subject: Buying bedroom furniture: Buying in a store or online? [print this page] Buying bedroom furniture: Buying in a store or online?
The Internet has completely changed the way in which people go about their shopping, whether it is for food, entertainment or household items, e.g. electronics and furniture. Before that, as a whole, shoppers had to go to a shop or store in order to buy the items that they were after, particularly for larger items such as furniture, but now it is possible to do all purchases from a PC, with the touch of a button, in just a few minutes.
With online shopping increasingly growing in popularity, some individuals still may prefer to shop in person, browsing the actual items in the flesh rather than via their computer screen. Using bedroom furniture as our example, this article examines whether it's better to buy online or in a store.
A major factor in deciding between buying in a store and online is money. Purchasing in store could be more expensive because:
Some online shops will drop ship units, meaning they don't have to pay for storage, providing a fair saving thanks to bedroom furniture's substansial size.
While a high street shop might have to employ a variety of salespeople, an online shop may not need to do so. They may still need to employ a few people in customer services to deal with any website issues, but it might be fewer people on lower salaries, therefore less expensive for them to run as a business.
With a website not necessarily having an actual storefront existence, it will have cheaper operating costs, whereas a high street store will have to be affected by rent or a mortgage, upkeep costs and other factors.
An advantage to buying in a store vs. online is that the shopper is able to see the bedroom furniture in person, instead of having to rely on pictures on a website. The website may provide measurement details for separate units, but it might be easier to choose when witnessing it for oneself. Then again, there is nothing getting in the way of a shopper from going to a store and then seeing if their wanted range of bedroom furniture is available online, by entering the range or brand's name in a search engine or seeing if a similar-looking (or maybe even a better-looking) alternative is available for less money.
When purchasing bedroom furniture by using the Internet, be sure to pick a site that's safe and secure. Look for a Shopsafe or VeriSign logo, and when going through the checkout process, make sure that your web browser is displaying the website as secure (i.e. the front of the URL shows "https://").
