Thinking about setting up an exclusively online furniture shop or contemplating creating an ecommerce channel for your brick and mortar furniture store?
It’s a great move and can be an opportunity to create and grow a new business or new revenue stream. Success though hinges on how well you can craft and execute your ecommerce strategy.
One of the most important decisions will be on your choice of ecommerce platforms. In this regard, Shopify is bound to have a head start.
Some of the most successful online furniture stores are built on Shopify. We take a closer look at the furniture stores that have wielded Shopify’s platform to their benefit.
It’s a mix of large stores and small ones to demonstrate that you do not have to run a large website to build a successful furniture shop online.
We dissect each store’s main merits to identify areas new online furniture store owners could learn from.
If you find this top interesting, make sure to explore our additional top Shopify compilations, including:
Best Shopify Furniture Stores
1. Umbra
Furniture Category: General
Umbra manufactures and designs diverse home goods including furniture, bathroom ware and wall decor.
Founded in 1979, the company is headquartered in Canada. Umbra sells over 2,000 products through its online store as well as more than 25,000 brick-and-mortar retail outlets (its own and third parties’) spanning over 120 countries.
Main Merits
- Simple, uncluttered home page – For a store that sells such a wide range of products, Umbra has opted to keep the home page simple and free of product listings. Instead, it has one hero image followed by a row allowing shopping by category. Umbra does so to suggest the buyer to shop via the navigation bar.
- Minimizable, sticky discount popup – A popup window invites users to a 10% discount on their first purchase if they sign up to Umbra’s mailing list. Closing the window minimizes it to a small, sticky screen on the bottom left side of the window. The user can click on it to restore if they are still keen on the discount.
- Featured on leading publications – In business for years, Umbra has unsurprisingly been featured on dozens of major news publications, magazines and industry media.
- Physical stores – As a business established well before the Internet Age, Umbra’s physical stores preceded its ecommerce website. The company has also partnered with numerous third party retailers. All this works to expand its footprint.
2. Stone Forest
Furniture Category: General
Stone Forest was established in 1989. The company designs bathroom, kitchen and garden furniture sculpted from wood, iron, copper, bronze, and yes, various types of stone.
By carving or forging products from natural materials, Stone Forest aims to give each product an authentic and unique character.
Main Merits
- Black and white hero image – The first thing visitors see on the home page is a scrollable series of large black and white banner images. Counterintuitively, they are not photos of Stone Press’s products but of the landscapes representing the raw materials the company uses. It seems the goal could be to evoke feelings of a connection with nature and associate this with its products.
- Nature-inspired – By using natural raw materials only, Stone Press appeals to a customer base that is drawn to a natural aesthetic.
- Help resources – Stone Forest recognizes its furniture is not what you would run into in the average store. The company has an extensive help resources section that comprises a library, care/maintenance guides, details of materials used, information on production lead times and frequently asked questions (FAQs).
- ‘Seconds sale’ – Stone Forest has a section dedicated to prototypes, discontinued designs as well as products with minor defects. Buyers get an item they like at a relatively low price and for the store, it gets to significantly reduce what goes to waste.
- Physical stores – Stone Forest products are available online as well as through a network of third party kitchen and bath retailer stores.
3. Rustic Trades Furniture
Furniture Category: Tables
Founded in 2010, Rustic Trades ecommerce store creates custom hand-crafted tables made-to-order from high quality hardwoods and authentic leather.
The tables typically follow a rustic, rugged, rural, industrial and/or modern farm aesthetic.
Rustic Trades has built a name from its unique tables and is now hoping to replicate that success on its custom benches.
Main Merits
- Photos – The store’s home page makes use of multiple photos to showcase its inspiration, work environment and end products.
- Custom hand-crafted – Rustic Trades steps away from the cookie-cutter furniture production by guiding buyers through a custom order process. The hand-crafted furniture takes into account the dimensions of the space where the item will be used.
- Custom shipping costs – There isn’t a single shipping fee. Instead, Rustic Trades discusses with each buyer the costs associated with the custom purchase.
- Rush orders – It takes anywhere between 10 and 14 weeks to complete an order. Customers that do not want to wait that long have the option of requesting a rush order that will attract a 15% extra fee on the total order.
