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What is the conversion rate from exposure to actual purchase in the furniture online industry in the US
Hi! Thanks for your question about conversion rates in US online furniture shopping. Here's the short version: the conversion rate for online furniture shoppers in the US is just over 2%. My deep dive is below.
METHODOLOGY
To get the conversion rate, I looked around for any general eCommerce industry reports that covered conversion rates across all online retail. I was lucky to find a couple, one which specifically dealt with the online furniture shopping industry and gave year-over-year figures for conversion rates.
To take it a little deeper, I wanted to find some analysis and explanation for the conversion rates in this industry. I poked around at business blogs and furniture industry sites to find any trends in furniture buying that might have influenced conversion rates for online furniture buying as opposed to other online retail.
ONLINE RETAIL CONVERSION RATES
Overall conversion rates in the US online commerce industry have hovered between 2.5% and 3.5% for the past year. A 5% conversion rate would be considered "fantastic" in the online retail industry. Smartphone rates are lower overall, between 1% and 1.5%.
Furniture conversion rates are lower than the overall average at 2.04% total. Smartphones account for a rising percentage of online furniture purchases, and the conversion rate for online furniture purchases has risen. It's comparable to average industry rates -- the smartphone conversion rate in furniture shopping is at 1.14%, while overall the smartphone conversion rate in 2016 was 1.15%.
FURNITURE SHOPPING TRENDS
Showrooming, or "webrooming," is a big threat to conversion rates for online furniture retailers. Consumers will shop and compare prices online, then take "a trip to the store to see the item first hand and seal the deal." However, online sales do account for a growing share of US furniture purchases -- "e-commerce has grown by 168 percent" in the furniture industry since 2009.
Millennials are mostly to blame for these increases. They're more likely to research and purchase furniture online-only, and "from 2012 to 2014, millennials’ share of spending on furniture and bedding more than doubled, from $11.1 billion to $27.0 billion."
Wayfair is a great example of a company that's capitalizing on these trends. Their sales increased by 44% from 2012-2014, and that growth continued in 2015 -- their sales spiked by almost a billion dollars thanks to their social media and email marketing efforts. Wayfair also saw high conversion rates for furniture shopping when they landed the top spot in Google search results. According to Alex Stein, an SEO manager at Wayfair, "incremental organic visits came from our new #1 rankings and saw that those visitors were 160 percent more likely to convert to purchase." Wayfair's conversion rate rose from 10% to over 13% after they hit #1 on Google's search results.
CONCLUSION
The conversion rate for online furniture shopping in the US is just over 2%, which is lower than the average for all online commerce. The smartphone conversion rate for furniture shopping, though, is in line with industry averages at 1.14%.
The online furniture shopping industry overall is growing thanks to millennials' increasing participation -- they're more likely to research and purchase furniture online from sites like Wayfair, which has great conversion rates thanks to its high Google search results and millennial-targeted marketing strategies.
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