Searching for furniture online – Furniture Industry NZ SEO Report

Aug 26, 2014 | Industry Reports, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Furniture industry SEO Report

Download the full Furniture Industry – NZ reach SEO report (PDF)

Which New Zealand Furniture providers are maximising their market share online?

Find out which furniture providers are taking the lead in organic search and how they’re doing it.
FIRST has investigated the organic search engine rankings for NZ consumer searches around furniture related keywords, utilising FIRST’s Ranking Based Reach (RBR) analysis framework. In addition, a consumer survey was carried out to discover what would encourage Kiwis to order furniture online.

In this report we discovered:

  • According to a report from retail.org.nz, sales for furniture have been increasing by 4% in the furniture retailing industry in the period from 2012/2013 (+$33.6m).* As Google Trends shows an increase in demand for furniture related search terms it is likely that sales will further increase. To combat being left behind, retail stores should improve their website rankings position to capture more of the growing online demand.
  • Search demand indicates more consumers researching Online and purchasing In-Store. By being more visible online and forming part of the consumers consideration set, the more chance to influence both online and offline purchases.
  • Search results are broadly dispersed among a wide range of competitors. In this competitive market, some furniture providers have recognized the urgency of ranking well in organic search, nevertheless there are still many companies which are not very present within search. It would make sense for them to invest in a robust and smart search strategy.
  • In our survey we revealed that the product quality is the most important factor for furniture buying decisions, followed by the price and offers. If the product is New Zealand made plays the least important role for most respondents.
  • A digital strategy should be considered that integrates both organic and paid search should be a key customer acquisition and revenue driver for furniture providers, both online and offline/in store.

FIRST uses its bespoke metric called RBR (Ranking Based Reach) to estimate how well each company is ranking in search engines. RBR provides a simple way to compare a website’s search engine rankings with its competitors. RBR is an estimate of the percentage of available search traffic a website will receive for a set of phrases – this gives the sites share of search or reach. It is weighted based on the popularity of each search phrase and the relative click through rate (CTR) of each ranking position.

For the full furniture industry report (PDF) please click here

Websites included in this furniture industry report comparison: