9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 2

Intro
Welcome to the future of furniture e-commerce.

Consumer behavior and the business environment are changing fast — and it’s critical for
companies to keep a pulse on both.

The incredible surge in home furnishings sales has opened great opportunities for furniture
retailers — but it also made them aware that thriving in the new e-commerce landscape will
require action.

The customer experience has changed quite a bit over the last few years, and as this
experience has changed, so too has the technology required to facilitate it.

As businesses gear up for yet another year of potential furniture e-commerce success, we
found one thing to be sure: furniture retailers that invest in technology will set the foundation
for future growth.

According to S&P Global, e-commerce retailers will likely bolster their digital and technology
capabilities this year. The investments they make in 2022 will help them further capitalize on
online sales as well as drive demand and efficiencies.

To help you set the groundwork for future growth, we created a blueprint for e-commerce
success in 2022 and beyond.

As you dig deeper into the trends that are shaping furniture e-commerce now, we hope some
of these viewpoints will help you foresee challenges, take advantage of upcoming
opportunities, refine your strategy, and finally, step up your e-commerce game in 2022.

Buckle up — here are the nine factors that will move the needle for your furniture business.

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 3

Furniture E-commerce
Landscape Outlook
Looking back at 2021, we can definitely say that it was an eventful year in the furniture
industry. The e-commerce boom, emerging tech, and unprecedented supply chain issues
were just some of the recurring topics in the headlines all year round.

In 2021, retail e-commerce revenue from furniture and homeware sales amounted to 132.7
billion U.S. dollars and was projected to increase to over 208.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. Data
from Statista shows that furniture and home furnishing sales accounted for 11.78% of total
retail e-commerce sales in the United States.

The situation was similar in Europe, where according to the 2021 European E-commerce
Report, many countries from the old continent witnessed double-digit year-over-year (YoY)
growth in e-commerce furniture sales.

Moving forward, the website experience will be essential for furniture businesses’ growth.

Unlike other industries, where the majority of searches are informational, almost two-thirds
(62.3%) of searches for the furniture sector are transactional. In other words, most of the
customers searching for furniture products online are ready to buy.

Google Search Intent, by E-Commerce Sector

Informational Transactional Navigational

When users want to find information An indication that the searcher When users want to open a certain
before buying something e.g. “Best wants to buy something e.g. website but use a search engine
smartphone 2021” “iPhone 12 Max deal” instead of a URL e.g. “Apple website”

62.3%

53.6% 51.5% 50.3% 47.2% 49.3% 47.7% 48.8% 48.6% 48.8% 49.4%
44.2% 46.8%

36.1%

2.2% 1.8% 2.8% 3.1% 2.6% 1.8% 1.6%

Sporting
Health Apparel DIY Beauty Electronics Furniture
Goods

Published on MarketingCharts.com in January 2022 | Data Source: Searchmetrics

Based on an analysis of thousands of keywords assigned to 7 online retail sectors during the summer of 2021

To help you speed up the journey to an engaging and delightful furniture shopping
experience, we have put together expert insights highlighting the most critical trends in the
furniture e-commerce industry and segments worth investing resources on.

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 1
3D COMMERCE
The pandemic has brought fierce
competition in the e-commerce space. Many
furniture businesses’ websites got a fresh
coat of paint in an effort to create a delightful
shopping experience.
The increase in online shopping raised
awareness of an important topic: furniture
e-commerce merchandising. Furniture
retailers realized how important product
visuals are for online furniture sales.
Displaying your products more accurately on
your website is the key to success, especially
in the furniture industry. If you add a layer of
interactivity on top of the high-quality visuals,
you will empower customers to feel
confident in making an online purchase. As a
result, some of the leading furniture players
have redefined the website experience using
the power of 3D product visualization.
The number of retailers leveraging the power
of 3D visualization has increased significantly,
especially since the pandemic. The influx of
digital twins of products in the digital space
has opened a new chapter in the retail world:
3D commerce.
3D Commerce is the new way of shopping
powered by the use of 3D product
visualization, visual product configuration,
and augmented reality to deliver an
enhanced shopping experience.
9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022
Google’s metrics have shown that consumers
interact with 360-degree spin four times
longer than with conventional product photos
alone. What’s more, data from Shopify shows
that adding 3D models on product pages
makes shoppers 65% more likely to make a
purchase.
49%
increase in conversion
rates after implementing
3D product visualization
Not only do consumers love interacting with
3D visuals, but retailers that incorporate them
on their product pages will notice quantitative
benefits. Furniture retailers witness up to a
49% increase in conversion rates after
implementing 3D product visualization.
For augmented reality, results are even more
mind-blowing. Data shows that a shopper who
uses AR has a 112% higher conversion
compared to someone who doesn't use AR.
On top of this, AR users have two times higher
average order value (AOV).
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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 5

