Closing Your Online Store Won’t Fix Your Online Store

Recently, a furniture store in Central posted a notice on Facebook, announcing that they were stopping all online sales, and would facilitate only in-store purchases going forward. The reason stated was to ensure so customers see the exact product and understand the differences between items before they buy.

This is one of the strangest online announcements we’ve seen. To be fair, furniture is a big purchase. A sofa that looked grey on a phone and turned out beige in the living room will not ‘sit’ well… pun intended. For this business, if customers kept getting something different from what they expected, something had to change, but to drops it jes’ so like that!

Our view is that closing the online store is very drastic, shortsighted, and doesn’t fix the problem. It just moves it somewhere you can’t see it.

Agreed, selling furniture online is harder than selling a phone case. Colors shift from screen to screen. Fabric and finish are hard to judge in a photo. Something that looks right in a picture may not be so in real… like that girl you’ve been chatting up online… you know, the one with the nice eyes…

That’s a real challenge. But here’s what doesn’t change when you stop selling online: your customers still start online. Trinis still search your name, scroll your Facebook, Instagram, and look for your website before they decide whether the drive to your store is worth it; they don’t just ketch ah vaps and jump in their car randomly.

When the online store closes, those customers don’t go away. They just have less to look at, and they move on to the store that shows them more… and there are stores that show them more.

This is why it’s perplexing to see such a move. There are literally thousands of furniture stores all over the world doing just fine; we even have live examples right here of online furniture stores in T&T, functioning perfectly for years.

Our client, Signature Selection sells high-end furniture, and their customers have the same need to see a piece before they commit, especially when spending upwards of $20K TTD. The difference is how their website, which Forward Multimedia built and manages, fits into that.

Customers primarily use the site as a catalog. They browse by category or by item, sometimes coming from a Facebook ad. Then they visit the showroom to see the color and feel the fabric. Some may purchase right there in-store, and others may go home and complete the purchase online.

The website didn’t create the “I need to see it first” problem. It made the path from interest to sale shorter. The store and the site work together instead of against each other.

Here is another furniture store client, City Furniture who sells budget to mid-range furniture. Customers also primarily use the online store as a catalog, and while some sales pass through, that has not been the focus of the site.

So why keep the website? Because it does a different job. It’s the catalog customers check before they visit. Notice the product pic has dimensions which provide a visual perspective. When those customers walk in, they already know what they want.

This is the part many businesses miss. A website doesn’t have to take hundreds of orders to be worth having. If it brings people through your door ready to buy, it’s doing its job.

If customers are getting something different from what they expected, the answer is a website that shows them the truth. Here’s where to start:

• Use real photos. Shoot the actual piece in natural light, not just the supplier’s studio image. Show it from the front, side and back.
• List the exact dimensions. Width, depth and height, plus seat height for chairs and sofas. Size is one of the biggest causes of returns.
• Show the material up close. A close-up of the fabric, wood grain or finish tells customers more than any description.
• Post a disclaimer/warning. Make known the limitations of viewing colors and details online which may differ when inspected physically. Trinis will understand if you state this.
• Force a checkbox acceptance. If the disclamer is not enough, then force a muct-accept checkbox to your Terms & Conditions in which you specifiy the limitations. This is for those Trinis who hard of understanding.
• Add short videos. A 20-second clip of someone sitting on a sofa or opening a drawer answers questions a photo can’t.
• Offer a WhatsApp video viewing. Let customers ask to see a piece live on a video call before they buy.
• Let people reserve online and inspect in store. They hold the item, come in to see it, then pay. You keep the sale and they keep their confidence.
• Make your returns policy clear. Spell out what happens if it isn’t right. Customers buy more easily when they know there’s a way back.

None of this needs a whole new website. Most of it is better content on the site you already have.

With shopping season around the corner, this is the worst time to give customers less to look at. Businesses are still bawling about the bad year so far and need every available door open for customers to walk through.

If your online store is causing problems, closing it won’t fix your online store; fixing it will. You hear that Trinis?

Not sure where yours stands? We’ll check it for free. Our team at Forward Multimedia will look at your product pages, photos and mobile experience, and tell you plainly what to improve. Send us a message via our contact form.