At the time of writing, non-essential stores remain closed and will most likely open in the Spring. When furniture stores reopen, many will prioritise safety over convenience and social distancing will complicate the physical shopping journey. Which begs the question, how do you improve furniture sales? Here is a use case for increasing online conversion and average order value via live video shopping.
How does live video shopping for a three-piece suite actually work then? To answer this question, we must look at the in-person experience too. It takes extensive research, a couple of visits to the store and most crucially, reassurance from an expert who understands your requirements.
Furniture is a high consideration item and with shops closed, it is hard for customers to visualise a redecorated living room from static HTML images. Live video shopping creates an opportunity for furniture brands to expand beyond their traditional footprint and into another channel.
A Use Case for Furniture Live Video Shopping
In this article, we bring to life the use case for live video shopping with a consumer searching for furniture to spice up their home office or added comfort in the lounge.
A live video shopping experience in furniture gives the opportunity to engage and immerse customers in the product experience from a distance. With a video commerce platform, new possibilities open up. The aim is to replicate the retail experience as much as possible from a distance, but also leverage the scale of eCommerce to assist with conversion en masse.
Matching Shoppers with Furniture Expertise
Shopping for furniture requires an exhaustive checklist. What is your style? What are the required dimensions? Materials, eco-friendly, construction quality…the list goes on.
Confer With provides the opportunity for a shopper to talk to an expert who knows the answer to these questions. They can recommend furniture for the entire house, or simply an armchair that suits your style. The best experts can be matched with high-potential customers. More importantly, appointments can be made when someone isn’t available right away.
Engaging with a Furniture Expert
Confer With sets up a one-to-one video call between the furniture expert and customer. This video call allows the expert to understand their customers’ needs. What’s their current setup? What rooms are they looking to decorate? What materials are they interested in? What’s big in 2021? Questions can open up effective digital dialogue and equips advisors with powerful knowledge that allows them to immerse the customer, effectively.
Immersing a Shopper and Understanding Needs
Because the customers and the furniture specialist are face-to-face, and needs have been understood, the expert can:
- Select furniture based on their needs
- Demonstrate imagery, videos and physical products (if calls are taken in-store)
- Respond immediately to feedback
By immersing the customer in an environment linked to the entire inventory of the eCommerce platform, the furniture expert can take the product offering to the next level.
Leveraging Furniture Add-ons
Let’s talk sofas. If the customer has purchased a three-piece suite then most likely there is room to suggest add-ons. After all, customers will want to maintain the aesthetics of the room. Suggestions can be made on footstalls, cushions and even snugglers.
- Using the ‘Alternatives’ feature, the expert can showcase different products in a variety of colours and styles.
- Using the ‘Additions’ feature enables the expert to showcase the additional products the consumer will need to go along with their furniture purchase. This might even include insurance!
- Show product specifications, images, and pre-recorded videos relating to the product
A full deal flow for each product can be created based on customer interactions and needs identification – leading to a substantial increase in average order value and helps scale high margin products.
Making it easy to buy, then and there
Confer With have developed patent-pending virtual shared basket technology that allows both the shopper and the furniture expert to add items to the virtual shopping basket. Once the sale begins to close, the expert can present the customer with the shopping basket. If the customer likes what they see, they can add it to their bag without the expert’s input. Equally, if they don’t like what they see, it is easy to remove.
Recap
Furniture brands and retailers have relied on their own experts to advise customers for decades. But consumer purchasing patterns are changing – they are increasingly going online. Video allows face-to-face connections between shoppers and furniture experts to continue in an online environment leading to conversion rates that approach retail levels.
Interested in a demo for the furniture use case?
Schedule a demo of live video shopping for furniture. Please put in a request and we can book a time to discuss your needs.
