A change in the customers’ buying behaviour during the pandemic with a strong lean toward online shopping surged the growth of online shopping and e-commerce in 2020. According to RedSeer’s report, the number of online furniture shoppers is estimated to rise from 1.8 million in FY21 to 4.8 million in FY26. “While e-commerce was not the conventional route for furniture purchases, the pandemic forged this path, highlighting the convenience, access and affordability that comes with it,” informs Buddhiraj.
For Tomar, WFH has had a significant impact on the way people shop and rent furniture. “Convenience, safety, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, variety, and choice are just a few of the ways working from home has enhanced the nation’s experience with renting furniture and making purchases online. As more and more people continue to WFH, we can expect online shopping and furniture renting to continue to thrive,” he adds.
Individuals have started to make their time more efficient by enhancing their homes. Elaborating on it, Raghunandan Saraf, Founder and CEO, Saraf Furniture mentions, “Due to the increasing number of hours spent at household, we observe a rise in consumer behaviour in the DIY sector. Consumers are, thus, more frequently turning to online retailers and direct-to-consumer (DTC) stores to fulfill their requirements.”
Several factors such as increased broadband connectivity, the rising digital economy, innovations on part of e-retailers and the emerging augmented reality and artificial intelligence have further helped emerging furniture categories on the e-commerce platform. Today, AI can help improve everyday experiences for customers, right from providing a personalized approach to enabling automated selling assistance. Another emerging trend is virtual reality which aims to offer an immersive solution, which looks to be a game changer in the long run.
To offer an immersive buying experience to online office furniture shoppers, Tomar suggests, “an increase in customer engagement and building trust will ultimately lead to higher sales. Using high-quality product images and videos, detailed product descriptions, personalized recommendations, etc can offer an immersive buying experience to online office furniture shoppers.” Continuing further, Ashish Aggarwal, Director, Indo Innovations, adds, “3D technology that helps in visualizing furniture and decor simulations uses elevated visual elements and innovative interactive content, thereby allowing customers to preview how a piece of furniture will look before actually buying it.”
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Image credit: Saraf FurnitureMoreover, “We created a unified omni-channel experience while also providing numerous options for purchasing products. We provide the company's buy online, grab in-store alternative, in addition to easy pickup and AR experiences for customers to have a better grasp of the products,” informs Saraf.
This article is a part of our exclusive article ‘WFH Furniture’ which is originally published in Furniture Design & Technology (FDT Magazine) April 2023 print issue. If you want to read the full article, please subscribe Furniture Design & Technology Magazine here:
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