“ The 2020s is the decade of 3D

commerce. Having high-quality 3D
visualization on your product detail
page is table stakes nowadays. But
3D visualization goes way beyond
that, and we’ll see a large increase in
the number of use cases where
retailers and brands leverage 3D
visualization to create a better
customer experience and ultimately
better conversions.

What will set apart the great from

the good is the cohesiveness and
longevity of their 3D visualization
strategies: make sure you can
leverage your 3D assets across many
different use cases — and make sure
they’re high fidelity and built for the

“
future.

Janus Jagd, CEO

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 6

TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Darlings of Chelsea is an award-winning designer sofa brand specializing in luxury, hand-crafted

sofas, with most made to order in the U.K. Style, comfort, and quality are at the heart of what they
do. Another thing that differentiates Darlings of Chelsea is the unparalleled website experience.

After partnering with Cylindo, Darlings of Chelsea was able to offer a seamless 3D commerce
experience for customers looking to purchase furniture online.
The retailer offers a complete online shopping experience on its product pages. From 360-degree
product views accompanied by 4K HD zoom to room scenes and augmented reality, Darlings of
Chelsea has it all.

“
We are not an industry with a huge repeat purchase rate — given the nature of what we are
selling — so ensuring you are confident in what you're showing your customers online with
the likes of AR technology, 360-degree spin, and detailed high-definition zoom greatly

“
increases the chances of a customer checking out. We are investing in the future of Darlings
of Chelsea, and the online customer journey will be a big focus for 2022.

Tasia Cooke, Chief Operating Officer at Darlings of Chelsea

E-commerce is a massive part of their business and has grown significantly since the pandemic,
accounting for around 50% of their total sales. The seamless online shopping experience is
essential for the success of Darlings of Chelsea.

VIEW THE PRODUCT

IN YOUR HOME

Point your smartphone or tablet's

camera at the QR code below.

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 2
VISUAL
SEARCH
The modern customer journey has evolved in
the past couple of years. Customers now
search using their laptops and also on their
mobile devices while on the go or
second-screening from the couch. As a result,
new ways of search have become
increasingly popular, especially visual and
voice search.
Visual search is the use of artificial
intelligence (AI) that enables shoppers to
upload an image to a retailer’s website and
locate visually similar products. According to
Invespcro, more than 36% of online shoppers
have used visual search, and more than half
of them claim visual information is more
useful to them than text.
85%
of customers use visual
search to find furniture
they like
9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022
Furniture is an incredibly visual industry.
Customers make decisions based on design,
style, color, and fabrics. It’s no surprise that
furniture is the second most popular category
(right behind apparel) where customers use
visual search. Data shows that 85% of
customers use visual search to find furniture
they like.
This type of product discovery is extremely
useful for people who don’t know how to
describe what they’re looking for, but they
have a visual of a similar product.
Since social media platforms are a major
source of inspiration, especially when it comes
to home furnishings, visual search helps
simplify the search process and convert more
customers.
According to the “State of eCommerce
Discovery” report from Syte, shoppers who
engage with visual search tools convert 841%
more than shoppers who don’t use the tools,
and they spend on average 6.7 times more per
session, bringing in 451% higher average
revenue per user than non-users.
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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 8

“ 2022 will be the year of inspiration-led shopping.

