I ran a popular couch brand for over a decade. As someone who has sold a few hundred thousand couches, I made a lot of money convincing people how easy it was to buy one, but, spoiler alert: I lied. It’s actually one of the hardest purchases to make.
For the average consumer, it can take time, research, and a big leap of faith to finally settle on the right sofa. Throughout this article, I’ll delve into some of the reasons why finding new living room furniture can present challenges and some of the ways to overcome said challenges to make the entire couch-buying experience a bit more comfortable (pun intended).
This is an important topic for us to explore because furniture is something we all need to buy in our lives… like death and taxes, it’s inevitable. And, yet, no one (not even furniture pros) has a clue where to start or end their journey for that perfect fabric sleeper sectional or leather sofa.
By exploring the psychology behind buying a new couch for your home and the reasons why consumers have no idea where to find one, we’re prepping you to follow our 5-step guide to buying a new couch.
Why is it so hard to buy a new couch?
It’s very time-consuming
While running a popular online furniture retailer, I found that the average time it took for consumers to select the perfect sofa after they started their couch-shopping journey was 14-21 days. In the retail world, this is a long time. By contrast, we estimate that it takes about 14-21 seconds to choose a flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
We always assumed that it took people so long to pull the trigger and purchase a modern sofa because of its higher price point. Little did we know that it was because they were very uncomfortable buying a new couch and actually making a decision.
This choice usually requires more than one decision-maker, and, let’s face it, it’s hard to get people to agree on stuff. People are stubborn! And what does it take to break through those layers of stubbornness outside of some tough negotiation (or scoops of the aforementioned Ben & Jerry’s)? It takes time, weeks of it.
Making decisions causes anxiety
It doesn’t feel good to make tough decisions. Literally. Studies show that our bodies react with anxiety to situations where we lack confidence. For many people, selecting and agreeing upon a new living room sofa brings those anxious feelings right to the surface. Fun! Then, add in removing an old couch (and then removing a few thousand dollars from your bank account to replace it), and the entire experience can be very anxiety-provoking, to say the least.
Spending a lot of money causes anxiety
Virtually no one likes spending money (unless you are my two children, they absolutely love it!). However, according to The Journal of Anxiety Disorders, financial risk and uncertainty can create anxiety, and spending money in ways you don’t understand can even escalate that anxiety into anger. Over the years, this has caused many marital arguments on the furniture store showroom floor.
It may seem obvious, but the more money you spend, the higher the risk of making a poor financial decision. Spending two dollars on the wrong candy bar may be slightly anxiety-provoking, but spending $3,000 on the wrong leather couch is grounds for Xanax for most.
Fear of making a big mistake
Nobody likes to make a mistake — not on purpose, anyway. Due to most people’s uneasiness surrounding the furniture-buying experience, fear can be very powerful in keeping people from taking the plunge into the local home furnishing store or website. Many people focus on what they’re potentially losing rather than what they have to gain.
Not wanting to get rid of the current couch
Most of us really don’t wanna get up off of a deep 3 seater couch let alone get rid of one. Most people think of it as a big hassle, and they become so attached to their comfy sofas and loveseats that they ultimately don’t want to let them go. After all, many vintage couches have been around longer than some pets or children (or even marriages)! Nostalgia can be a powerful force, even when it goes up against free shipping.
Most of us have no idea where to buy furniture
After roughly 20 years in the furniture industry, I can still say with confidence that nobody knows where to buy a couch. Even if they have bought living room furniture before, albeit recently, ask someone if they can name 10 furniture stores. I’ll bet you an ottoman and a swivel chair that they can’t do it.
Furniture stores and brands are not like apparel retailers, which people can generally locate quite easily; I liken them more to insurance agencies, and I bet you can’t name 10 of those either.
Here are some reasons why folks simply don’t know where to find the best sellers.
Limited access to furniture stores
People don’t live near furniture stores. The most common furniture stores are located in areas where customers would need to deliberately travel to, i.e., shopping centers, malls, and industrial locations. This doesn’t describe all furniture store locations, of course, but it’s not like people are intoxicated by the smell of freshly baked couches on their walk to work in the morning.
