In today’s fast-paced retail landscape, it is crucial for furniture businesses to find ways to stand out and stay competitive. One key aspect that can greatly impact sales success is the purchase experience. By understanding how to increase sales conversions and elevate the purchase experience, retailers can not only boost their bottom line but also create a loyal customer base. In this blog, we will explore the key areas of the purchasing experience that furniture retailers should focus on to increase sales conversions.
1. Leverage Insights & Analytics to Prioritize Hot Leads
An effective way to increase the sales conversions is by taking advantage of available insights and analytics to help you understand customer behavior and preferences. As estimates or proposals are typically the first time potential buyers engage with the business, it is important to employ tools that allow you to track engagement on these quotes. Something as simple as monitoring how long prospects spend on a quote, how many times they open it, or which optional items they select can provide sales teams with key insights into their level of interest. This enables your team to prioritize their efforts and focus more on leads that are likely to convert, ultimately saving time and increasing sales.
Additionally, tracking engagement on quotes allows your sales team to personalize the sales experience. By identifying which products customers are interested in, your team can apply discounts or special offers to incentivize purchases. This personalization makes customers feel valued and special, increasing the likelihood of a sale. By using insights and analytics to drive a seamless customer experience, furniture businesses can not only increase average sale size but also create loyal and satisfied customers.
2. Create a seamless purchase experience no matter the complexity of the sale
A seamless purchase experience builds trust and increases the likelihood of repeat purchases, ultimately driving sales growth. If you sell custom furniture or interior design services, your sales process is already more complex than a simple “add to cart” shopping experience where you may need to collect additional information from customers. No matter how complex the sales process may be, you want to make it simple for your customers. This means that if you need to collect additional information, signature, preferences for custom products, and/or deposits – this should all be in the same document to ensure your customers have a smooth journey.
One thing that often hurts the experience is revisions. If you need to go back and forth with the customer and make changes to document, you want to find a tool that allows you to make edits on the fly, so your customers simply have to refresh the page to see the changes you made. Unless you’re printing out physical estimates each time, there’s no reason why your customers should have to sift through multiple documents to find what they’re looking for. This is one of the reasons QuoteMachine implemented a built-in chat function to allow customers to ask their questions directly within all quotes, orders, and invoices to ensure a seamless experience. This allows sales teams to keep communication open and make necessary changes without interrupting the purchase experience.
3. Seek omni channel tools to track and centralize customer communication
By having a platform that offers omni-channel communication such as email, SMS, or built-in chat boxes, it allows businesses to centralize all customer correspondence within one platform to easily track the customer journey. Also, by using various communication channels such as email, phone calls, live chat, and social media, you can ensure that customers have multiple ways to reach you and receive timely responses. This not only increases accuracy in capturing customer information and preferences, but also allows you to track customer history across all channels, providing valuable insights for personalized sales.
This can also significantly improve the sales process as it makes it easier for teams to take over a sale and have all of the context and information needed to close the deal effectively. Additionally, tracking all customer correspondence minimizes chances of errors or risks to the business. This is a must-have for furniture retailers with long sales processes where you may have to order items or create custom products and the sale can take months long.
How to use personalization strategies to increase sales
Personalization is a game-changer in the retail industry, especially for furniture businesses as industry trends are showing an increase in investments in home improvement, so people are already more open to spending on add-ons than in the past. Couple that with the fact that personalization leads to a 40% increase in unplanned purchases, you are undoubtedly missing out on sales opportunities by not having a personalization strategy. The common misconception is that it requires too much time and effort to personalize every sale, but with the right tools, personalizing a sale can take less time than you’re probably spending on a sale now. With QuoteMachine, for instance, you can effortlessly create and save pre-built templates for different customer segments with fields that automatically fill in customer details and notes to make every sale feel tailored without the extra leg work and reducing the chances of errors in sales.
Even simply customizing your templates with images, videos, and your branded colors will help you stand out from the competition. In the furniture retail industry, if you take it one step further by providing personalized recommendations and promotions, you will increase the likelihood of closing the sale by 20%. Not to mention 80% of consumers have a high probability of buying from businesses that provide personalized experiences, so it’s an effective way to foster customer loyalty.
Flexible payment options to build trust with customers
Providing flexible payment options has become an expectation among customers as more businesses shift towards online shopping. Also, by offering payment flexibility, you show that you understand the financial constraints and preferences of your customers. This can go a long way in establishing a sense of trust and rapport, making customers more likely to choose your business over competitors. This is even more important with high-ticket furniture sales where offering multiple payment solutions can help overcome any hesitations or barriers to purchase, ultimately boosting sales and customer satisfaction.
One way to offer flexible payment options is by allowing customers to make deposits during the quoting and ordering process. This gives customers the opportunity to secure their desired furniture pieces without having to pay the full amount upfront. Not only does this ease the financial burden for customers, but it also reduces the risk of abandoned purchases. By requiring only a deposit, customers can feel confident in their decision to move forward with the purchase, knowing they have the option to pay the remaining balance at a later date. With QuoteMachine, you can continue collecting deposits throughout the ordering stage or partially invoice customers to complete payment for part of the order as it becomes ready. With the right tools, you can also minimize risk and increase debt collection such as by saving cards on file or setting up automated payment reminders. Ultimately, don’t underestimate the power of offering flexible payment options as a way to build trust and close more sales.
Every business is different with unique needs and challenges, which is why we recommend booking a 1:1 demo with members of QuoteMachine to see the tools in action based on your specific business needs. With years of experience working with retailers in the furniture industry, our team can help advise you on the best practices to optimize your sales process and increase your bottom line. Book a personalized demo with our team today to see how you can elevate your purchase experience and maximize your sales potential.
