As government slowly allows relaxation on the movement and services, businesses are gradually starting their operations. Furniture ecommerce industry which does not fall under the “essentials” categories faced a hard time during the lockdown and now are trying to make the best out of the current situation.
With Work-from-home becoming a new reality, there has been an upsurge in the sale in the industry which is comparatively more than other segments like apparel and clothing. Pepperfry, a leading Furniture ecommerce platform stated that they have managed to recover about 60-65% of sale volume as it was before lockdown in March.
Ashish Shah, Cofounder and COO of Pepperfry said, “In furniture, we have INR 18K ticket size and that has kind of held because it completely depends on the kind of assortment that you offer to your customer. As long as the online catalogue remains the same, order values would not get impacted.” The main business is currently through their websites as customers are still reluctant to visit physical stores.
Rental furniture space too has seen an increase in the order rate. Ajith Karimpana of Furlenco said that they are expecting to reach the business value of March within 3-4 weeks of lockdown being completely lifted. Geetansh Bamania of Rentomojo told that the company has surely seen a dip in the numbers in last two months because people were not sure if the delivery will be possible due to lockdown restrictions.
The demand for rental products is still high and the companies have observed an increase in the demand of products like lounge sofas and chairs owing to the work-from-home norm. The industry though is facing a hard time to complete the supply and demand cycle considering their workforce including of migrants in large number has taken to their natives.
Consumers will buy stuff if it is extremely essential for them which will help these businesses. According to Capgemini Research, 50% of participants said they will reduce their expenditure on furniture while 23% are expecting to increase such expenses.