Monday, November 13, 2006
Online Furniture Sales a Bulls-eye for Target?
byDo a Google search on “online furniture sales” and you’ll get more than 15,800,000 results. Better add one more big player to that. As reported by Minnesota Public Radio, Minneapolis-based Target is in the furniture game in a big way, offering more than 5,000 pieces of furniture for sale—online.
The twist is that most of these items exist only virtually until they show up in your living room; you won’t find most of the items displayed in stores.
But that’s no barrier to Target, which is offering free shipping on 3,000 items, plus liberal return policies. Don’t like that $1,000 sofa now that it’s at your house? Bring it back to a local Target store.
According the MPR story, analysts predict that selling furniture online has “significant potential for Target, since it fits the retailer’s strategy of combining upscale design and low prices…and using the Web allows Target to grow the business without using up large blocks of space in stores.”
Granted, many people use the Web only to research and compare, then travel to showrooms to “kick the tires” of the furniture before completing a purchase. However, the article says that some shoppers will buy furniture on the Web, even if they can’t test-drive it. MPR cites a Forrester Research study that says 7 percent of all home furnishing sales are done via the Web.
With another big player now in the mix, that number no doubt will increase. And that could mean a nice bulls-eye for Target.
