Furniture ecommerce software has the ability to help you create an omnichannel shopping experience that grows your business, engages your customers — and keeps you ahead of your competitors.
Many businesses, however, may be concerned about the time, cost, and effort that furniture ecommerce software implementation can take.
In this post, we share what the implementation process looks like for the top vertical SaaS platforms, from performance and security — and everything in between.
What Does a Furniture Ecommerce Software Implementation Process Look Like?
Before you choose software for your business, you likely have some questions about the implementation process.
Key Steps of the Implementation Process
The implementation process may vary for different businesses, but there are some standard components. These steps include:
- Integrating your existing ERP system. In order to enable unified operation and experiences between your ecommerce and brick-and-mortar stores integrating the website platform with your ERP system is a key component of ensuring real-time price, product availability, and delivery information.
- Configuring your online business logic to match your business processes and procedures. This is where a vertical SaaS solution can make all the difference, as solutions built for your industry likely have the solutions you need, and just need to be configured. With more generic solutions, custom development may be required to accurately reflect your business needs online.
- Implementing your business’s branding. Your new website should incorporate your business’s designs, logos, and styles so your online store looks and feels like your stores
- Connecting all necessary tools. Make sure you have your digital ecosystem ready to go, including financial tools, data analytics, 3rd party tools, and more.
How Long Does a New Implementation Take?
While the implementation process time varies depending on each business by working with a provider who thoroughly understands the furniture industry and the implementation process, you’ll be able to ensure the process goes smoothly and your business gets the highest return on investment possible on the building of your new site.
Who Should Be Involved?
It’s important to involve key employees during the implementation of this software, including IT, sales, marketing, merchandising. You’ll also want to solicit feedback from team leads such as sales and operations, managers, or other executives who may not have, initially, been involved in the process.
By creating engagement across your teams, you will create an optimal starting point to further grow your ecommerce and omnichannel business with the help of your furniture ecommerce software.
6 Features To Consider Before Implementing Your Ecommerce Software
When you’re implementing a top ecommerce software solution, you should ensure you have certain capabilities within the platform, including:
1. Seamless Data Integrations
In order to maintain, grow and improve your business, you’ll need to have insight into operations, customer data, and more.
One of the most important connections for your business, as mentioned earlier, is enterprise resource planning (ERP) connections and integrations. With this in place, you can oversee manufacturing timelines, delivery dates, product availability, and more.
In addition, seamless data can help you improve your product merchandising catalog and content creation processes. Utilizing the initial catalog data you already have in your ERP system makes enhancing these products simpler and faster.
Finally, once your systems are integrated, creating and utilizing product feeds directly from your ecommerce platform to other shopping channels, such as Google and Facebook, becomes streamlined and efficient.
2. Business Rule Configurability
To be an effective omnichannel solution, your website needs to provide the same options and business rules as a shopper will find in a store. By providing information like delivery dates, available promotional offers, and how an order is written up, your website should tell your customer the same thing your best salesperson would tell a shopper.
Ensure your platform is built to handle the business rules you need to implement. Implementations can be much faster and much more reliable if your vendor understands your industry and can configure your website easily, vs. learning your industry and building something from scratch.
3. Design and Customization Features
The platform you choose should give you the opportunity to customize it to your brand so your online experience reflects your in-store experience as well as the tools and features you need as a furniture retailer.
Further, because the majority of web traffic comes from mobile devices, you’ll need to ensure your site is designed to provide a consistent and mobile-responsive digital experience to optimize cross-device shopping.
4. 3rd Party Integrations
Whether you have platforms you already use for your business or want to branch out to new ones, the platform you choose needs to have the ability to integrate with 3rd party applications.
Many popular integrations include:
- Google or social media shopping feeds. This allows you to promote your products throughout the internet and connect with people searching for merchandise just like yours.
- Email providers. Connect with your customers through email marketing to inform them about sales, educate them about upcoming events, and showcase your products.
- Reviews. PowerReviews found that 99.9% of customers utilize reviews, so make sure you provide easy access to five-star reviews of your products and services.
With plugin features that are preconfigured for the furniture industry, you’ll always have the ability to connect with the tools you need.
5. Analytics
Ensure that your platform gives you the ability to connect with analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. This can help you measure critical key performance indicators (KPIs), including:
- Website traffic. How many people visit your website each month?
- Traffic sources. Where do your website visitors come from?
- Page bounce rates. How many people visit your website only to immediately click away?
After your furniture ecommerce software implementation, your business should be able to understand the digital customer journey, which can help steer your marketing efforts and grow your business.
6. Performance History
Prior to selecting or implementing software, you should ensure that customers in your industry have had positive experiences, both during the implementation and after. Choose a provider that has a reputation for providing furniture retailers with the ability to easily accommodate your business requirements and handle the complexities of furniture pricing, inventory systems, and other PIM functionalities.
You’ll also want software that keeps up with advancements in technology through continuous improvement to help you stay ahead of the competition.
7. Security Measures
One of the most important factors of your business is securely maintaining your business’s information and the information of your customers.
Prior to implementing a solution, check on the security features. To keep your business safe, you should check for PCI compliance, security management, and separation of interest capabilities. These security features all work together to help your business run smoothly and protect your information if a security breach does occur.
Which Furniture Ecommerce Platform Is Right For Me?
With so many platforms in the market, it can be hard to decide which one is right for you and how to proceed with your furniture ecommerce software implementation.
But, now, with these considerations in mind — and support from the right software provider — you know that you can find a platform that was specifically built for your unique challenges as an ecommerce furniture retailer. With the right software, you can help your business quickly launch omnichannel experiences to impress your customers and increase your revenue.
Download our comparison guide today to find the retail furniture ecommerce platform to help grow your business.
