How to: Selling furniture online via Shopping Ads on Google

Selling furniture via Shopping Campaigns can be challenging. Due to the unique and expensive nature of these products, customers often take longer to make a purchase decision, resulting in longer conversion paths. However, with the help of the Producthero Labelizer Strategy, businesses can optimize their campaigns and achieve success in this competitive market. In this article, we will explore the impact of ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline) on Google Shopping Campaigns, the importance of a longer data range, and how to bring together the best-performing Producthero labels while excluding products that get clicks but don’t convert (the Villains) to increase profit. 

Long conversion paths equal a long date range

If you are selling furniture via Google Shopping, it is important to keep in mind that customers may have longer conversion paths than with other products, like apparel for example. This is due to the fact that furniture is often unique and expensive. Therefore customers take more time to research the product before making a purchase. More research equals longer conversion paths.  

The Producthero solution for longer conversion paths

If you’re using Producthero PRO, we would recommend, when setting up the Segmentation Strategy in the Advertising section (this is called Labelizer Wizard in the former Producthero App), to set your date range to 60 days instead of 30 days. This will allow the tool to gather more Heroes, Sidekicks, and Villains for your campaigns.

If you compare both strategies (Wizards in the former App), you’ll see that you have a lot more Heroes and Sidekicks with a 60-day date range than with a 30-day range.

Check this article to find out more about how Producthero’s Labelizer Strategy can “push” Google and Performance Max campaigns to be more efficient.

This is how it looks in the former App:

This is how it looks in the new Platform:

Research online, purchase offline

ROPO, short for “Research Online, Purchase Offline,” is a contemporary purchasing trend in which customers conduct online research to gather relevant product information before making a buying decision. This is particularly relevant in the furniture industry, where customers prefer to try out products in-store before making a purchase.

So, what impact does ROPO have on your Shopping Campaigns?

Great question! Well, if you have been running such campaigns, you may have noticed that it often takes a considerable number of clicks before converting into a sale. This is largely due to the fierce competition in the furniture industry.

To optimize your Shopping Campaigns performance it is crucial to select the appropriate click threshold. Luckily the Labelizer Wizard (now called ‘Strategy’ in the Producthero Platform) already provides you with an estimate of the number of clicks required to achieve a conversion. Our best practices suggest setting your click threshold slightly lower than the actual number to enhance the allocation of your products across the four labels (Heroes, Sidekicks, Villains and Zombies). This enables your products to gain better visibility and increase your chances of converting sales.

Having your own brand results in loads of Zombies

Having your own furniture brand can result in loads of unique products. Therefore it is important to keep in mind that, when using the Labelizer Strategy, the distribution of the labels may differ from day to day. If this is the case for your brand we advise you to bring your Heroes, Sidekicks, and Zombies together and exclude your Villains. This will give those three labels the opportunity to perform in the best way possible. Separating the Villains from this will result in more profit since these products tend to “eat” over 50% of your budget.

Recommended approach:

Seasonality in furniture

Seasonality affects furniture sales, let’s take garden chairs for instance. To maximize the sales of garden chairs during the summer season, it’s crucial to prioritize these products to generate more data. Once you have collected sufficient data, you can include them in the campaign created according to the Labelizer Strategy within Producthero to allocate the right budget and enhance visibility.

As the winter season draws to a close, it’s essential to push back products with ongoing promotions to a boost campaign to increase visibility. This strategy ensures that your products remain visible to customers and helps to optimize your sales performance.

Shipping details in Google Shopping Campaigns

Shipping and delivery of furniture is usually more expensive for the retailer than for fashion items. For consumers, it’s also more challenging as often delivery times are longer and they have to be at home to receive the items. That is why it is important to add shipping and delivery data as clearly as possible on your site.

Within Google Shopping you also want to provide the shipping cost attribute. This is already mandatory in some countries but will be required for Shopping ads and Free Product Listings in EEA countries as of June 13th, 2023. According to Google, providing this information will also increase your clickthrough rates and boost your sales.

Learn how to set up shipping

Optimizing your furniture’s product titles, pictures, and price

For furniture, you can follow the same tips for optimizing your product titles as for all items in Google Shopping as described in this article. However, there are two specific tips that apply:

1. Describe the product
   Use keywords that describe your furniture in detail. Include the materials, color, type of furniture, number of items, and important features. Set of 2 balcony chairs – foldable – acacia – wooden
   
2. Include the brand and model
   As people might have done their research offline you definitely want to include the brand and model in the title. This will help them to find your products online. 

3. Competing on price?
   As people might do their research offline, it might be that you only compete on price and delivery terms. If you are competing on price for a specific brand or model it’s important to track the prices of your competitors. At Producthero, we have created a pricing benchmark tool for retail and e-commerce. This tool empowers you to effortlessly compare your product’s pricing against industry benchmarks, providing invaluable insights into your product’s performance over time. In this article, we describe how you can use price monitoring software to influence the performance of your Shopping ads.
   
4. Optimizing your images
   Make sure that the images follow Google’s guidelines and give the consumer a clear view of what they will receive. As returning furniture can be expensive you want to make sure that the pictures show the product as good as possible (both in your Shopping Ads and on your website).

Understanding ROPO to boost revenue

In conclusion, selling furniture via Shopping Campaigns may pose some challenges due to the unique nature of these products and longer conversion paths. However, with the right strategy and tools, such as the Producthero Labelizer Strategy, businesses can optimize their campaigns to achieve success in this competitive market. By keeping in mind the importance of a longer data range, understanding the impact of ROPO, and bringing together the best-performing labels while excluding the Villains, businesses can increase their revenue.