Five Ways to Improve Your Furniture Store Website
When was the last time you analyzed your furniture website to see what calls to action are working and what info is outdated? Prior to analyzing and optimizing the site, many furniture store websites are cluttered, hard to search, and often don’t feature conversion tools or calls to action that entice consumers to stay on the furniture website, perform research and ultimately buy from their furniture company.
At PERQ Convert, we deliver interactive website tools to furniture stores that collect trackable consumer data and help retailers convert online visits into in-store sales. Use this 5-step checklist to declutter your website, attract more buyers to your furniture store, and make your furniture store website the best in the business.
1. UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR ONLINE SALES CONVERSION FUNNEL WORKS
You first need to examine how consumers find your furniture store website, what kind of research they do on your site, and how many of those online furniture shoppers end up buying at your furniture store.
Establish your furniture store’s online sales conversion funnel, then explore which website tools to include on your furniture website so you can help consumers journey down that sales funnel, such as custom greetings, interactive quizzes, targeted promotions and design consultation scheduling.
2. IDENTIFY YOUR FURNITURE WEBSITE CTAS AND CONVERSION TOOLS
Identify all of the calls to action and conversion tools currently on your furniture website. What kind of action do you ask online shoppers to take on your website? If the answer is none, give some thought to how a smart CTA could encourage engagement with your website and brand.
From interactive banners that offer “scratch and save” promotion deals to an assessment quiz that helps visitors determine what kind of mattress they prefer, good CTAs help online visitors with their research and give them a reason to engage with your website.
3. COLLECT DATA ON HOW EACH CTA ON YOUR FURNITURE SITE IS CONVERTING
Establish some basic metrics on how you want each CTA to perform and regularly check your furniture website data to see if it’s measuring up. See how many of your overall visitors click on a CTA or special offer. If a website element isn’t getting traffic, maybe reword the tool or change its placement on your website structure.
Furniture shopper Jon Bowersock bought several large pieces of furniture for his new house. After spending several hours researching furniture online, Bowersock says independent furniture stores could improve their websites so they’re more personalized and helpful while he researches. “Their websites aren’t always the best, with poor layout and design,” he says of local furniture stores he visited online.
4. TRACK WEBSITE VISITORS ON YOUR FURNITURE WEBSITE
From our experience, static contact forms don’t work. They only give you basic contact information and don’t compel online visitors to stay on your site. There are better, more effective ways to collect customer information and solid leads.
Implement software that allows you to track online visitors, breaks down every visitor’s actions on your furniture website and can tell you who came into the store to purchase after going to the website. You can also use individual tracking data to customize your message to each individual buyer, which encourages them to delve deeper into your website and inventory in an inviting and customized way.
Think about how Amazon and other e-commerce giants draw you in with personalized messages and shopping suggestions. They know you every time you return to browse. Sites that are easy to search and target buyers’ specific interests tend to perform above the competition.
5. USE YOUR FURNITURE WEBSITE DATA TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Frequently review your website analytics to tweak your marketing approach on a regular basis. Without action, they’re just numbers on a page. Dig into those numbers to discover which website changes increase your click-through rates and in-store sales. Follow up with online visitors with a targeted sales message or promotion to better leverage that data.
As you evaluate what changes to make to your furniture store website, always keep the consumer top of mind. Do static images with no descriptive text really help shoppers with their research? Probably not. Your goal is to add unique value to their shopping experience, while also giving website visitors a great online furniture showroom experience, so they’ll be inspired to visit you in person.