What You Need To Know Before Buying Furniture On Wayfair

In the growing world of online shopping and the expanding market for online retail, Wayfair has become a game-changer for shoppers looking to order furniture and home decor from the comfort of their homes. Known for its huge selection of products for all styles and budgets, the e-commerce giant allows you to furnish and decorate your entire home without ever leaving it, often for far less than you would pay anywhere else, while still maintaining its high-quality standards.

Buying furniture and home decor for every room of the house completely online might be foreign territory for those who are used to buying their home goods in a more traditional sense at a brick and mortar furniture store, so luckily, Wayfair makes the shopping process simple and easy when you order products through their app or directly on their website. Even so, there are a few things you should know prior to ordering furniture on Wayfair, as well as a few tips and tricks you should follow to ensure you get the most out of your online shopping experience.

Unless you know exactly what you are shopping for and are able to search for an item with a few keywords, you are going to spend a lot –- and we mean a lot -– of time scrolling through pages upon pages of online inventory. Because Wayfair offers such an extensive variety of home goods and furniture for every room of the house, browsing the app or the site might be overwhelming at first. Fortunately, if you don't know exactly what you are looking for, you are able to browse by category or by room of the house to save time and to help zero in on what it is you are really looking for.

Though the amount of inventory has the potential to scare some weary shoppers off, it's actually to your benefit to take advantage of it. Den Garden notes that the big range of products in a variety of price ranges is greater than any you will find in most other furniture stores ... meaning that you are more likely to find what you need on Wayfair at affordable prices. Plus, having everything you would ever need for your home on one website makes comparison-shopping much easier since doing so online is much easier than driving from store to store.

Because the furniture you order has to be packaged and shipped to your door, often in separate boxes, be prepared for the fact that you will have to assemble your furniture yourself once it arrives. According to Den Garden, each package in an order also might not always arrive on the same day, depending on the UPS delivery schedule. This is why shopping from Wayfair is best if you are not in a huge rush to use your new furniture. Not only does the furniture take time to assemble, but it also takes time for your full order to be delivered to you.

Luckily, Den Garden notes that assembling the furniture is relatively simple and straightforward, so you don't need an engineering degree to figure out how to put it together. However, each piece of furniture comes with a handy visual instruction guide that lays out each step of the assembly process if you need a little guidance.

You also don't need to worry about any tools or hardware, as everything you will need to assemble your furniture will be sent with your order. If you are missing any hardware or tools needed for assembly, just file a report within 30 days of your shipment arriving at your home, and Wayfair will ship them to you for free.

As convenient and helpful as online shopping may be, the reality is that seeing photos of a product online and seeing it in person is very different, and something you loved online might not be what you were hoping for when it arrives on your doorstep. This can be especially true when it comes to ordering online furniture, as you aren't able to sit or lay on anything to test its comfort level before ordering to find out if it's a good fit for you.

While shipping on Wayfair is free, you will have to pay the return fee if you decide to send something back that ends up not being what you were looking for or hoping for, per Den Garden. In that case, making sure you truly love a product and know what to expect before it arrives will help avoid making expensive and time-consuming returns.

Den Garden suggests that you look at all the photos that Wayfair provides of an item and make sure you know how it looks from every angle. Be sure to check out the product descriptions and online reviews, as you can learn important information about your furniture from both of those, relating to things like the durability of the product, how it was constructed, and even the cleaning requirements. If you aren't sure how the product will look in person, you can always pre-order a free swatch of the fabric to ensure that the color, texture, and pattern are exactly what you are looking for.