4. Leesa
Furniture Category: Mattresses
Founded in 2015, Leesa is an ecommerce mattress retailer whose shop is designed to be a one-stop portal for all things sleep.
The business prides itself as a pioneer in the bed-in-the-box concept. While luxury mattresses are the company’s flagship, it also makes blankets, sheets, bed frames and more.
Leesa designs, assembles and ships most of its products from its factory in Phoenix, AZ. It also has a partnership with major furniture brand West Elm.
Main Merits
- Marketing-ready features – Entry and exit pop-ups during sales events. Sticky bar with countdown to sale expiry. Automatic application of discounts. No need for buyers to manually enter a discount code. In-cart upsells for accessories such as frames and foundations.
- Social responsibility – Leesa has donated tens of mattresses to the less fortunate. The company gives away one mattress to a family in need for every 10 it sells. Also, Leesa provides discounts to first responders and veterans.
- Sells directly to consumers. However, products are also available at hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores including major furniture outlets such as Pottery Barn and West Elm.
- 100-nights trial with free returns.
5. Kroft
Furniture Category: Shelving Units
Launched in 2014, Kroft’s ecommerce website features minimalist, unique furniture designs. The store primarily focuses on shelving units, clothes racks and wall hooks.
Main Merits
- In-house production – All furniture is designed, manufactured and shipped from the company’s Toronto-based workshop.
- Direct-to-consumer (D2C) – As a DTC business, Kroft bypasses wholesalers and other intermediaries to develop a stronger bond with each customer. The DTC model also means lower costs and therefore lower prices.
- Shopify reports – Taps Shopify reports to monitor sales, predict inventory thresholds and schedule products.
- Local currency conversions – All prices are indicated in the site visitor’s currency based on the country their IP address is associated with.
- Product-specific reviews – As opposed to segregating all reviews onto one page, each product includes its own ratings and reviews as rated by past buyers. That way, potential buyers can separate the good from the bad.
- Physical store – Kroft started off as an exclusively online business but eventually opened a physical store to cater to growing local demand in greater Toronto. A physical store means more detailed and quicker customer feedback.
6. Fyrn
Furniture Category: Chairs
Fyrn is a relatively new ecommerce business but build’s on a co-founder’s centuries-long multi-generational background in woodworking.
Launched in 2016, it’s quickly grown to become a well-established brand that has built a near obsessed fan base comprising individuals and businesses. It’s best known for its chairs but has recently ventured into making tables and benches as well.
Main Merits
- Simple website design – Fyrn has a simple home page with just two images. It’s consistent with the company’s emphasis on minimal waste. Visitors do not have to scroll much to get to the page bottom. The main navigation bar has just two main menu categories.
- 10-year warranty – All Fyrn products have a 10-year warranty, a fairly bold statement that asserts the company’s confidence in the quality of its products.
- Proprietary design system – Fyrn’s products are built on the back of STEMN, a proprietary system of hardwood and metal interchangeable parts-and-pieces that drives production efficiency. By building a modular product, Fyrn makes it easier to replace, repair and refurbish a product’s parts instead of having to purchase an entirely new one. The company offers to buy back used furniture or furniture pieces for repair and refurbishment before putting them back in circulation.
- List of facilities using Fyrn products – Fyrn has a showroom in San Francisco that’s open to the public once a week. It avoids the cost of keeping this open all week by providing a list of restaurants, bars, galleries and other publicly-accessible facilities where prospective buyers could see Fyrn products in use.
- Studio tour – The store provides scheduled tours of its R&D facility.
7. Floorplan
Furniture Category: Rugs
Established in 2015, Floorplan is an online rug company based out of Los Angeles, CA. While it has an elaborate ecommerce furniture store, it has a physical presence via local shops.
The company sources its rugs from a wide range of manufacturers around the world.
Main Merits
- Media features – The store has been featured on Apartment Therapy and Houzz.
- Knowledge center – Floorplan shares useful knowledge on rug selection, styling, use, cleaning, maintenance and repair. The goal is to help buyers get it right the first time.
- Free consultation – One can email the store a photo and description of the space where the rug is expected to be used. After completing a questionnaire, Floorplan suggests five rugs that could be the best suited.
8. Brooklinen
Furniture Category: Bed sheets
Launched in 2014, Brooklinen found the limelight through a series of organic and paid publicity thanks to the competitive price points.
