Furniture Ecommerce
7-Step Guide To Launching An Online Store For Newbies
In the era of the Internet and various platforms, remote shopping has become more popular and used. This format makes it easier to reach a much larger audience and, accordingly, get more profit. Ecommerce for furniture manufacturers and marketers are also in the list of those, who try to keep up with the times.
However, such a sharp rise in ecomm business has led to a wide and strong competition among online shops. That is why it is especially hard to launch a successful website for a beginner. Hard but not impossible.
There are many ways on how to start your ecommerce furniture business and create an online store. You can either try to contact developers and marketing specialists or do everything by yourself. If you’re choosing the last option, here is a short guide on one way how to do it.
#1. Preparatory Phase
First of all, you need to make up a business plan, analyze the market and your competitors. It will also be a good idea to take into account all the statistics related to ecommerce furniture such as furniture ecommerce conversion rate, potential risks and ways to avoid them, etc. Apart from that, it will be needed to deal with the legal part – store registration and taxes.
Once this is done, a few more issues need to be resolved. Furniture retail is a business that requires a lot of space. Even though you can set up an office in your apartment, the same can’t be done for a storehouse. You need a place where the furniture will be stored. If you are a manufacturer you can make a delivery directly from where the products are made. As for marketers, you can try to find a way to negotiate with the supplier and to deliver products right from his place.
#2. Target Audience And Assortment
When we talk about ecommerce furniture and creating a profitable website, it is very important to correctly prioritize and choose the focus audience for your business. For example, millionaires and other wealthy people are unlikely to buy furniture online. People with a lesser income prefer to buy used furniture. Those who are living in rented apartments also have reduced investment in furniture. This is because most apartments come already furnished and adding more would become awkward the next time they move. This leaves us with young and middle-aged people (25-60 y.o.), most of whom are owners of their own homes.
It is also worth thinking whether to start with a large furniture ecommerce website as this may be quite difficult for newbies or make it more narrowly focused. You can also pick the most suitable interior or various accessories for home decor depending on the audience’s needs and preferences. After all, customized offers are much more effective.
#3. Website Creation And UX Design
Making a good first impression is very important if you want to succeed. The appearance of the website is one of the key elements for ecommerce furniture. Therefore, do not hesitate in investing a lot of time and effort into its creation. It is necessary to choose the design so that all the elements look harmonious – logo, color scheme, sections and tabs, fonts, etc.
You can either work on it on your own if you have required skills or hire professional UX designers and developers who would do it for you. As an alternative, you can use a ready-made template and remake it for your needs. There are various services that offer different design options for ecomm business. For example, TonyTemplates, TemplateMonster and others. This way of creating websites is quite popular nowadays.
#4. Main Menu And Categories
The best way to organize a furniture ecommerce website is to clearly separate information and place it in appropriate sections. They must be easy and understandable for site visitors but do not overdo it. There shouldn’t be too many tabs and pages so users won’t get lost in the labyrinth of your site.
First of all, think of the appeal of the Home page and the best way to design its layout. It should attract your target audience and catch their attention. Another important element is the About Us part. Here it is necessary to explain who you are and what you are doing. There should also be a section categorizing what sort of services you offer and why people should choose your store. You can also add certificates, achievements and other details that are relevant. Make sure to write down your contact details as well. Just do not overload customers with other unnecessary information.
#5. Content And Description
Product cards and catalogs. Here you will need to provide clients with a detailed product description, all measurements and possible options (color changes, material, etc.). And, of course, product images of the items. By the way, traditional photos are not the only way to visually present the goods. Thanks to photorealistic 3D rendering, it became much easier to create high-quality pictures for ecommerce furniture. It will help to show your product from different angles, placed in the interior, in various shapes and sizes.
You can interact with your target audience and provide them with all the additional information they may require through a personal blog. Generate posts that contain SEO keywords to get higher in Google search results. Just think about what they can be interested in, make a content plan and follow it. And don’t forget about visual content as an essential addition to texts – 360° view, animation, lots of trendy lifestyle 3D images and infographics. They will increase the readability and eye-catching quality of the blog in no time.
#6. Marketing And Advertising
There are a lot of options on how to promote your furniture store. The most common and popular way of advertising in the modern world is by using social media. Starting from an add on Facebook or Instagram to a video on Snapchat or YouTube. If your budget allows you to go further, it will also be useful to order advertising integration from famous bloggers.
And do not forget about the Pay-per-click advertising model as it is one of the most popular forms of online advertising. If you want your banners to show a high click-through rate you can use good quality images or animations to promote your products. In order to be sure that this strategy will work, you can cooperate with 3D rendering studios which will guarantee you the quality of the graphic material.
Learn how to use tools, like Google analytics, furniture ecommerce conversion rate or social media analytics. It will give you an understanding and the ability to track your client’s interests, most used platforms and ways of communication.
#7. Small Tips And Advice
Here are a few tips that can help to run ecommerce furniture store more smooth and attract clients:
- Product reviews. You can ask your customers to leave feedback on the product and their experience with the service. It will attract the attention of other people and will contribute to building more trusting relationships.
- Free shipping. A lot of people hope to receive free shipping as the added cost of it can easily turn them away from you. In order to make sure clients will know about this policy, you can highlight it on your website.
- Customer support. People often doubt what to choose, wondering what will fit better for them or just have some questions about certain items. Provide them with real-time support that will help to solve the client’s concerns.
- Payment options. Offer a variety of payment methods so people will be able to choose what works best for them. Nowadays a lot of companies offer this as standard with options such as banking card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Wallet and others.
It is quite possible to create your own ecommerce furniture store and be successful with it. You just need to choose the right strategy and arrange everything for your target audience. With this 7-step guide, you are now ready to create your online presence -be it through one of the services we have listed or starting from scratch.
If you need help with creating the right visuals for your new website, there is plenty of options within CGI services to help you design the look of your site. With the use of our 3D rendering services, you can make sure the design of your website is both catchy and visually pleasing and then the rest is up to you.
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