CONSUMER

Online furniture order tracking climbs 500% in just three years

5th February 2010

Furniture independents that allow customers to track the progress of their order over the Internet have seen a massive five-fold increase in user uptake over the past three years.

Data provided to the Furnishing Report by retailsystem.com, an online software provider to the furniture trade, highlights how consumer behaviour online has shifted in recent years.

Fully-adjusted figures for January 2008, 2009 and 2010 reveals a like for like increase each year from just 480 consumers tracking their order online in January 2008 to 2,400 last month - a 500% jump.

The data is derived from more than 100 independent furniture stores across the UK. Stephen Smith, retailsystem.com founder says, 'while this figure doesn't indicate rising sales on the Internet per se, it does show how consumer behaviour patterns have changed. However, consumers using the retailers' websites is clearly also a massive sales opportunity too.