DFS and the Internet conundrum

6th February | analysis | Web consultancy Sitemorse again put DFS at the top of its retail rankings last month, higher than all the online only retailers and every other furniture specialist.

But the sofa chain still appears reluctant to take the plunge and sell its wares online, preferring instead to push customers in-store or to fill in a form and receive a call from one of its staff.

Why?

The cost of trading online has never been cheaper. DFS has just about the biggest retail brand in the furniture industry, and everywhere you look, analysts point to the growing trend for consumers to shop online.

DFS is perhaps the most active marketer in the industry – well known for big bucks television and press advertising.

But the web is no less important to DFS’ marketing strategy. Some serious money is being spent online to ensure the brand reaches as many people as possible through advertising and search engine marketing.

Its website is well designed and, according to Sitemorse, streets ahead of rival retailers in terms of standards compliance and usability. It has all the ingredients to sell online effectively, and if it allowed consumers to buy from its website tomorrow it would certainly achieve strong sales.

But at what cost?

DFS pioneered the availability of credit as a means of purchasing new furniture, but another of its strengths has been its ability to encourage consumers to trade up. In the furniture industry, it is the master of the headline promotional offer that brings punters into its stores.

Once in-store, consumers can be encouraged to spend more, especially with IFC offers that turn four figure sums into manageable monthly payments and with no need to spend anything until a year later.

But how easy is it to do this online without any element of person-to-person interaction? Clearly not very, or why else would DFS make online buyers jump through an extra hoop by forcing them to wait up to 30 minutes for someone to call to take their order?

No doubt this is still generating significant sales, but taking away the immediacy of the online purchase will be costing sales too and sending some consumers elsewhere.

Other retail groups have indicated that their web sales tend to equate to one of their bricks and mortar outlets. Unless these numbers explode to far greater levels, DFS is unlikely to adopt a different approach to its own web strategy.

But nor is it likely to neglect to market itself online either.