to receive payment in different currencies then it can engage global prospects. Note that it’s a functionality that won’t waste and will be remembered by customers. Tax calculation is another important feature to include during the online furniture store development process. This feature is vital to reduce tax liability. The key objective of incorporating a tax calculator is to ensure that there is tax efficiency. Major Development Challenges During eCommerce Assuming you are well versed with crucial features to add to your online furniture store. Next, you need to understand common challenges during store development and how to address them effectively. Data Security

8. Every second an eCommerce website is experiencing data breaches around the world and it can happen to you. A breach not only ends in data loss but also in brand reputation and customer trust. Worldwide, over 70% of eCommerce websites have been attacked at least once. In 2021 alone, 30 million attacks were reported, and ransomware cases surge by 125%. To ensure security, follow tips:       Add strong passwords Store only the required data Select a secure platform and add patches regularly to fix vulnerabilities Integrate custom-made plugins to secure against possible brute force attacks Comply checkout with with PCI SSC Prioritize working with a business-as-a-solution (BaaS) provider Magento is considered for best security parameters and can help you to secure website. Customer Loyalty

9. Being in an online business you are aware that it costs 5X more to engage a new customer than retain an existing one. Customers explore different options before making a buying decision. That is why having uniqueness and positive shopping experiences are highly significant. If the customers get relevant experiences with your brand, loyalty comes automatically. The marketplace is just one channel for brand presence, so focus on building a high-quality B2B eCommerce platform for your brand. Some of the most popular techniques are the inclusion of mobile- responsive platform and the use of AI-powered chatbots for customer service. In addition, leveraging marketing automation features for brand visibility, and adding customer reviews, and using loyalty programs. Sales Optimization The online furniture store has changed drastically in the last few years and now features technological growth. To improve business sales, the

10. approach needs to be convincing and, more importantly, perfect in execution. Proper placement and presentation of the product are not sufficient for sales, focus on design elements as well to boost conversions. Knowing consumer behavior is the right strategy to start with as you are aware of customers' buying habits. This overall approach gives proper insights to add features and encourages shoppers to buy more. Other crucial additions include extensions collection systems, and other measurements. comprising chatbots, feedback Out of Stock and Inventory Overload Inventory overload and products out of stock are huge concerns for online furniture stores. However, a Services mentioned key steps to fix this annoying problem. So, how it works? team of Magento Support Your team gathers insights on how customers buy, and how much they need to order, to keep products always in stock. Warehouse management software is present to keep an eye on inventory and purchase records. Let’s learn B2B operation for instance. With the professional B2B eCommerce team, you can integrate your specific extension to meet your specific needs. This is a much better choice than the solutions which might not bring desired results completely. You do not have to do any sort of manual calculation of inventory and with the introduction of AI systems, the whole process becomes simplified. Poor User Experience

11. Customers nowadays need an engaging online experience. They want the website to load quickly, show images properly, scrolling is simple, have fast navigation, and have a secure checkout process. Reliability with convenience brings excellence in UX design that the customers today seek in an online furniture store. The experience while focusing on rich content. From exploring a product, adding to a cart, or just navigating categories, shoppers want an engaging experience. core strategy is to remove every obstacle in designing user For example, search functionality including sorting and filtering is needed to make finding products easy. As the customers shop, they look for guest checkout as well with multiple payment features. They don’t want that their time wasted when the final page has no desired payment mode. Include AI features to manage inventory and AR/VR for 360-degree view with a personalized experience. The richer the content, the longer your prospects stay shopping. SEO Mastery

12. Content is king for a website and its presentation plays a vital role in customer engagement. It leaves a strong impact on the target audience. Every year, new algorithms are introduced for SEO, so staying updated is a challenge. There is also stiff competition from social channels. It has become simple to attract people using ads than organic SEO. However, experts prefer SEO for website growth, visibility and ranking. The trends in SEO prioritize user experience, building original content, working on featured snippets, video content, voice search, and mobile- responsive. For instance, if you get the right Magento marketplace development service, you can automate and get expertise on how SEO is performed. Important for Online Furniture Store Emerging Technology Trends eCommerce business have exploded in the past few years, driven by advanced technologies and innovations. Because of the ever-growing domain, your B2B eCommerce platform has to stay ahead of the curve. To ease the pressure, you need latest features and technological trends for your business success. Chatbots

13. People when browsing online have a limited attention span and patience. If they have any queries, or need any support, as the retailer, you have the perfect opportunity to serve them. Here’s where the importance of chatbots comes into the picture. While these software applications aren’t new, technological advances in AI have turned them into powerful marketing tools. Integrating them into an online furniture store will bring fruitful outcomes with timely customer support. Augmented and Virtual Reality Just consider the below statistics:  66% of shoppers prefer buying from eCommerce brands integrated with virtual reality.

