Whether you’re new to selling online or simply want to bring your brick and mortar shop into the ecommerce world, we’re here to talk you through how to start selling online with your furniture business.
Selling furniture online is one of the most lucrative industries and can be very profitable, so it’s important to make sure you have everything you need to be trading online when you’re setting up.
Competitor research
One of the first things you’ll need to know before you start building your online shop is what competitors are out there. Do you have any direct competitors who sell the same or very similar items to you? What is their price point? What is the design of their online shop like? Similarly, do you have any indirect competitors? Perhaps they sell furniture that’s completely one of a kind, unique and handmade for instance. Your competitor research will help you to determine if there are any gaps in the market or any niches which aren’t being catered to.
If you’ve never done competitor research before then using something like a SWOT analysis where you look at a competitors strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, may be really helpful to you. It will allow you to see who you should be keeping a closer eye on specifically when selling online.
If this is your first time selling your furniture items online then you will now have a lot more competition than you had previously as people have a lot more options when it comes to shopping online. All this means is that you’ll need to stand out against your competition more so than before and there are many ways to do this, from free delivery over a certain order price to free set up upon delivery and much more.
Once you have a good understanding of who your competitors are and what gap in the market your business serves, it’s now time to get your online shop set up so you can start taking orders online.
Getting set up
The first thing you’ll need to do when selling online is to choose an ecommerce platform that suits your business. Of course, EKM has helped over 80,000 people get selling online over the years but choose a platform that does everything you need and that you feel comfortable working with.
Choosing a domain name
One of the first things you’ll be asked when setting up your online shop is to choose a domain name if you don’t already have one, and you can get a free one as an EKM customer. A domain name is a URL people use to navigate to your online shop, so it’s important that it’s either your business name or brand name so it’s easily recognisable for customers. If you already have one, you can migrate it over to your new ecommerce provider and if you’re an EKM customer you can follow this guide to help you move your domain over.
Before you select your new domain name, write it down with no spaces to see how it will look as you’ll want to avoid a silly-looking URL.
Selecting your payment gateways
You’ll also want to narrow down which payment gateways you’re going to use on your online shop. It’s always best to have a few options for customers to choose from including both card and digital wallet payments. Some payment gateways are more well-known than others, such as PayPal and Stripe, so make sure you’re giving enough options. You could also look into other options that allow your customers to split the payment over a few months for larger purchases as this may help the conversion rate for higher-priced items on your site.
Choosing a theme
One of the more creative choices you’ll need to make is choosing a theme that suits your business and branding. EKM has lots of options to choose from and all of our themes’ colours can be customised to match your chosen branding. As a furniture retailer, you’ll most likely want a theme that displays your products best across your site.
Uploading products
Once you have your online shop looking the way you want, the next step is to get all your products uploaded and there are a few things you’ll need to consider as you’re doing this/
Product photography
Firstly, the images you use for each product listing will need to be uploaded and if you don’t already have images for your products, reach out to your supplier and see if they can provide you with any. Alternatively and preferably you should try to take your own product photos so they’re unique to your shop and allow you to showcase your products as you wish.
If you’re taking your own product photos you will need a range of images for your customers to browse through and the set up doesn’t need to cost you a lot. Product photos are typically taken on a plain white background in order to keep the focus on the product. You will also want to take pictures of the products from multiple angles so the customers can get a better picture of the product.
Product descriptions
Alongside your product photos, you’re also going to need to write up some descriptions for each product. Your product descriptions are one of the most important parts of your online shop. They help your customers to visualise what the product is like IRL. With not knowing what the product is made of or how it feels your product descriptions need to be as informative as possible. Try to include every detail about the product including its materials, where it was made and if it has any unique qualities too.
Writing your own product descriptions may seem time-consuming and pointless however when it comes to selling online, you don’t want to simply copy and paste the same description as your supplier. This is because when Google is crawling your site and indexing your products against search terms, it reads all the text on the page and if you’ve used the same description for all of your products, the same ones that your supplier uses, it’s likely that you’ll be directly competing with them on Google’s search engine results. And this is something you’ll want to avoid.
Spread the word
Now you have your new online shop set up and ready to take your first orders you need to spread the word and let everyone know that you’re open for business online. If you already have a customer based it’s best to let them know first of all and try to encourage them to let other’s know through word of mouth.
If you don’t already have a customer base and need to build one there are a few ways you can start to create buzz around your brand new online furniture business.
Setting up social media
Firstly if you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to set up some social media channels for your business including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You’ll want to try to ensure that your social media handle is the same as your business name to keep continuity throughout your online channels.
You may find that your business name is already taken on some platforms and not others and while this can be frustrating there are ways around this. Firstly you could appeal to the platform if the profile using the handle you wish to use is inactive and if that doesn’t work try creating a variation that works for your business and is still recognisable. For example, try adding @BusinessName_UK to it as we have done across a few of our social channels.
Once you’ve got your profiles set up you’ll need some profile and cover images for each as well as filling out all the necessary information and contact details. You can create your own using tools such as Canva who have lots of templates and designs to choose from.
Scheduling tools
From here you’ll need to create and publish content across all your channels to try to gain followers and engagement with your business profiles. But as a busy business owner, this might be the last thing on your mind on a day to day basis. This is why we recommend using a social media scheduling tool such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Later to curate and schedule all your social media content at once. Set some time aside, perhaps an hour or two every few weeks to create text posts, image posts and more for your social channels both promoting your business and products but also sharing any news or good customer stories.
And always try to be active on your social channels as they’re one of the most popular ways for customers to interact with you and can help your SEO efforts as well as your brand reputation.
Email Marketing
Lastly, once you’ve built up a solid customer base use email marketing tools to keep in touch with your customers and keep them informed about the latest offers and updates about new products. Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal and is a great way to build up the relationship with your customers but also build up your subscriber list.
While these methods are low cost there are also other options such as paid advertising and creating blog content for your audience that can help you get ranked higher up the search results. These are just a few of the things you can do when setting up online but our ecommerce experts can help you get started today.
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