How to Save Money Buying New Furniture

Furniture can be expensive, and buying new furniture for your home can really hurt your wallet! There are plenty of ways to save money when buying furniture, especially if you are willing to buy gently-used items, or lesser-quality pieces that come in a box and require assembly. But, what happens when you want that shiny, new, fabulous piece of furniture you keep seeing at the furniture store? I’m here to help! In this post, I’ve got some tips for you on ways you can save money buying new furniture!

The Basics of Furniture Pricing

In order to understand how to save money when buying furniture, it’s important to understand how furniture is purchased and priced. It would take too long to go into every detail, and share all of the different ways it works, so I’m just going to give you a general overview of the process. Just enough to make you a dangerously smart furniture shopper!

Furniture stores purchase items from furniture manufacturers. There are only so many manufacturers, so you can find the same furniture items at different stores. The names may be different, and the prices may be different, but the furniture is the exact same. Even places like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel purchase furniture from manufacturers. Sometimes their stuff is customized for their brand, but other times, they just buy the pieces directly as-is. 

Furniture from the manufacturer can be purchased at a very low dealer, or wholesale price. That furniture is then marked up by the retailer to a “retail price,” often called an MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price). The MSRP is usually 2 to 4 times the wholesale price! So, a furniture store can buy a sofa directly from a manufacturer for $1000, and then turn around and sell you (the customer) that same sofa for $2000-$4000.  This is why furniture stores can have big sales and afford to give you a sizable discount during a sale, because there is a lot of wiggle room in their pricing. Suppose, for example, they set the retail price for that $1000 sofa at $3000. If you get a 20% discount, you’ll pay $2400, and save hundreds of dollars. The furniture store hasn’t really lost anything either, since they still make a $1400 profit from the sale.

Interior Designers can also purchase furniture directly from a manufacturer at a wholesale price, though usually not as low a price as a large furniture store can. Why? Volume. If Pottery Barn buys 1000 coffee tables from a manufacturer every year, that manufacturer is going to give them a great volume discount. A designer, however, may only buy 1-2 coffee tables a year from that same manufacturer. The designer will still get a great discounted price, but probably not as good as the volume discounted price that Pottery Barn would get. When working with clients, interior designers purchase furniture at a discounted price either directly from the manufacturer, or from a furniture retailer. The designer then sells the furniture to the client at the retail price, or at a price somewhere between retail and the designer’s discounted purchase price.  When it comes to furniture and accessory purchases, and sharing discounts with clients, every designer does things differently.  

Notice the word “suggested” in the MSRP term? That’s because there aren’t many hard rules about what price the retailer should sell the furniture for. Sometimes a furniture manufacturer will dictate what a minimum MSRP should be, and sometimes they won’t. So, the retail price is left up to the furniture store, the designer, or the shop owner to set.

Shopping Online

There are a ton of great retailers that sell furniture online at already discounted prices. Places like Wayfair, Birch Lane, Joss and Main, Home Depot, Target, Walmart, and Overstock all have quality furniture available at seriously low prices. Did you know that many of these places carry the exact same furniture items, just with different names? They even use the same pictures from the furniture manufacturers, so you can easily spot like items at different stores. If you want to save on an online furniture purchase, it’s essential that you comparison shop!

Let me show you an example. Wayfair is not just one online store, but a family of brands that includes Wayfair, Joss and Main, Birch Lane, AllModern, and Perigold. Their sites carry many of the same items, but they can be priced differently! This cute little pink nightstand can be found on Joss and Main for $170 (at the time of this posting). The exact same nightstand on Wayfair was listed for $159.99! 

What about coupons? Unfortunately, stores like Wayfair rarely give out coupons, and don’t even bother searching for one online, but they will often send you a coupon if you register your email address on their site. Moving soon? You can also score some coupons for these popular online stores when you change your address via the post office. Finally, if you can wait to buy, you can save BIG during their holiday sales – Memorial Day, President’s Day, Independence Day, and Black Friday. Also, Wayfair has a huge clearance sale called Way-Day every year on April 10th, with massive discounts on furniture.

Tips for Saving When Shopping Online:

• Comparison shop! Many online stores carry the same items, so comparison shopping is essential!
• Wait for major holiday sales around Memorial Day, President’s Day, Independence Day, and Black Friday for great deals!
• Look for opportunities to register on their site in exchange for exclusive coupons and savings.

