Why buy outdoor furniture online? In the land of the great outdoors, everyone wants to be able to relax at home, and what better way than stylish, comfortable outdoor furniture. The choices these days are vast, but where do you go to buy quality furniture at realistic prices?
Traditional retailers are at a distinct disadvantage – outdoor furniture is an industry that is both seasonal, and occasional. Unfortunately, although the sales happen in spring and summer, the expenses – like rent, wages, tax, rates, outgoings – they happen every month. So, quite simply, the traditional outdoor furniture retailer must make enough margin during the sales season to cover costs during the off season. The rise of the internet has generated fantastic opportunities in this industry. It allows an online retailer to not only seek customers from their local market, it allows them to promote to a much larger geographic area.
Sounds great, but there’s one major potential pitfall – product quality. Because many of these online retailers do not actually meet customers, they are somewhat insulated from dealing with customers in ‘real life’, and many of these retailers –including some of the big, online names – choose low quality, low cost products, and publish enhanced photos on their website. The customer doesn’t know any better, makes the purchase, but discovers that the outdoor setting really isn’t what they thought it was. The set may last a season, but the bad experience will stay with the customer for a long time.
But not all online retailers behave this way. We at Outdoor Living Direct, have a large showroom in Melbourne and we meet real customers every day. We sell most of our products online, so we minimise the off season and offer genuinely cheap prices, but unlike some of these faceless outdoor furniture companies, we purchase quality products to begin with. So the customers have the price benefit of buying from an online retailer, but the quality benefit of dealing with an established, expert company that offers above average warranties on its products.
So how to pick the good from the bad? Choose an online retailer where, if you wish, you can view the products. Ensure they have lots of testimonials from satisfied customers. Above all, phone them – make sure you’re comfortable with their service, their product knowledge, and their genuine approach.