Furniture e-commerce conversion rates trail behind those of other industries. However, a select few key players are achieving remarkable results. Want to know their secret? These e-commerce giants have honed in on four distinct tactics that drive success.

Key takeaways 

• The average furniture e-commerce conversion rate is 0.5%
• Brands are increasing their conversion rates by catering to buyer expectations
• The top furniture e-commerce players include Overstock, IKEA, and Vox

What is the average furniture e-commerce conversion rate?

Furniture e-commerce conversion rates are known to be as low as 0.5% on average. The cart abandonment rates are also extremely high. Given these figures, one would assume that running a furniture e-commerce business is far from profitable. 

But the ground reality shows otherwise. Furniture giants like Overstock.com and Wayfair have seen online conversion rates of over 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively. The secret to their success? Understanding how to cater to online buyer demands.

Here are four industry tips which can help furniture e-commerce businesses increase their conversion rates.

1. Provide a personalized shopping experience

For most customers, furniture is a high-value purchase. So, they buy products when they are confident of their choices, satisfied with the quality, and have enough funds.

In a physical store, making these buying decisions is easier. Customers can contact a salesperson to discover a product that matches their vision. Also, they can take advantage of in-store discounts and get custom furniture made, based on their tastes. 

This contributes to a convenient, personalized in-store shopping experience.

Today, customers expect such personalization during their online shopping experience as well. McKinsey finds that 71% of consumers expect personalization in marketing efforts. And 72% expect businesses to recognize them as individuals and know what they want.

Fortunately, online furniture brands can offer personalization in many ways. This includes personalized emails and birthday offers. They can also deploy chatbots to answer customer queries. Or they can show product recommendations based on past searches.

Such efforts make the shopping experience convenient and enjoyable. And this can drive conversions.

2. Leverage augmented reality to help customers make confident purchases

Personalization can help create an enjoyable online shopping experience. But it cannot mimic the tactility of an in-store experience. This is where augmented reality comes to the scence.

Through AR, customers can visualize the product in their homes. They can also view the product from different angles and locations. This increases customer engagement and helps them make confident purchase decisions.

Besides, customers demand it. According to a report by Snapchat and NRG, 51% of GenZ and 49% of millennials say augmented reality is ‘very important’ to them. Another survey finds that 61% of online customers prefer sites offering augmented reality. 

It’s safe to say, brands that want to increase conversion rates must consider integrating AR into online shopping. The good news is that this is easy.

Brands can partner with companies like Enhance to create engaging Web-AR based customer experiences. All they need to do is provide images or 3D models of their products and Enhance do the rest. Brands can then integrate the AR experience into any online platform to engage prospective buyers. 

3. Integrate user-generated content

As previously mentioned, furniture is a high-value purchase. Naturally, customers want to know if the physical product matches the picture when shopping online.

A Nielsen report confirms this. It found that 92% of customers are looking for reviews from existing buyers when shopping. Some even turn to user-generated content (UGC) before buying a product. 

Since these reviews are not by paid for by brand reps, they also have a higher persuasive power. 

Besides, research finds an 8.5% lift in conversions when a customer is offered UGC. Riviera Maison, for instance, observed an 11% increase in customer interaction rates owing to UGC. 

4. Optimize mobile version

According to research, users spend a third of their waking life on mobile apps. Moreover, they spend 7x more time on apps than browsers. Finally, mobile apps witness 4x more conversion rates than mobile web.

Even so, most e-commerce furniture retailers have an unoptimized mobile app. Often, the images are not to scale, the loading time is slow, or the toggle buttons are not the right size.

All of this makes for an inconvenient shopping experience, impacting conversion rates.

Brands must offer optimized mobile apps to drive furniture e-commerce conversion rates. They should focus on three things: a smooth user experience, providing relevant information, and easy navigation.

Top 3 furniture e-commerce sites with the highest conversion rates

1. Overstock

Overstock has the highest conversion rate at 3.1% and converts 11x more desktop visits than IKEA. The two main reasons for this are the brand's focus on personalization, and creating immersive experiences.

This American furniture brand partnered with Braze to integrate personalization into buyer journeys. Customers received alert emails whenever there was a price drop for a recently viewed product. They were also contacted when their product was about to go out of stock.

Through these efforts, the company increased its furniture e-commerce conversion rates by 21%. 

Overstock also saw a significant lift in mobile conversions with its AR feature. Launched in 2017, and 2018 on mobile, customers could use the product in multiple ways. For example, they could view the product in their homes and understand the dimensions and colors.

2. Ikea

Ikea has a cart conversion rate of 2.2%. This can be attributed to the success of the IKEA Place app and UGC.

The IKEA Place app enables users to visualize furniture in their homes through AR. Consumers have to position their phone camera where they would like the product to be, and voila!

An essential part of buying IKEA furniture online is assembling it at home. Therefore, IKEA encourages its users to share their experiences while building their products.

This helps potential customers visualize how they will receive their products after placing an order. It also shows them how easy assembling their own furniture can be. With all this information, prospective buyers can make quick buying decisions, improving conversion rates. 

3. Vox

Vox integrated UGC into various parts of its buyer journey and increased its conversion rates by 18.76%. First, the brand segmented its audience based on lifestyle. Then it created content for each of them. This sparked a customer discussion. And soon enough, people were sharing pictures of VOX furniture and how it fits their lifestyle.

Moreover, the brand displayed these pictures on the website and the brand's photobook. Prospective buyers could access them to make confident buying decisions.

Furniture e-commerce conversion rates may have been historically low. But many top players have enjoyed high conversion rates owing to their consumer-focused approaches. Businesses that want to grow their revenue need to get smart, improve their tactics, and draw on the above tips to stay relevant. Additionally, partnering with 3D and AR companies such as Enhance allows them to seamlessly integrate memorable interactive experiences into their customer journeys, boosting conversion rates even further.