As social media platforms like Instagram and
TikTok continue to win over consumers and add
new shoppable features, brands and retailers can
keep up and earn shoppers’ attention by replicating
and improving upon these highly visual,
inspirational experiences on their e-commerce
sites.

Tools like visual search, hyper-personalized

product recommendations, and smart visual
merchandising will become table stakes. The key is
empowering your customers to shop by following
the items that inspire them to find similar and
additional relevant items. This creates a
personalized, highly inspirational navigation and
product discovery experience, not unlike the
feeling of scrolling through a perfectly curated
social feed. Each shopper is different, and brands
and retailers must remember, now more than ever,
that they expect one-on-one experiences when
finding and buying products online. The key lies in
visual, intuitive, and personalized product

“
discovery journeys.

Ido Segev, VP Partnerships &

Business Development

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 9

TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Florida-based retailer CITY Furniture is committed to helping shoppers decorate their homes
according to their unique style and within their budget. Since bringing their business online, CITY
has been focused on providing that same level of personalized selection and service on their
website — cityfurniture.com.

Furniture shopping is closely tied to individual aesthetics and style, so as a result, CITY Furniture set
out to find a visual AI solution that would help shoppers find the right products.

CITY Furniture partnered with Syte, implementing the Visual Discovery Suite on desktop and mobile
web. With Camera Search, the Shop Similar recommendation carousel, and the Discovery Button
live on-site, shoppers can now upload an image and instantly find similar products from within
CITY’s massive inventory.

The retailer promoted these new features to shoppers, who now eagerly use the tools to uncover a
range of items that suit their tastes, driving up both conversion and average order value.

Using Syte’s visual search, City Furniture witnessed 5.27 times higher conversion rate, a 26.3% higher
AOV, and a 440% increase in the average revenue per user.

The full case study appears on Syte.ai.

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 3
RECOMMERCE

One of the biggest challenges for furniture

businesses is e-commerce returns. According
to CBRE, the average e-commerce return
rate is 30%. Unlike other industries where
But what is recommerce?
bracketing (buying multiple sizes of the same
Recommerce or reverse commerce is the
item) is a normal way of online shopping,
selling of used or previously owned products
product returns are a real headache for
through marketplaces using the technology
furniture retailers.
and logistics solutions designed to support
these processes.
At the same time, reducing furniture waste is
becoming a growing concern. Americans
Recommerce is a win-win for both retailers
generate over 12 million tons of furniture
and customers. On one hand, it can help
waste (sofas, mattresses, chairs, tables, etc.)
retailers overcome supply chain challenges,
every year, according to 2018 Environmental
reduce waste, increase consumer brand
Protection Agency data. Over 80% of it ends
loyalty, and generate revenue. Customers, on
up in landfills.
the other hand, can buy quality products from
stellar brands at lower prices and engage in
The good news is the rise of recommerce will
environmentally responsible consumer
provide a dual solution — it will help retailers
practices.
manage bulky returns while keeping
furniture items out of landfills.
Research from FloorFound reveals that more
than 90% of Americans have purchased a
resale item online, and 77% of respondents
planned to purchase returned or slightly-used
furniture in the next year or two.

90%
of Americans have
According to the same research, 81% of
respondents said sustainable practices are
important for furniture businesses. In other
purchased a resale words, sustainability is changing the furniture
item online industry — in a good way.

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 11

“ New research shows that 80% of

shoppers expect retailers to deliver
more sustainable options, so it’s no
surprise that resale is one of the
biggest retail trends in 2022.

Recommerce, or circular commerce,

helps retailers extend the life cycle
of their products and deliver more
value to customers while saving the
environment at the same time. As
the resale model accelerates in new
verticals like furniture, appliances,
and gym equipment, retailers who
act now to implement recommerce
programs will successfully
differentiate themselves in the
market. Those who delay will soon
find themselves not only falling
behind the competition but falling
short of consumer expectations and

“
preferences.

Lisa Roberts, Chief Marketing and

Product Officer

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 12

TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Joybird, a unit of La-Z-Boy, sells modern, customizable home furnishings online, built to meet the
demands and unique tastes of customers, providing a high-quality product that will be enjoyed for
a lifetime.