14.  In response, more than 20% will be implementing AR in 2023 to enhance the online shopping experience. Augmented and virtual reality addresses the most annoying problem of buyers related to online shopping. The look and feel of the product, when purchased from the eCommerce store, is always missing. Having a non- static, 360-degree, and 3D product view gives shoppers a better level of buying confidence. Voice Search Doing voice-integrated shopping is no doubt quite engaging. But on the other end, textual data is required to perform conventional shopping. The voice search shopping feature is eCommerce development and its numbers. integrated importance during is the Magento the below from  In 2018, only 10% of the purchases were voice based. In 2022, the figure become doubled at 20%. Several technology expect voice-search will generate a $40 Billion channel by 2023. 48% of consumers use voice enabled devices for shopping. 46% of the consumers performing voice purchases done it for products research.    The trend is slowly engaging eCommerce brands. In the next few years, voice-driven purchases will be the norm. And with the presence of voice- enabled functionality, your store will be ahead of the competitors. Push Notifications

15. Magento supports push notifications feature for customer engagement. Brands integrate it at one of the micro moments that improves purchase.  Push notification software market was at $80 Billion in 2018. It is expected to reach over $400 Billion by 2026. The CAGR revealed by the market will cross 80% from 2019 to 2026.  Furthermore, the consumer feedback also spells luck for the businesses.    App engagement is enhanced by 80% via push notifications. If push notifications is activated, 70% of the users return on continuous basis. 55% of the users make shopping plan after checking push notification alert. Push personalized texts. This helps to access regular insights, timely feedback, and creating a strong marketing plan. also allows businesses to analyze buying patterns and offer Social Commerce

16. When it comes to the growth of online sales, adding social commerce trends is a must. Shoppers look for eCommerce websites integrated with social channels for sharing and knowing about the latest offers. The number of online ads is growing over social channels. This makes people aware of the latest products & services in a simplified manner. Thus, a dedicated Magento 2 Developer never misses out on such a popular trend. It has become an important trend to integrate for guaranteed success of any online selling store. Benefits of eCommerce Business Model Every eCommerce business model is the perfect option. A brand can expand its business to global audience with minimum capital investment by focusing on using the eCommerce business model. An online selling platform can help to achieve multiple benefits as mentioned below. brand looks for growth in its segment and for that Engage New Customers

17. Millions of people across the globe are active on the internet for multiple reasons. By taking your business to an online platform, it becomes simple to expand the product portfolio thus engaging more customers. Moreover, retailers can engage new audiences as they have the liberty to view your website at any time. eCommerce websites offer flexible and personalized user experience thus improving your business reach. Customer Tracking With the use of web analytic tools, online furniture stores can gather data about their customers. Tools can monitor every action that customer performs on the website including clicks, and bounce rate. These details help to optimize your website. The eCommerce model helps to grow sales as well as add new products to the website. Reduce Operational Costs

18. One of the key benefits of using eCommerce websites is reduced operating costs. It helps a brand manage and share customer data accordingly as well as personalize the shopping experience. This is possible through the removal of manual paperwork. In comparison to the legacy approach, brands feel eCommerce is a convenient means to boost product sales. Advertising and marketing via online websites can improve brand reach and engage prospects. eCommerce automates both inventory and shipping work, sales records, bills, and payment processes. Time-Saving With the growth in advanced technologies, customers prefer reaching out to eCommerce stores in search of products. It is a time-saving and simple methodology as setting up a store is easy too. An effective eCommerce website is always helpful and customers can buy their desired products within a few clicks. It is cost-effective and online selling assists in growing overall organization productivity. Improve Communication

19. eCommerce grows your business productivity by expanding your product portfolio and improving communication with prospects. It’s important to build your websites as per customer necessities and market trends. You can build a custom Magento marketplace development that can boost your reach to the global audience. B2B organizations can enhance their brand awareness by developing quality content. Seeing the above benefits it becomes crucial to build an eCommerce store for your furniture brand. Consult an eCommerce development company to make the best use of Magento platform. Final Words Online furniture store needs that you bring a lot of planning to be able to stand the competition. But this pandemic has changed every brand to invest in online business to surge. You can count on the above tips and important features to amp up your energy for online store development. With these features' integration, you can reap numerous benefits that you have always wished to enhance your furniture business. Online furniture store development requires both investments in time and money. You can choose a cheap platform for building a furniture store. But think from the customer's perspective. Given a choice, would you be interested to buy furniture from a sluggish online website? Like in the real world, a buyer would engage with a well-built and professionally designed online store rather than an unappealing and hastily made one.