Just when customers were shying away from purchasing their furniture’s online, thinking it might be risky, products might be faulty and other conjectured apprehensions – India’s online furniture took a phenomenal leap! The leading online shopping portals and furniture retailers came up with a huge product portfolio, showcasing endless varieties and offering “to good to be true” price rates and package deals! As a result the common notion “it’s best to buy furniture’s from an organized shop” no more stands true. Online shoppers are wooed in completely by attractive designs and deals offered by the online furniture retailers. It’s time now for furnishing online.
A few important statistics that matter
Presently, Indian e-tailing industry is in its flourishing state and is all expected to graduate into a USD 100 billion market from its present level of a USD 10 billion industry, within another 5 years. According to FY 2014, the online furniture Market in India was estimated to be approximately USD 40 million. Given the present rate of growth and development, analysts are hopeful that India’s online furniture industry will expand with a CAGR of almost 75% making it to USD 700 million, by 2020. An ambitious mark, but not an impossible assumption for sure.
Factors leading to the growth
Earlier India was high on online buys that were restricted to books, CD’s, bags, accessories and the like. From there the leap included purchase of clothes, cosmetics, shoes and electronic gadgets i.e. things and objects that otherwise an average consumer would rather buy from a store, considering the fact that he/she might not like a dress or a shoe size won’t fit. When it came to furniture’s like sofa, divan, side tables, study, computer cabinets’ consumers in India were following the traditional approach. That is either making it to the shop or customizing it through a carpenter keeping in mind their home decor. This approach kept the consumers in a happy comfortable zone..
Recently, the flurry of online portals and furniture retailers threw another perspective of buying furniture’s online. Today, even an inhibited customer opts in for a coffee table online. There are several factors that resulted in this switch. They are:
Variety – Furniture shops owing to their physical space can only store a limited number of products. Whereas online portals, being a virtual entity can list more than thousands of variety in their product’s pages. Thus the new age consumer feels more empowered when it comes to choices.
Price – This has been the major crowd puller. Compared to the local shops, the furniture’s available online seem to be much more reasonably priced, sometimes sans the delivery charges. Online furniture industry is still at its developing stage and hence to attract a greater customer base offers great prices.
Quality service – Most online furniture players are taking complete accountability when a faulty product is delivered to client. Other than product exchange and replacement policies there are cash refunds as well just in case the consumer is not happy post purchase. So one is never at a loss.
Installation – Furniture’s often need basic installation post purchase. Online portals provide personnel to the customer’s residence for free. What’s impressive is, it’s not the consumer that calls. The customer care representative of the concerned online portal or furniture retailer connects with the consumer and gets this done.
The leading brands
Though online shopping portals like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and eBay has been providing attractive deals on furniture’s, today there are specialized brands that are doing well in this section. Pepperfry is presently the market leader that sources most of its products from Jaipur and has its reach in more than 200 cities. The second largest is Fabfurnish that boasts of a wide range of SKU’s followed by Urbanladder a private label offering great customer experience.
So when it comes to the complete purchasing experience, a customer gets all the hand-holding that he needs. Above all, the comfort of getting it all done with a few clicks is the basic advantage.
Start furnishing online!