Sustainability is one of Joybird's core values, and they’ve been looking for a solution for their returns
and cancellations that benefits both the environment and customers.

Joybird partnered with the e-commerce returns solution, FloorFound, to handle the reselling of
their returned items. The partnership allows customers who return purchases from Joybird's
website to have those products automatically listed for resale on the FloorFound site.

This move is one of Joybird's numerous initiatives to reduce waste and promote sustainable
business practices while simultaneously benefiting the business and its customers.

Customers can check for products such as sofas, dining chairs,

coffee tables, and beds available on the FloorFound Joybird
storefront. The products are priced up to 55% off the original
price, classified by their condition: like new, very good, and good.

The full case study appears on floorfound.com.

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 4
SEAMLESS
CHECKOUT
EXPERIENCE

Many furniture businesses put a lot of time

and effort into the look and feel of their
Find out what the leading players in the space
e-commerce stores to attract new customers
are doing right. The best checkouts have a
and improve the overall buyer’s journey.
clear flow and are designed to be seamless
However, they often tend to overlook the
and frictionless for the user.
importance of the checkout experience.

Where to start? Give customers the chance to

According to Dynamic Yield, the cart
choose between registering and guest
abandonment rate for furniture is 69.79%. In
checkout. Also, find a smart way to encourage
other words, more than two-thirds of
them to give you their personal information.
customers don’t finish the checkout process.
Offer an incentive or a personalized
This should be a red flag for furniture
experience.
retailers.

Another thing that is very important for a

Looking at the most common causes for cart
pleasant checkout experience is to show an
abandonment, five out of the top ten reasons
image of the product your visitor is buying in
are related to the checkout process, as stated
the shopping cart. This way, you will avoid
in research from Baymard.
confusion and reduce the number of returned
items due to the wrong color, size, or even the
The question is, what can furniture retailers
wrong product.
do to create a seamless checkout
experience?
With more than 50% of all web traffic coming
from mobile devices, it’s imperative to design a
mobile checkout flow that not only follows the
best practices for e-commerce user

70%
experience but is also optimized for the
capabilities and constraints of mobile devices.

By optimizing the checkout experience to

is the cart deliver a straightforward and transparent
abandonment process, retailers can increase their
rate for furniture conversions and capitalize on what could
otherwise be lost sales.

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TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Industry West curates modern,

artisan-crafted furniture and décor, with
an emphasis on high design. For Industry
West, the impact of 2020 was twofold —
the trade side of their business started to
slow down as projects were put on hold or
lay dormant, and at the same time,
consumers were increasingly turning to
online furniture shopping.

As a result, Industry West needed to pivot

to this new consumer reality while not
leaving the trade behind.

In September 2020, they partnered with

Bolt to create a seamless customer
experience, from checkout and
confirmation to the whole payment flow.
Aside from this, they wanted a solution
that would allow them to grow and scale
to accommodate future growth.

By enabling one-click account creation

and checkout with Bolt accounts and
delivering checkout-ready shoppers via
the Bolt network, Industry West is
attracting new customers, increasing
checkout conversion, and converting
unknown shoppers to known, digital
identities for future merchandising and
personalization initiatives.

Using Bolt’s checkout, Industry West

witnessed a 2.5 times lift in checkout for
logged-in users compared to guest
shoppers, a 20% higher average order
value from Bolt account shoppers
compared to guest shoppers, and 53.3%
of guest checkouts registered for Bolt
accounts.

The full case study appears on bolt.com.