Popular Retail Stores

Places like Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, West Elm, and Crate & Barrel are great places to buy new furniture. Because of their popularity and national-chain size, they are the least likely to negotiate a discount with you when shopping at their stores, and they don’t price match. However, they have sales so often, you can easily save money. The reason they can stand to discount their furniture so frequently, is because the retail prices are significantly higher than the wholesale price they buy the furniture for. In fact, I would go so far as to say you should never pay full price for anything at these stores!

The best time to shop these stores is around holidays, when they tend to offer big savings and free shipping. Another easy way to save is to just sign up for their email list online. Pottery Barn, for example, gives you 15% off your first order after signing up for their email list. Easy savings! RH has a great membership program where you can save 25% on purchases for a yearly fee of $100. If you plan to buy several furniture pieces, you’ll quickly save way more than the $100 you spent on the membership fee! Also, check out their credit card rewards programs, especially if you shop often at that store.

Source: Pottery Barn

Tips for Saving at Popular Retail Stores:

• Shop sales around holidays, and never pay full price!
• Take advantage of free shipping to store opportunities, if available.
• Sign up for their email lists and get discounts
• Use their store credit card to earn rewards
• Get free coupons to Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, etc. when you move and fill out a change of address form at USPS

Local Furniture Stores

Shopping at your local furniture stores not only supports local business, but these stores are usually the most willing to negotiate with you. I know for some of you it can feel awkward to ask for a discount. But, now that you know how much money the stores stand to make on your furniture purchase, hopefully you feel empowered to ask for a discount. What’s the worst thing that can happen? They might say no, and you’ve lost nothing. BUT, they might say yes, and you could end up saving hundreds of dollars! Isn’t that worth a small moment of awkwardness?

Tell them you want to buy the item, but the price is a little high for you, and ask if there are any additional savings or discounts available. You might be surprised to get a 5-10% discount on the spot, just for asking! If they won’t offer you a discount on the item (which can happen if it’s already on sale), then see if they can throw in free shipping or free delivery, which can also save you hundreds of dollars.

The furniture industry tends to release new styles in the Spring and Fall, so a great time to shop furniture stores is in the months immediately before the new styles hit the showroom floor. As retailers try to make room for new styles, they are more likely to offer discounts on existing stock items. Plan to shop in January/February and again in July/August to time these deals just right  – President’s Day and Labor Day weekends are fantastic times for buying furniture.

Tips for Saving at Your Local Furniture Store:

• Ask for a discount or other savings! 
• Shop towards the end of the month, and right before new styles hit the showroom.
• Shop big sales around the holidays, especially President’s Day and Labor Day
• Look into purchasing floor models for huge savings.

Working With a Designer

When purchasing furniture through a designer, you can potentially save a ton of money, if the designer is willing to extend their discounts to you. However, not all designers operate the same way, and not all designers are willing to give you a big discount. That’s because designers don’t always make enough money with their hourly or fixed fees alone to pay the bills. They rely on the additional income they will make off of selling furniture and accessories to their clients. This isn’t a bad thing…just the way the industry works. 

If you’re going to work with a designer, and purchase furniture through them, you need to understand how they will markup the items they will be selling to you. In other words, find out if they will be extending you some of their trade discount. I highly recommend hiring a designer that will do this, because you stand to save a lot of money! Discuss and negotiate with your designer how you will share the trade discount upfront, when reviewing and signing your contract or services agreement, not when it comes time to purchase the furniture!

Keep in mind that designers get different discounts from different places. For example, Pottery Barn has a program that gives designers 20% off, while some furniture manufacturers extend trade discounts up to 40% or 50%. This means that your designer won’t be able to guarantee you a fixed percentage (like 25%) off of the retail price for every item. Ask if your designer is willing to split their trade discount with you 50/50 (many are willing to do this). Also, ask to be shown the retail price for the items you’ll be purchasing. That transparency is for your protection, and here’s why…

Remember how I said that the MSRP or retail price is set by the furniture stores or designers? Some designers can set the retail price rather high, which makes it appear that you’re saving a lot of money, when really you’re being charged way too much to begin with. The solution? Research the big-ticket items you are buying to determine approximately how much it sells for elsewhere. If you see that the retail price your designer set is in the ballpark, don’t try to ask for a price match  or any additional savings. This will really piss off your designer. After all, your designer has used their extensive experience and relationships with vendors to find you some gorgeous, high-quality furniture, and you are paying them to save you time and money. If, on the other hand, you see a huge difference in the price your designer set versus what it sells for elsewhere, bring it to your designer’s attention and ask for a price adjustment.