While selling furniture online can be a fruitful business opportunity, it comes with a host of logistical challenges, like lots of competition, expensive shipping, and susceptibility to damage in transit.
Dropshipping furniture takes a lot of the stress out of addressing those challenges, removing the need to invest in inventory upfront while making it possible to completely outsource product development and order fulfillment. This frees you up to focus on business and marketing strategy and find ways to differentiate your brand from the competition.
Read on to find out if furniture is one of thebest dropshipping productsfor your online business.
How does dropshipping furniture work?
Dropshippingis a business model where an online seller outsources the entire manufacturing and order fulfillment process to a third-party supplier. The online seller promotes and sells products on their website. When a customer places an order, the seller sends that order to its dropshipper. The dropshipper has the inventory and picks, packs, and ships it directly to the customer on the merchant’s behalf.
Dropshipping furniture follows the same workflow and can include a variety of products for personal and business use. Furniture can include many things, from full-sized bedroom furniture sets to small items like plant stands or lamps.
Dropshipping furniture: pros and cons
Dropshipping furniture is an excellent business opportunity, but there are some obstacles to be aware of if you want to be successful in this niche.
Pro: Consumer demand
There’s a healthy and consistent demand for furniture, which bodes well for your plans if you want tosell furniture online. In the US alone, the home goods market is worth more than$65 million, and is projected to grow 10.3% the next five years. Other estimates predict the global furniture market to hit$718.3 billion by 2025. And when the economy shrank by about3.5% in 2020, the furniture market actually grew by 0.6%. Furniture made up over17% of total ecommerce sales in 2021.
There are many factors contributing to the recent growth of the online furniture market. Pandemic lockdowns forced more people to spend more time at home, creating home offices as well as upgrading their existing living spaces. And now that businesses are reopening, office and commercial furniture sales will likely have their time to shine, too.
Con: Competitive market
The online furniture market is competitive:some estimates saythere are more than 3,000 online furniture retailers, and search on Google yields a seemingly infinite number of results. When dropshipping furniture, you’ll have to compete with not only the other dropshippers out there, but also established furniture brands like IKEA and Wayfair, as well as third-party marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy.
Pro: Lots of flexibility
The furniture market is so broad you can take this niche in almost any direction you want. Flexibility is key when it comes to dropshipping businesses, especially if you want to be able to quickly pivot tocapitalize on emerging trends. You might choose to do home versus office furniture, focus on a corporate customer, sell outdoor furniture, or drill down into a super-specific niche. You can focus on large casegoods or small pieces, and you can find suppliers that use a variety of materials in the manufacturing process. You can even resell dropshipped furniture. As many as92% of consumershave bought a furniture-related item online at some point.
缺点:难以出售
It can be difficult tomake your first saleregardless of niche, but especially so when it comes to furniture. The average conversion rate for online furnitureis 0.68%,低于其他类别。一般说king, it’s easier to sell low-cost items than high-cost items. Asking someone to pay $5 for an item they’re somewhat interested in is a lot different than asking them to pay $500. The $500 item is going to require some more consideration on the buyer’s part. As such, it’s more difficult toearn shoppers’ trustenough to buy expensive items—and furniture is typically more expensive than your average online product.
Learn more:What Makes Customers Trust an Online Store? [Research]
Pro: Emerging online opportunity
People arebecoming increasingly comfortablepurchasing large furniture items online. And furniture-related online searches are more transactional than your typical search.About 36% of furniture searchesreceive informational content, while 62% of searches end up being transactional. This means SEO should be a key component to your dropshipping furniture marketing strategy.
Focusing on the user experience will help differentiate your site from competitors. For one furniture retailer, enhanced and 360-degree product images and a mobile responsive site boosted average order value (AOV) and conversion rate bynearly 50% each.
Con: Shipping challenges
One of the biggest difficulties when it comes to selling furniture online is shipping. Furniture is often large and heavy by nature, so it can be both expensive and risky to ship. Carriers charge higher rates for bulky, overweight packages. Plus, you run the risk of damage en route. Damaged products create not only unhappy customers but also lost revenue to refunds.