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SMS
MARKETING
We are living in an oversaturated digital
space — it’s no wonder furniture retailers
struggle to reach customers with relevant
messages across channels.
As consumers embrace online shopping,
they’re relying on their phones at every step
of the buying journey. However, they are
overwhelmed by social media ads.
This begs the question: How can retailers
prevent ad fatigue?
Enter SMS marketing.
SMS marketing is the use of text messages to
share information on deals, offers, and
important updates to customers directly to
their mobile devices. Unlike other channels
where regulations are blurry, SMS requires
consent and makes it easy to opt out, so
customers feel in control of which brands can
reach them.
91%
of consumers are
interested in signing up
for texts
9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022
The best part is: customers love text messages.
Data from Attentive shows 91% of consumers
are interested in signing up for texts. In other
words, SMS marketing offers retailers a
massive chance to capture consumers’
attention and e-commerce revenue.
When it’s done right, SMS can help you reach
customers at each stage of the buyer’s
journey. From building brand awareness and
offering discounts to customer service,
upselling, and asking for a review — texts can
become a central part of your marketing
strategy.
The desire for more personalized
communication in a mobile-first world made
SMS marketing a powerful tool to engage and
convert customers. And research shows it
works. According to Attentive, businesses that
use text messaging see average click-through
rates of 30% and have driven 20.5% of their
total online revenue through SMS.
Over the last few years, text has become a
valuable differentiator for furniture retailers. It’s
time to jump on the bandwagon and leverage
the power of this channel to connect with
customers in a personalized and measurable
way.
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TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

CB2 is a city-minded home brand with a boutique-like attitude. It brings a signature creative edge
and high-design aesthetic to everything it creates. The brand is known for its highly curated
collections and creative approach to design.

With all the noise that inundates consumers throughout the holiday season, CB2 needed an
engaging and effective way to reach shoppers with promotions and other marketing messages to
drive more revenue.

CB2 had launched a mobile messaging program with Attentive right before the 2018 holiday season,
so it leaned into its new text messaging channel at that time to reach holiday shoppers. After an
incredibly successful 2018 holiday season, CB2 used the next year to quickly grow a list of text
messaging subscribers and create a thoughtful strategy to make the 2019 holiday season even more
successful.

Year over year, the brand grew subscribers by 390% and made $2 million in revenue, driven via text
messaging during the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 and an additional half a million
dollars driven from abandoned cart reminders.

They’ve been implementing strategies learned from the previous years to increase sales and
customer engagement ever since. CB2 is continuing to grow its list of highly engaged mobile
subscribers by trying out new sign-up methods, like Attentive’s Instagram Sign-Up solution.

The full case study appears on attentivemobile.com.

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 $62.50 /2 weeks 8 weeks

6
APR Interest Total
0.00% $0.00 $250.00

See details

BUY NOW $42.91 /month 6 months

PAY LATER APR Interest Total

10.00% $7.46 $257.46

$21.99 /month 12 months

APR Interest Total

As online shopping surged during the 10.00% $13.88 $263.88
pandemic, a new phenomenon gained
popularity. Customers used the opportunity See details
to buy products and pay over time.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a type of

Adopting BNPL offers many advantages for
short-term financing that allows consumers
furniture retailers, including higher conversion
to make purchases and pay for them at a
rates, average order value, and access to new
future date, often interest-free, according to a
customer segments. Research from the
definition by Investopedia.
financial analysis website The Ascent shows
that furniture is one of the top three
It is a simple concept: instead of paying a
categories where customers make purchases
retailer at the moment of purchase, the
using the buy now, pay later method — 39% of
BNPL provider pays the retailer, and the
users say they've used BNPL to buy furniture.
customer repays the provider over a few
weeks or months. Unlike a personal loan or a
In December, total U.S. monthly users of BNPL
credit card, using BNPL doesn’t require a
providers hit an all-time high of 8.42 million,
high credit score. Customers can get
according to Bank of America. However, there
approval within seconds at checkout.
is still plenty of room for growth since BNPL
represents about 2% of global e-commerce
Customers find the BNPL concept as a
sales and roughly 3% of U.S. online shopping.
convenient way of spreading out the cost of
their shopping. According to Affirm, more
than one in two (56%) U.S. consumers are
interested in using a pay-over-time solution

56%
in 2022. But here’s where it gets interesting:
Nearly half (49%) of consumers won’t
complete a purchase if a retailer does not
offer a pay-over-time option at checkout.
U.S. consumers are
interested in using a
pay-over-time solution
in 2022

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TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Home

Furnishings (MG+BW) is a premium home
furnishings brand that aims to make the
world a more comfortable place for all. The
company achieves its goal in part by
elevating American craft and design,
focusing on sustainability and healthy
homes.

