Study: Status of digitization in the furniture industry

If German furniture retailers and manufacturers had to rate their own digitization strategy, they would give themselves a grade of 3.1. According to the German school system, this corresponds to “satisfactory”. But if you take a closer look under the hood of the digital projects of German furniture makers, this note is often more embellished than realistic. 39% of the companies surveyed do not yet operate an online shop at all. And those that have one only offer limited functionality. In our analysis, only a meager 13% offered online availability queries for stationary stocks, which are now almost standard among German omnichannel retailers. And even fewer providers, namely 9%, have implemented Click & Collect or Click & Reserve services.

The fact that 57% of those surveyed have almost completely outsourced their digital activities – either to an agency, their software provider or straight to an association – also shows that the online shop is often just a nuisance and not a lifeblood project. And 57% of survey participants could not answer the question who is responsible for their e-commerce strategy in-house.

The furniture makers also paint an interesting picture when it comes to measuring the success of their e-commerce activities. Although 70% of furniture makers use a tracking solution, only 9% evaluate key figures on a daily basis. In doing so, they primarily limit themselves to KPIs such as sales, visitors and conversion rates. Other relevant key figures are not considered at all.

Overall, only 43% of the companies in the survey stated that they saw e-commerce as THE future business that is critical to success. 30% of respondents plan to expand their digital business in the future. The rest continue to stick to the brick-and-mortar business. E-commerce is widely regarded only as an additional revenue pillar.