Driven by increasingly digitized consumer habits, businesses around the world are now forced to review their distribution channels and move closer to online sales.
Even DIY shops are not excluded from this digitisation process and nowadays almost all large DIY chains have their own e-commerce. Not only the big players, but also furniture retailers have started to go online, selling through their own e-commerce or on marketplaces.
Starting to sell online does not mean abandoning the physical shop, nor does it mean that the two channels have to live independently of each other. Indeed, people's new consumption habits, increasingly accustomed to online shopping but still loving the in-store shopping experience, have forced shops to review their internal processes.
While on the one hand there are consumers who search for a product on the internet, look at the technical characteristics, compare the sale price with that of other similar products and proceed with the online purchase, on the other hand there are customers who, before buying a product, want to touch it with their hands, observe the real dimensions, texture and imagine it in their own home.
Therefore, the strategic work of the stores is to capture the customer while they are in the shop, to make sure that they can see the product as they wish to see it, that they can compare all the textures available, not just the one of the display sample, and that they can easily put the furniture in their basket and head for the checkout.
Online for product range extension
The integration of traditional in-store sales with online sales has become a key resource for extending the product range of DIY shops. Today, it is crucial to use the digital channel to offer more products than are available in store. This combines the tactile, visual and quality experience of the shop with the breadth and depth of the online range.
It is important, therefore, that retailers take care to have the top selling products always available in store, while other items are always available to order and visible directly on their website. In this way, the customer in the shop can personally analyse the quality of the product and choose the version that suits his or her taste online.
Terraneo supplies to support shops
With the spread of online sales, furniture suppliers also need to review their processes and packaging in order to simplify the work of the distributors' sales and warehouse staff.
For some years now, we at Terraneo have been working on a well-defined commercial strategy that helps shops to make in-store purchases immediate, and also on packaging optimization, to make the logistical work lighter so as to simplify the transport and storage of our kit furniture, both in shop and online.
What did we actually do? We analyzed the reasons why customers come to the shop, rather than buying online, and developed solutions to meet their specific requirements, in line with the space available in the individual shop.
For example, when a customer comes into the shop to touch a product, we show the furniture in kit form assembled and contextualized with other furniture items on sale in the shop, enhanced with ad hoc communication that allows him to see all the 3D textures available for that individual product. In addition, to facilitate the purchase, the sales stock is on hand, in a package that is easy to transport home.
Contact us for more information!