Wal-Mart site connects with furnishings
Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, February 16, 2004
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The furniture assortment in Wal-Mart stores tends toward rock-bottom prices and sometimes haphazard displays.
Furniture offerings on its Web site, www.walmart.com, are much broader, hitting price points double and triple what can be found in the stores, and the presentation is professional and easy to shop.
The Web site is quietly doing a ton of furniture business. Although Wal-Mart won't disclose sales figures, several key vendors said the holiday season was particularly busy for walmart.com, with thousands of pieces shipped directly to consumers every day, and with sales remaining brisk since.
The assortment is equivalent to what might be found in a full-line furniture store specializing in promotional to middle price points.
For instance, walmart.com recently offered a section of 36 beds. About a third were headboards, primarily for youth beds, at less than $100. But just as many carried price tags of $594 — king-size headboard, footboard and rails in solids and veneers — or $494 for queen.
Matching case pieces are priced accordingly, allowing a Web shopper to order bedroom ensembles that cost nearly $2,500, not including shipping, which adds another 15% to 20%.
The Web site allows Wal-Mart to sell a much broader selection of furniture than in its stores. A typical supercenter store might offer about 10 entertainment centers and TV stands, with prices from $38.63 to $154.98. On the Web, there were 18 entertainment centers for TVs 32 inches and larger, with prices from $88.54 to $493.22. The site offered another 13 entertainment centers for smaller TVs, priced from $79.94 to $392.84.
Many of the highest-priced items are available only through the Web site. In the stores recently, only one leather sofa was on display, a $328.74 ready-to-assemble model imported by Dorel. On the site, there are more than a dozen groups presented, priced from $1,166 to $1,997, and that Dorel sofa is the least expensive single item in the category.
