For the furniture and home furnishings business, it’s been the holy grail of making online work: fast, free delivery.
Unlike small items -- books, health and beauty aids and jewelry – home products are usually big, bulky and heavy.
It’s been the Achilles Heel for why online sales of furnishings have not reached the market penetration of other consumer products.
But that may be changing soon. From Wayfair at the larger end of the spectrum to specialized players like Floyd, based in Detroit, home furnishings suppliers are addressing the issue head-on.
Wayfair has made free delivery a linchpin of its overall strategy almost since its creation. While some purchases are subject to delivery charges, most are not, with the cost either built in to the overall price or – more often – the site’s vendors picking up the freight (literally) for getting the product to the consumer’s home.
However, it’s Floyd that has taken the whole thing one step even further by offering same-day delivery of its products –yup, you read that right, same-day delivery – in selected markets. And it’s at no charge.
The service is now in place in three cities: New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Floyd says it will expand into the Portland, OR, and Chicago markets later this year.
Of course, Floyd has a built-in advantage that virtually no other furniture producer can claim: it only sells eight SKUs: a bed, a table, a desk, a side table and the accompanying hardware. All products are made in the United States and the company maintains distribution facilities in those key cities to allow for the uber-fast delivery.
Company co-founder Kyle Hoff, in a recent interview, explained some of the thinking behind the dramatic strategy. “It wasn’t just about being fast. Something we heard early on from our customers was that they wanted transparency in the delivery process.”
He added that the “quick and transparent delivery process” both relieved customer anxiety and offered a solution consumers preferred.
The bottom line is that as Amazon has established a standard with two-day delivery for most of its products as part of its Prime program, a new level is being set for furniture and home furnishings products like lighting. It may not be same-day for the vast majority of purchases yet consumer expectations are certainly being set for deliveries in a timely – and transparent -- manner rather than the week – or longer – timeframe some sellers still operate under.
For the home business, the bar has been raised … again.