The popular economic ideology known as the central-place theory suggests that retailers selling items that are more commonly purchased (e.g., food, healthcare items, etc.) are closer to their customers' locations. Conversely, retailers that offer items less frequently purchased (e.g., furniture, cars, etc.) are located further away.
Another factor pushing couch stores further outside of the city centers is that they generally need a larger footprint (not commonly found in densely populated areas) to market and sell their upholstered sofas and sleeper sectionals. Furniture stores require the largest square footage of any type of retail store. They’re generally difficult to get to; thus, people don’t often see them unless they’re specifically looking for them.
Limited awareness of furniture retailers
My former business partner and co-founder of Apt2B, Mat Herman, famously said, “Furniture ads are like ads for cars — they’re always around, but you never really notice them until you need one.”
Well, people need new living room furniture even less often than they need new cars so it’s likely that they may not notice a single furniture ad for years at a time. The average consumer may be aware of a few furniture retailers, but they rarely have a keen sense of what those retailers actually offer or what they do well.
Then, when consumers finally start their searches for that perfect new chaise sectional, they’re targeted by virtually every retailer on the planet all at once. Suddenly, there are enough options to make a head spin.
Retailers target us so hard when we start searching for things because they are better than ever at guessing when we’re ready to buy something. Harvard Business Review predicted that Walmart processed 2.5 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1,000,000 gigabytes) of customer data every hour, leading to a very targeted approach to marketing. And that was over 10 years ago, in 2012!
Too many options to sift through
A quick peelback of the first layer of the couch-buying onion will reveal about 4,000 variables to consider, including size, price, cushion comfort, durability, timing of delivery, color options, etc.
Most consumers are unfamiliar with the nuances of many of these variables, which can lead to an extended education and research period during a sofa-buying cycle.
At the end of the day, it makes the buying process longer and a bit more challenging. Unlike buying a shirt where most of us know what size, cut, and color suits us best, we rarely know what type of fabric and what seat depth we would most prefer in a new couch. There are so many variables and, ultimately, so many different couch options out there that anyone who doesn’t understand all of the variables well enough will likely even have a tough time discerning a best seller from a dusty Chesterfield.
Lack of brand presence in the furniture industry
Unlike most other verticals, bedroom, dining, and living room furniture has very few recognizable brands, likely because branding is not one of the key factors in a couch purchasing decision. However, brands are generally important because they provide a consumer context through their storytelling, price points, and consistency.
Brands provide a basis for comparison. Without a strong presence of specific furniture brands, customers cannot figure out what they want before they see it, and ultimately, they have no idea where to buy it.
There are a few brands like Ashley, Crate and Barrel, and Ikea, but most of them lack a specific aesthetic and personality that makes them identifiable enough to act as a contextual anchor point. Fast food has McDonald's and Burger King, apparel has Nike and Adidas, and airlines have Delta and Spirit. Most furniture retailers and the brands they carry are far less known, adding yet another layer of complexity to the couch-buying experience.
Too much time in between purchases
On the spectrum of frequency of items purchased from high to low, if groceries and gas anchor the higher end of the spectrum, couches definitely fall on the lower end, only slightly above wedding rings and coffins.
Even though your average sleeper sofa or faux leather loveseat can last from seven to 15 years, the NY Post reported that the average age of an American couch is six years old, which is still very infrequent compared to many other items we purchase. Since we often inherit couches for our homes or live in furnished rentals, it may even be less frequent for some. All that to say, we usually only buy new sofas and loveseats a few times throughout our lives so it makes sense that it’s an unfamiliar exercise for most of us.
Since there are likely around 6+ years between living room couch purchases, it can be rare for consumers to go back to the same retailer or even remember the name of the store or website where they purchased their previous sofa. This contributes greatly to the overall confusion surrounding where to find that perfect mid-century modern couch.
