You might have heard all sorts of suggestions from all types of people when it comes to online shopping. While some will keep reminding you about online sources not being trustworthy, others might mention about their great online shopping experiences. Now while this dilemma of buying furniture online or offline kept you confused, we prepared the list of the good and the bad of buying furniture online, which we hope, will help you in deciding.

Let’s take a look at the good...

The Good

Wide Range of Collections

When you buy furniture online there is a great variety of the offered products. It happens so often that a kind of furniture that you might not even have considered while planning catches your eye, and you find it as a better option to have it in your home than the one you were looking for.

Easy Comparison

When you have a great variety of products as mentioned above, then you surely will have a need to compare different furniture on offer. Having the considerations on one screen keeps it easy for the website user to choose an item of furniture.

Ease of accessibility

All you need to do is choose the size of furniture and just order the one you like and the furniture provider does the rest of the work. Buying furniture online is an easy option. You can access the websites from your living rooms while waiting for your favorite game to start, and by the end of the game, you will have put your desired furniture in your cart. It saves you from long trips to your local furniture provider.

Offers and discounts

Let’s face it, your good old local furniture supplier might be a star vendor in your locality, but his business isn’t as wide as an online store. Because the online stores deal with loads of customers, they can provide better discounts and offers on the furniture they offer.

Easy returns

Not that you need it every time, but most of the online stores have a replacement or return policy which allows you to return or replace the product if you don’t find it right. That is one of the best features of buying furniture online. So, you can just return or replace a piece of furniture online, if it is damaged or if it doesn’t fit your room correctly.

Talking about furniture not matching your room, some online stores, like Urban Ladder, etc. provide in-home consultation which can be very helpful. If you need a quicker help to make more space in your room then you need to follow some tips for maximizing space in a room.

The Bad

Now that we are done praising the online shopping of furniture, let us take a look at the downsides of buying furniture online.

You don’t always get what you see

When you see something online, you don’t know how it will turn up when it is in front of you for real. Unlike online shopping, when you shop at local stores, you get to touch the product, pull drawers, sit on the couch and buy only after you are sure of buying. A computer or phone screen doesn’t let you do that and sometimes you need to replace your product purchased online.

Misleading reviews

You read reviews that the strength of the furniture is excellent and end up placing the order. When you use it, you find its quality as not up to the mark. That’s the thing with reviews. You trust other users of their experiences with the product which may not match your standards, and you might not be happy with the product with which other users appreciated.

Delivery charges

If the order that you place online is from a distant source, or if it probably requires shipping, then there might be added shipping costs on the product. Some websites have a minimum pricing on the furniture, only above which, the delivery charges are not taken. When compared to the local stores, which usually are nearer to your homes, the delivery charges by the local stores are not that much high. One can even take the product home himself when buying the product online.

Conclusion

Having mentioned the goods and the bads of buying furniture online, we believe that it isn’t a bad idea to buy furniture online. The consumer has enough time in the return policies of the shopping websites to judge and return the products. Calling online shopping not trustworthy is old school, and as the online shopping has increased, the trust over these online stores among people have increased. Available to millions of customers through the web, it’s an added pressure on the online platforms to ensure a better quality of the furniture they provide to customers. So there are lesser chances of something being wrong with what is ordered, and even if that happens, return policies are always there.

Good Luck buying new furniture for your home or office. Happy Shopping!

(Source: huffingtonpost.com  Author: Kathleen Maloney )