The MG+BW emphasis on customer

satisfaction and value of comfort and
choices helped influence their decision to
offer a pay-over-time option with Affirm.

The premium quality of MG+BW products

can seem inaccessible for younger
shoppers, but partnering with Affirm has
helped combat that perception and
broadened access to shoppers.

MG+BW‘s e-commerce business has more

than doubled in the last year as people
invested more in their homes. The
company also launched a virtual design
service during the pandemic that lets
shoppers work with their designers
anytime and anywhere to add more
function and comfort to their homes.
Adding Affirm to the site’s checkout
complements the flexibility and innovation
that MG+BW wants as part of its customer
experience.

MG+BW witnessed great results in the first two months after implementing Affirm. Nearly a third of
transactions with Affirm (30%) were in the 18-34 age group. What’s more, the AOV on Affirm orders
was 60% higher than orders made with a regular credit card, adding a 3% lift in incremental
revenue.

The full case study appears on affirm.com.

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 7
SEARCH
OPTIMIZATION
Bringing customers to your website is a job
half done. You have to pave the way toward
the add to cart button. To do that, you need a
well-optimized site search.
Imagine when customers search for a
specific product, and they end up on a
zero-results page. Not the best experience,
right? If your customers cannot quickly find
the product they want, they will bounce to
your competitor’s website.
An e-commerce site search solution is a
search engine solution you can integrate into
your online store to help customers find the
products they are looking for by matching
keywords.
61%
of sites require their
users to search by the
exact same product
type jargon the site
uses
9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022
While many retailers have come a long way in
improving the online shopping experience,
there’s still a lot that needs to be done for a
frictionless site search. According to Baymard,
61% of sites require their users to search by the
exact same product type jargon the site uses.
What’s more, 46% of sites don’t support
thematic search queries such as “spring
jacket” or “office chair.”
To help customers find what they’re looking
for, you have to guide them through the
shopping experience. Thanks to advances in
AI, businesses can have a search that is
intelligent and curates shopping experience to
cater to unique shopper needs.
Features such as predictive query suggestions,
autosuggest merchandising, and automated
spelling correction can bring your customers
one step closer to making a purchase.
As reported by Unbxd, customers who search
for products on the website are 2-3 times more
likely to end up buying the products. However,
only 30% of website visitors end up searching
for products — the remaining choose to
navigate. This is one more reason to prioritize
site search optimization and create a seamless
shopping experience for your customers.
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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 20

TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Jerome’s Furniture is a furniture retail store based out of San Diego, started in 1954. Jim Navarra, the
founder of Jerome’s, emphasized better prices and faster service while offering countless options for
furniture selection since the early days. Their founding principle has been offering the best to every
family — best prices, best selection, and best shopping experience.

When shoppers enter a furniture store, there

is an expansive display of products a shopper
can see, touch, and feel. Plus, there is a sales
executive assisting the shopper through the
entire purchase journey. But the moment
you turn online, the definition of the
shopping experience changes entirely.

From finding the right products at the right

time to being able to choose bundled
products — the entire journey of discovering
the products has to be seamless. This needs
to be an organic evolution from the shopper’s
entry to exit.

To solve this challenge, Jerome’s partnered

with Unbxd. From different queries such as
black leather sofa to red cotton ottoman,
Unbxd’s NER (Named Entity Recognition)
model understands every single word in the
query. It tokenizes each word in the query to
map it to the desired attribute and return the
most relevant product. Unbxd deploys other
AI models such as QCP (Query Category
Predictor), intelligent fallback mechanism,
autocorrect, and catalog auto enrichment to
ensure that shoppers are shown the most
relevant products while they type in the
search query.

Jerome’s has seen a 39% increase in

conversion from site search and an 8%
increase in the average order value after
enabling search on their website. The page
load speed is less than a second, which
makes the shopping experience very smooth.

The full case study appears on unbxd.com.