Pro: Fewer sales needed
The median gross profit margin for furniture is just over 31%. Although it may be more difficult to get users to convert, you won’t need to make as many sales when dropshipping furniture as you would with many other types of products. Because furniture boosts AOV and profit margins, you don’t need to worry about constantly driving more traffic and leads. Plus, fewer orders means your team has less related tasks: reduced support inquiries, returns, etc.
9 best dropshipping furniture suppliers / marketplaces
Thebest dropshipping suppliersfor furniture really depends on your unique needs. You’ll need to consider the types of furniture you want to sell as well as the types of customers you want to target.
Oberlo
Best for:Sourcing high-quality dropshipped furniture from a range of suppliers
Oberlois a dropshipping platform and app that lets you source products directly from suppliers and sell them on your Shopify store. WithOberlo suppliers, you can check out product images and reviews of the furniture dropshippers, and see how many times an item has been imported and sold. Plus, you can contact suppliers directly from the app.
It’s free to get started dropshipping furniture with Oberlo—you won’t have to pay any monthly or signup fees.
阿里巴巴全球速卖通
Best for:Merchants with plans to expand their product line
阿里巴巴全球速卖通is a China-based online marketplace with more than100 million dropshippable productsavailable across a variety of categories, including furniture. AliExpress is known for its affordability, though sometimes the quality of products is lacking.
One key benefit to using AliExpress is you can expand your business into virtually any category or niche bysourcing suppliersfrom the same platform. Let’s say you were to start selling children’s furniture, for example. You could later expand your brand to sell children’s toys and clothes, using different suppliers on AliExpress.
As far as dropshipping furniture goes, AliExpress has the following subcategories:
- Café furniture
- Furniture parts
- Furniture accessories
- Home furniture
- Office furniture
- Commercial furniture
- Outdoor furniture
- Children furniture
- Bar furniture
But you can find almost any kind of item imaginable. Like Oberlo, AliExpress doesn’t charge any signup or monthly fees.
Bedding Dropship
Best for:Dropshipping bedding and small bed and bath furniture accessories
Bedding Dropshipis a New Jersey–based dropshipping supplier dedicated to providing duvet covers, bedding sets, window treatments, and other small bed and bath home goods and accessories. The supplier offers shipping within three days for fast delivery, as well as automated tracking updates. Unused items are accepted for return up to 30 days after the purchase date. There are no order minimums or associated fees, though you do need to pay $25 to apply for the dropshipping program as well as provide a valid business tax ID. That $25 is applied to the first order as a credit for merchants who are accepted into the program.
DHgate
Best for:Sourcing affordable dropshipped furniture with buyer protection
DHgateis another China-based marketplace for dropshipping products across a wide range of niches. DHgate is also known for its affordability, so merchants should beware of product quality when sourcing suppliers here—always remember to read reviews. However, DHgate also offers buyer protection for defective or misrepresented items, so merchants have some peace of mind when using the platform.
DHgate has more than 47,000 products for dropshipped furniture. Like AliExpress, there are subcategories within the furniture dropshipping category. Those include:
- Outdoor furniture
- Home furniture
- Commercial furniture
- Other furniture
- Furniture accessories
- Children furniture
- Baby furniture
DHgate charges no signup or monthly fees.
Doba
Best for:Merchants that don’t mind paying a monthly membership fee in exchange for quality customer service
Dobais another marketplace where you can browse, compare, and contact millions of products from a variety of dropshipping suppliers. Here, you can find products of all kinds, including furniture. Furniture subcategories include:
- Nursery furniture
- Entryway furniture
- Home entertainment
- Home office furniture
- Rugs Accent furniture
- 游戏和娱乐的房间
- Kitchen and dining room
- Replacement parts Kids’ furniture
- Bathroom furniture
- Living room
- Bedroom
- Patio furniture
You can integrate Doba with ecommerce platforms like Shopify or with marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. Doba offers a free plan with up to 100 exported products each month and up to 1,000 products on your inventory list. Paid plans start at $49.99 per month ($29.99 monthly, if billed annually), and you can try it out free for 30 days. Doba’s biggest differentiator is its responsive customer support team.
