Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
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Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#2As I am a cheapskate when it comes to this, I would use a service that lets me find furniture people want to get rid off and that I can get for free. Maybe the service could also add a cheap van for transportation and monetize this way. It's a win win, people usually don't like throwing their furniture and sometimes have to pay taxes for that too.
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#3Just out of curiosity how does this work from a business perspective? If you're re-selling furniture from another company do you have to secure the ok with them first?
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#4As I am a cheapskate when it comes to this, I would use a service that lets me find furniture people want to get rid off and that I can get for free. Maybe the service could also add a cheap van for transportation and monetize this way. It's a win win, people usually don't like throwing their furniture and sometimes have to pay taxes for that too.
scrape the free section of craigslist for keywords of furniture you're looking to acquire.
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#5Just out of curiosity how does this work from a business perspective? If you're re-selling furniture from another company do you have to secure the ok with them first?
I'm assuming they're not re-selling anything. They're acting as a data aggregator to simplify the product search process to a single site. They then link to the site and, in the case of Amazon, they get money through affiliate programs. Had a similar idea for shoes. Didn't work very hard on it and only made a few pennies before I shut it down.
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#6this is just a website with affiliate links to buy furniture, I don't understand how this is unique.
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#7The brands you've focused on already have great online shopping experiences. The regional and small independent furniture retailers could really benefit from something like this where they don't have the knowledge or time to focus on their online experience.
Also, have you seen the numbers on big ticket furniture items bought online? Check out Wayfair's data. They're incredibly low so I doubt you can make enough money just through affiliate programs.
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#8Reasons I would:
I might live in an area where furniture galleries are few and far between, and maybe I don't have a vehicle able to move anything larger than a small end table in the box.
I might have a friend whose place is completely decked out in furniture from these vendors, and she invites me over to a party, like tupperware or certain unmentionable things are sold.
You cater to a very specific group with high margin boutique furniture that is not available anywhere else but is nonetheless highly desirable.
Reasons I would not:
Furniture is like apparel and shoes; you can't describe an individual fit or feel over the internet all that well; that's why shopping malls stay in business and Amazon does much better selling coffee table books than coffee tables.
Try though you may, you would have to reach an economy of scale eclipsing a percentage of IKEA or Wal-mart to leverage the savings from not needing a physical showroom. IKEA thrives in spite of (and arguably because of) having really crappy delivery infrastructure, because non-crappy deliveries would blow anybody's margins.
What would really impress me is a self-assembling furniture kit, including 3-D printer/sewer, and all the raw materials to make it work. It may require a $10k deposit on a $40 chair, and require me to devote 6 hours of my labor, but I think that'd be an entertaining (and potentially quite profitable) alternative. Now to figure out how to make wood come out of a 3-D printer nozzle.
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#9Oddly enough, last night I was hanging out online, decided to look at some furniture and noticed that browsing for furniture online still largely stinks. Consequently, I agree that you've found a problem in need of a solution.
Unfortunately, while I'm a big fan of browsing for furniture online, I wouldn't buy anything more substantial than a bookshelf online. I don't buy furniture terribly often, so when I do, I look for things that are going to last and that I won't regret in six months. Consequently, I like to see/touch the fabric, look at the stitching, and generally take a good look before I make a buying decision. So, while I'd traffic your site, I don't think you'd ever make any money off of me. I'm not one to tweet out links to products on shopping sites, or even like many things on Facebook, so to top it off, I'd be a viral dud. :)
However, I'm just one perspective and I may not be your target, so don't put extraordinary amounts of faith in my opinion. Congratulations for going this far, plus front paging Hacker News, and best of luck with your idea!
Re: Startup Idea: The Best Way to Buy Furniture – Would You Use This?
#10this is just a website with affiliate links to buy furniture, I don't understand how this is unique.
No kidding. Or how this post isn't just spam.