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 8
USER
GENERATED
CONTENT
There's fierce competition brewing in the
e-commerce space. To get customers’
attention and to connect, you have to be
authentic. It’s been proven time and time
again that customers are craving authenticity.
As a result, user-generated content has
become one of the most compelling forms of
content.
User-generated content (UGC) is any form of
original content created by customers and
published on social media or other channels.
There are many different UGC forms,
including images, videos, product reviews,
testimonials, and every other content that
promotes your brand.
Incorporating UGC as part of the marketing
strategy has proven to be game-changing for
retailers. The reason? It instills a sense of trust
in customers. As reported by PRWeek, 86% of
consumers seek out authentic
user-generated content before deciding to
buy a product they’ve not personally tried
before.
There’s no doubt that user-generated content
is modern-day word-of-mouth marketing, and
it increases purchase confidence. However,
retailers often overlook the potential it holds.
9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022
UGC can be used across all stages of the
buyer’s journey to boost engagement and
increase conversion. Furniture retailers can use
UGC on social media, email, product pages,
checkout pages, and many other channels.
To start capitalizing on UGC, you can create a
special hashtag for your brand and make sure
to remind customers to share their images
using your hashtag. Another way to boost
engagement and get more user-generated
content is to start a contest and offer rewards
to encourage customers to participate.
The bottom line is customers are looking for
relatable content. As Seth Godin says, “People
like us do things like this.” Adding UGC to your
marketing toolbox will help you connect with
your customers and build trust.
86%
of consumers seek out
authentic user-generated
content before deciding to
buy a product they’ve not
personally tried before.
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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 22

“ User-generated content offers the most

scalable way for furniture brands to
showcase products authentically.
User-generated content doesn't just help
other shoppers envision an item in their
home — it plays a vital role in creating social
proof around a brand's products. Showcasing
that content at critical conversion points
along the buyer journey will be necessary for
furniture brands looking to resonate with

“
customers and build loyalty in 2022.

Haley Fraser, Senior Content

Marketing Manager at Pixlee TurnTo

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 23

TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Kirkland’s is a Nashville-based retail chain that sells home decor, furniture, textiles, accessories, and
gifts.

As people shifted most of their time to being at home at the onset of the pandemic, furniture
brands like Kirkland’s became increasingly important to their customers. However, with retail
locations closed and in-person shopping opportunities paused, getting a real understanding of
each piece a brand is selling became more important than ever.

To keep customers engaged and marketing

channels filled with relevant and authentic
content, Kirkland’s turned to Pixlee.

The retailer has seen tremendous social growth

since the lockdown. With photoshoots canceled,
they’ve been relying heavily on UGC — it has
become the main thing Kirkland’s posts on all its
channels.

Today, Kirkland’s can seed UGC and influencer

content across all marketing channels
seamlessly and dynamically. This includes emails,
PDPs, and blogs — which have been performing
well for Kirkland’s. With Pixlee, the retailer has
seen a 14% increase in average order value.
What’s more, customers who interacted with
Pixlee content were 1.6 times more likely to
convert than those who didn’t.

From content all the way through to

e-commerce, Kirkland's can use
Pixlee seamlessly, without disrupting
other workflows. Ultimately, with
Pixlee, Kirkland’s team is able to get
the most value out of each piece of
UGC shared by their audience.

The full case study appears on

pixlee.com.

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 9
LAST MILE DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
Saying the pandemic has brought enormous
challenges to the global supply chain would
be an understatement. COVID-19 completely
capsized logistics and last-mile delivery.
As reported by Fortune, about 75% of U.S.
companies reported disruptions in their
supply chains due to the pandemic. The
global supply chain was not prepared for the
huge spike in demand for goods, in parallel
with factory closures abroad and clogged
ports around the world. The supply chain
havoc was worsened due to a domestic labor
shortage, especially truck drivers. Because of
this, customers had to wait seven months or
more for furniture.
The pandemic was a reality check for many
retailers — it forced companies to put logistics
and delivery at the top of their priority lists.
75%
of U.S. companies
reported disruptions in
their supply chains due
to the pandemic
9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022
According to Bringg, 98% of respondents
reported having pain points when it came to
delivering on time. If we zoom in, we can see
that 36% indicated their biggest pain point
was real-time order visibility/tracking.
The explosive growth of e-commerce since the
start of the pandemic has brought another
challenge for businesses — high customer
expectations for a seamless end-to-end
shopping experience. According to Baymard,
slow delivery is one of the top three reasons for
cart abandonment.
Aware of the importance of fulfillment,
retailers are ramping up their investments in
automation solutions to improve last-mile
carrier management, dispatching and routing,
real-time visibility, planning warehouse and
fulfillment center logistics, driver
communication, and smooth omnichannel
expansion, including offering buy online, pick
up in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup
options.
One of the main goals of furniture retailers
should be to increase supply chain resilience in
the face of the unexpected. Moving forward,
logistics and timely delivery will become a
significant competitive advantage for furniture
businesses.
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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 25

