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Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

nytimes.com

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Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#11

Post by philfrasty »

There was an article the other day here in multiple German newspapers that IKEA will start selling through shops like Amazon and Alibaba besides their own ecommerce presence. If I remember correctly they mentioned that IKEA has twice the margin compared to all other competitors. They also mentioned that the biggest problem in the delivery process seems to be damage to these bulky items.

[1]http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/... (can't find the exact print-article I read...)

edit: grammar

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#12

Post by ashark »

yathern wrote: post #10
jseliger wrote: post #2

I bought a sofa online and it is, frustratingly, one inch too short. I find the Campaign Living concept: https://www.campaignliving.com/products/the-sofa?variant=416... to be an interesting one, however.

I like that movability is a feature (at least for the chair, sofa didn't mention that?) But it does seem very very expensive.

Not far off from how much you pay for any tough sofa that has even a hope of surviving... ah, large friends or relatives. The steel frames on these make them seem like they'd possibly last for a useful amount of time under those circumstances.

Cheap furniture goes to hell fast if anyone over ~250lb is sitting on it regularly. Or sometimes for no discernible reason at all. Our experience has been that unless you're buying furniture that puts its high durability right there in the marketing, you may as well buy Ikea, which despite its reputation for being fragile will last at least as long as other cheap (but still more expensive, and often less tasteful) furniture.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#13

Post by Sangermaine »

pfooti wrote: post #6

I bought a couple of rugs from wayfair, mainly because it was a convenient way to buy rugs, as in: I didn't really want to go shopping for a long time to find a rug that met my needs (dimension, colors, price). I'm currently in the market for a sofa, but this is more of a hobby than anything else - my wife and I don't have the same taste in sofa design, it turns out, so the overlap between what each like is small to…

What was your experience buying rugs from them? I'm in the same boat as you in terms of wanting a rug but not wanting to spend time physically going around.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#15

Post by nsxwolf »

I've been burned by online furniture too many times. There's just no way to get a sense of something's quality online. You need to be able to touch it.

Price is not an indicator. My grandfather bought a couch and coffee table from Ethan Allen in the 1960s. They seemed to have been carved from a single block of wood and weighed a ton. Now everything they sell feels like it is made of cardboard, but it costs thousands and thousands of dollars.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#16

Post by pfooti »

Sangermaine wrote: post #13
pfooti wrote: post #6

I bought a couple of rugs from wayfair, mainly because it was a convenient way to buy rugs, as in: I didn't really want to go shopping for a long time to find a rug that met my needs (dimension, colors, price). I'm currently in the market for a sofa, but this is more of a hobby than anything else - my wife and I don't have the same taste in sofa design, it turns out, so the overlap between what each like is small to…

What was your experience buying rugs from them? I'm in the same boat as you in terms of wanting a rug but not wanting to spend time physically going around.

It was pretty positive. I bought two area rugs from them, both are holding up well. According to my order history, they're now 2.8 years old, so I'd say I'm pleased. Not super-cheap ($375 for the two of them), but free shipping. Neither seem to be available anymore, which isn't super-surprising given stock turnover and so on.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#17

Post by nsxwolf »

ashark wrote: post #12
yathern wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like that movability is a feature (at least for the chair, sofa didn't mention that?) But it does seem very very expensive.

Not far off from how much you pay for any tough sofa that has even a hope of surviving... ah, large friends or relatives. The steel frames on these make them seem like they'd possibly last for a useful amount of time under those circumstances. Cheap furniture goes to hell fast if anyone over ~250lb is sitting on it regularly. Or sometimes for no discernible reason at all. Our experience has been that unless you're bu…

We bought a couch that seemed pretty good and wasn't cheap. It was really comfortable for about a week, then the whole structure just started to sag.

The kids like to stand on the arm rests and jump off. We very quickly learned that the entire structure of each arm rest was just a cardboard box, and they both promptly crushed, and now we have deformed, squishy arm rests.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#18

Post by wiremine »

We recently moved and my wife attempted to purchase 5 different items from Wayfair: we ended up returning 4 of them.

The problem was color: the photography online was typically very different from the final product. We kept thinking there was a simple fix: send sample veneers to a customer to let them see what the actual product looks like. They could rent them out like lots of other furniture places do with fabric. I'd easily drop $100 on rent if I didn't have to deal with returning something.

We also had one coffee table that was half-stained: they literally forgot to stain half the table.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#19

Post by yathern »

bpicolo wrote: post #14
yathern wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the size mattress it was designed for, I assume. EDIT: I'm a fool, and sofas aren't beds.

But it's a sofa?

Oh. I see the error in my ways. Maybe one inch short than it's description online? In such a way that it doesn't fit as nicely in the spot.

Re: Buy a Sofa Online? Wayfair Is Counting on It

#20

Post by bluedino »

If you're looking for a $249 couch, it's the way to go.

Around here, at least the low-end furniture stores like Art Van stock a ton of low-end Chinese-built furniture. Everything is particleboard and laminate, it scratches and peels and is basically junk, but they want to charge full price for it. At least when you buy a cheap table from Amazon it's priced accordingly.

I can see their industry turning upside very quickly. Furniture store are huge, they have tons of sales people making handsome commissions, they rely on selling furniture marked off by 40% with a different 'sale' each week, and make most of their money on the financing arm and fabric protection packages and wood polish extras.

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