The D2C business has been featured on industry publications such as Home Textiles Today and Good Housekeeping, to tech and business websites like Business Insider and Fast Company.
Brooklinen is best known for its bed sheets but the company also sells comforters, pillows and towels.
Main Merits
- Marketing-friendly features – Leverage customer ratings, reviews and other user-generated content. Sticky bar announcing ongoing sale. Quiz to guide users into the most suitable product for them.
- Using science to dispel widespread bedding myths including beliefs around thread count. On the website, Brooklinen goes to great lengths to explain what it takes to make the best sheets, comforters, pillows and towels.
- 365-day warranty – All products are backed by a 1-year warranty.
- Physical stores – Brooklinen has a number of physical shops that complement its ecommerce store.
9. Boll & Branch
Furniture Category: Bedding
Boll & Branch is an ecommerce store that manufactures and sells luxury bedding, sheets and towels made from organic materials.
Founded in 2014, it is today one of the largest D2C bedding brands in the world. While beddings are its core line of business, Boll & Branch does sell sleepwear, bedroom furniture, mattresses and mats. The company claims three former US presidents sleep on its bed sheets.
Main Merits
- Environmental sustainability – For the growing number of people that prefer to buy home goods from companies committed to environmental sustainability, Boll & Branch would be a suitable pick.
- Physical stores – While the website is a big part of the business, Boll & Branch has half a dozen physical stores in the US. The products are also available at select Nordstrom and Blooming dales outlets.
- More than 40,000 reviews – More than 40,000 mostly positive reviews on the website.
- Privacy request – Website visitors can submit a privacy request form to obtain any of their personal data currently stored by the company’s systems. This could be for the purposes of download, transfer, deletion and correction.
10. Black+Blum
Furniture Category: Kitchen
UK-based Black+Blum started off as a lighting fixtures business in 2000 but quickly expanded to a D2C model online selling diverse furniture and furnishings.
For a long time, this made it one of the oldest continuously running furniture ecommerce stores. However, the business has more recently refocused its efforts to selling food containers, foodware and other kitchen goods.
Main Merits
- Integrates Shopify Plus with the back-office retail automation system Brightpearl, for improvement inventory management.
- Website detects a visitor’s IP address to determine their location. Black+Blum ships for about 60 countries. For visitors from non-shipping countries, a banner popup indicates the store does not ship to their location.
- Minimizable, sticky discount popup – A popup window invites users to a 10% discount on their first purchase if they sign up to the Black+Blum newsletter. Closing the window minimizes it to a small, sticky screen on the right side of the window that a user can click on to restore if they are still interested in the discount.
- Member of ‘1% for the Planet’ – Black+Blum donates 1% of its profits to not-for-profit environmental causes.
- Buy now, pay later – The store partners with Klarna allowing customers to buy a product in up to four interest-free installments.
11. Best Choice Products
Furniture Category: General
Founded more than twenty years ago, Best choice products (BCP) curates diverse home goods via its website and on Amazon.
The company primarily sells indoor and outdoor furniture but also does toys, musical instruments, garden tools as well as seasonal décor.
Main Merits
- Live chat support – BCP is one of the few ecommerce furniture stores that offer live chat support.
- Dynamic rewards program – Customers get rewarded not just for purchases but for engaging with the store. Engagement means shopping, exploring and connecting. Program members can redeem their points for partial discounts or to get an item completely free.
- Installment purchase – Acceptable payment methods include Afterpay, a checkout service allowing shoppers to order a product but pay for it later using four interest-free installments.
- On-page product ratings – Each item on the store includes an aggregate rating based on feedback from past buyers.
- Diverse products – Unlike the average online furniture business, BCP has a diverse range that includes items that fall outside the strict definition of furniture.
- Free shipping on all orders.
Conclusion
Shopify is one of the better ecommerce platforms out there. That, of itself, gives furniture businesses that use it a notable edge.
Nevertheless, there are no guarantees of success from picking a good platform alone. Shopify addresses the technology hurdles while.
Each of the best Shopify furniture stores covered here have incorporated features that increase their likelihood of growing their sales.
No two furniture stores are identical though. So it’s important that you identify and pick the learning points that will be most relevant for your furniture products and target market.
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