“ Today’s shoppers weigh their satisfaction with the

retailer as much on the delivery experience as they
do on the product — they want more products and
services, more flexible fulfillment options, and
faster delivery than ever.

It’s not just about speed; it’s about the fulfillment

options you provide and your ability to offer the
convenience which shoppers demand.

Seamless, omnichannel fulfillment that gives

customers choices of how and when to fulfill their
orders has become an imperative for retailers in
general and big and bulky brands in particular.

Brands that get closer to their customers through

local, fast delivery services and can offer complete
visibility over the fulfillment process will have a
competitive advantage in 2022.

To get there, you’ll need to rethink resource

availability and find ways to scale up fast, local
delivery while providing real-time visibility and
exceptional customer experiences across delivery

“
and in-store pickup.

Daniela Perlmutter, SVP Marketing

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9 Trends for Furniture E-Commerce Success in 2022 26

TREND IN ACTION
VENDOR:

Raymour & Flanigan is the largest furniture retailer in the northeast U.S. and the seventh-largest
nationwide. For 75 years, Raymour & Flanigan’s customers have fallen in love with their
commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences, exceptional products at affordable
options, commitment to the local community and to the environment.

With the growing popularity of e-commerce, leadership identified the need for a fresh approach to
their delivery and logistics. Growing demand for rapid, convenient delivery required a digital
transformation across their operations and logistics to improve their efficiency, scalability, and
customer experience.

The transformation couldn’t have come at a better time. As Raymour & Flanigan scaled up Bringg
across their last-mile operations, the COVID-19 crisis hit. This massive growth in volumes challenged
every element of their supply chain and operations, from driver sourcing to on-time performance
and customer satisfaction.

Bringg’s real-time data, automation, and optimization allowed the agility to scale up and down as
required, dynamically update delivery requirements based on the latest health regulations, and all
the while, providing customers with visibility into exactly when their deliveries were due to arrive —
substantially reducing call volumes.

Even during this challenging period, Bringg’s flexibility allowed Raymour & Flanigan to continue to
expand their transformation as they added new capabilities like on-site service to their digital
transformation initiative.

The full case study appears on bringg.com.

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About Cylindo
Hundreds of furniture companies partner with Cylindo to get superior product visuals to use across
the entire furniture buyer journey. We have created a platform that goes beyond high-quality
product visualization and gives furniture businesses versatile assets they can leverage across
multiple touchpoints. From 360 spin and 4K zoom on the product page to AR assets, customizable
lifestyle imagery, product visuals for cart thumbnails, shopping feeds, email, social media, catalogs,
third-party marketplaces, and in-store kiosks.

Powering four quintillion product variations and 18 million users per month, Cylindo is the catalyst
that drives delightful shopping experiences, helping retailers and brands show more and sell more.
Using the Cylindo Platform, companies have increased conversion rates by over 36% and average
order value by 88% while reducing visualization costs by 58% on average.

Established furniture companies such as American Leather, Universal, Flexsteel, Montana, Room &
Board, Loaf, Jerome's, Neptune, Interior Define, Sofacompany, and Plush partner with Cylindo to
create unparalleled furniture buyer journeys for their customers.

At Cylindo, we treat our clients as our partners. As their visualization guide, we strive to provide the
ultimate experience, from great onboarding to an effective content creation process and setup
selection on the platform to final delivery and distribution of beautiful product visuals.

Request a Demo

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