Dropshipzone
Best for:澳大利亚-based merchants
Dropshipzoneis an Australia-based marketplace where merchants can find dropshippers and wholesalers to source products. Dropshipzone is limited to merchants who sell in Australia. You can use the Sofortig app to connect Dropshipzone to your Shopify store.
Its furniture category is broken down into the following subcategories, which are more product-specific than other sites on this list:
- Bar stools and chairs
- Bathroom
- Bedroom
- Dining
- Living room
- Mattresses
- Office
- Sofas
- Outdoor
Dropshipzone also makes it easy to compare products side-by-side.
Fast Furnishings
Best for:Sourcing high-quality dropshipped furniture from industry experts
Fast Furnishingsis a US-based online marketplace dedicated to selling furniture and related home goods. Here, you can browse more than 3,000 products to sell. Fast Furnishings offers international selling, fast shipping times, and free shipping within the contiguous US.
The site facilitates both B2C sales through its website and B2B sales through itsWholesale Drop-Ship Reseller Program. Merchants must apply and be approved to be able to begin dropshipping furniture with Fast Furnishings. There are a couple of different membership options, including a base program without a monthly fee and a Pro ($49 per month or $39 per month, billed annually). The latter gives merchants a 15% discount and provides a product .csv file formatted for Shopify or Volusion to make product upload easier.
GFURN
Best for:US- and Canada-based merchants seeking high-quality furniture
GFURNis a Canada-based furniture, lighting, and home décor accessories supplier that offers direct-to-consumer sales, wholesale, and dropshipping. GFURN sells a mix of items it has designed and manufactured itself, as well as items sourced from suppliers around the world.
All orders ship quickly—the supplier sends outgoing shipments on a daily basis—and there are no order minimums. You can also get discounted container pricing for large wholesale orders if you decide to switch over from a dropshipping model in an effort to increase your profit margins. Note GFURN only ships to the US and Canada.
VIG Furniture
Best for:Dropshipping high-quality, design-forward furniture in the contiguous US
VIG Furnitureis a Los Angeles–based furniture wholesaler and dropshipper that specializes in high-quality furniture, with thousands of products for merchants to choose from. You’ll also be featured in VIG’s online directory of merchants that sell its products.
VIG only ships to the contiguous US but delivers most orders within a week. There’s no minimum purchase amount or application or membership fees. Physical retailers may also be eligible for discounts if they display VIG products on their sales floors.
Wholesale Interiors
Best for:Sourcing high-quality home and commercial furniture items to dropship
Wholesale Interiorsis another dropshipping option that specializes in the furniture niche. It ships orders daily from its locations in California and Illinois. As such, you can expect a variety of furniture items, styles, designs, and niches. Top subcategories include:
- Dining room furniture
- Bedroom furniture
- Home office furniture
- Lighting Outdoor furniture
- Living room furniture
- Entryway furniture
- Bathroom furniture
- Bar furniture
- Mirrors
- Kids’ furniture
- Pet furniture
- Restaurant furniture
- Commercial furniture
- Yogurt shop furniture
Merchants are required to submit a free application along with documentation showingbusiness registration. Wholesale Interiors only works with businesses in the home furnishings, interior design, home staging, or property management and rental industries. There are no associated fees.
Note that Wholesale Interiors features its own branding, “Baxton Studio,” on boxes—but not on receipts, invoices, packing slips, or labels.
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Dropshipping furniture FAQ
Is dropshipping home décor profitable?
Dropshipping home décor is profitable. Home goods and furniture offer some of the highest profit margins in ecommerce, as well as high average order values and conversion rates. The home goods market is projected to grow.
Can I dropship furniture from any store?
No, you can’t dropship furniture from any store. You can dropship furniture from your Shopify store using one of many available apps and integrations.
What sites let you dropship?
Sites like Shopify let you dropship via third-party apps and integrations. You can also dropship from sites like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and more.