Being a homemaker can sometimes be fun especially when you need to decide what furniture to buy to complete the setting of your house.
How about a nice and cozy sofa in the entertainment room? Of course the kids’ bedroom has to have a double deck bed to save space. Don’t you think that drawer is a little bit small for your wardrobe?
The ideas are endless. As usual, shopping for furniture can now also be done online. Let us now have a little discussion about what we need to know about online shopping for furniture.
Advantages
- Unlimited list of choices. I can actually spend hours just browsing the internet. It’s really fun, since you can find everything that you are looking for. Sometimes, the things you find online are way more better than what you have in mind. You might even bump into furniture that you have never thought of before that you might find more useful.
- Discounts. One good thing about shopping online is you get to deal with the manufacturer or the dealer directly. So, it means you can buy the product at a factory price.
- Convenience. Since it is online, then you can go shopping at any device, anywhere, and anytime.
- Feedbacks. Since making a transaction online requires trust, you can check if a store is legit through the customers’ feedback on the Review section.
- Accessible. You can study one furniture and then go back to anytime you wish to so it does not consume too much of your time and energy.
- Paperless transactions. You can pay using your online banking, or your credit card, and the most popular mode of payment is through Paypal. Almost all online shopping stores use Paypal and you can too. You can also avoid PayPal Fees to save some pennies.
- Cash on delivery. If you want to make sure you don’t get scammed, you can place the order first and then pay only when the item is delivered.
Disadvantages and how to deal with them
- Fake reviews. Yes you can check the reviews, but check on the number of reviews and compare them. If there are more bad reviews than the good ones, then it can mean that the first good reviews are fake ones. If this is the case, then find another store that you can trust.
- Deceiving photos. Sometimes, not what you see on the posted photos are what you really get in real life.
- If you have time, you can visit a physical store and look for the item that you saw online. Then you will know what it looks like in real life.
- Another solution is again to check on the reviews. Some reviews show the photos of the items received by the previous buyers.
- If you have time, you can visit a physical store and look for the item that you saw online. Then you will know what it looks like in real life.
- Return hassles. Well, we don’t like this to happen but, yes, it happens; a defective or a bad order. We are talking about appliances here so it means they are big. Returning an item needs to undergo some rules. It is going to take days and then you need to do another process again for a refund. Such a hassle!
- If this happens to you, you need to chat with the seller about the procedures. Many sellers are attentive to buyers because they are afraid you would give them a bad review.
- Cost of delivery. You see a nice dining table at a discounted price. Just in time for your company bonus. So after doing some reviews, you finally click “Add to cart” but when you are about to check out but you dropped your jaw when you see how much you need to pay all in all. The price of the delivery fee is almost the same price of the furniture!
- If you compare the price in real life and the price online is the same, as long as the furniture is from a reputable store, it is still a win situation since it would still save you the hassle of going to a physical store. Another solution is to find a different store with a much lower delivery charge.
- Waiting time. Not all sellers are honest when it comes to the expected time of arrival. There are stores that can deliver items instantly. There are stores that take weeks. Sometimes, it also depends on the shipping company.
- Again, check on the reviews. You can also chat with the seller for an idea of the turnaround time.
Conclusion
In this article we have talked about the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping for furniture. We have also discussed some solutions on how to deal with them/
Always check for reviews, and don’t just click on “add to cart”. You need to think about it carefully. In the end it is always your call whether to buy or not.
How about sharing something with us? Let’s talk about your experience in buying something online by leaving something on the comment box below.