How to find the best new couch for your home
As highlighted above, buying a new couch can be challenging, but it isn’t rocket science. It’s just furniture science! And furniture science isn’t really that hard – it’s mostly about seat cushions and tushies and pretty fabric colors. Finding great furniture stores near you doesn’t need to be that difficult either; they aren’t exactly needles in haystacks and are generally quite huge.
That being said, I’ve always felt that customers need to feel comfortable buying a couch both physically and mentally. The physical part is usually fairly easy to navigate, but the mental part can be difficult without the right education and guidance.
Couch.com is full of great tidbits and fun facts about furniture, but here are some of our top tips for achieving maximum comfort when buying a couch… the mental kind of comfort, that is… aka peace of mind.
The 5 Steps to Buying a New Couch
1. Figure out what you like and don’t like
I usually recommend you start with your current couch first (or one you’re very familiar with) and make a list of the things you like (and don’t like) about it. Even though this exercise may feel redundant, there is usually a lot of clarity to be gained by going through it, especially when there are multiple decision-makers (or at least multiple couch sitters) involved, like a couple or a family.
Having a solid understanding of what elements you’re looking for in a new modern or retro couch is key when starting your search for one. Even visiting a few friends’ houses just to sit on and evaluate their reclining sectional sofas is a great idea! (Just don’t tell them if you hate their couch’s built-in cup holders.)
2. Gain context and education
To be truly comfortable doing anything, you need to understand it. People generally don’t order food from a restaurant menu without first knowing what it is. (Unless it’s the Cheesecake Factory because everything there is delicious.)
When shopping for a new couch, educate yourself on any aspects that you might feel a bit foggy about; this will help you determine what you really want and ultimately help you make your decision a lot faster. Take some time to figure out the difference between Pirelli webbing and a sinuous spring support system. Get familiar with terms like settees, swatches, and swivels. Have a chat with a few of your friends about what types of fabric sofas have been great in homes with pets and kids.
The more you know, the more comfortable you will feel when the heat is on, and it’s time to make some magic happen at your local furniture store.
3. Shop around both online and in-store
Taking the time to shop around between various websites and online marketplaces, as well as at some brick-and-mortar locations, will provide a wealth of context and information you likely didn’t have before. From price ranges to commonly referenced features and new arrivals, the devil is in the details when buying a new couch. The more you understand these details, the easier your shopping trip will be.
My recommendation is to visit five different furniture stores and sit on at least four couches in each store, which will give you the experience of having sat on 20 couches for your basis of comparison. Also, visit ten different websites and get a sense of their product offering, price point, and general aesthetic.
After paying close attention (don’t fall asleep on one of those reclining couches!), you should have a much better idea of the difference between memory foam and high-density foam, among other things.
4. Take notes (use a pad, a spreadsheet, voice notes, etc.)
Like anything that has 9 million variables, it helps to be organized. While it might seem dorky to take notes or create a spreadsheet comparing the different couch options you are considering, writing (or typing) things out will help you sift through these variables much more efficiently, ultimately helping you identify which couch is the right one for your perfect modern living situation. Keeping a ledger of what types of upholstery material color and arm style you prefer can be invaluable. Oh, one more thing: make sure the couch fits!
5. Ask questions (a ton of them)
When you’re in a retail setting, be it online or brick-and-mortar, ask as many questions as you possibly can. You may be intimidated by the idea of asking questions of a furniture salesperson or live chat agent, but I have some news for you: their job is quite literally to answer them. It’s what they’re there for! Moreover, they generally like customers who ask a lot of questions because it means they’re actually interested in buying something.
No matter the compensation structure of the salesperson, they’re usually more than happy to help match customers with their dream fabric sectionals and leather loveseats! Moral of the story: Don’t be shy, ask away!
Buying a new couch can be a challenging process and one that you may not go through very often. However, you can absolutely overcome these challenges by educating yourself and using the tools, resources, and people available to you throughout your couch-buying journey.
Most consumers need help. That’s what we’re all about at Couch.com, and we’re betting all the money hiding between our high-density foam cushions that we can help you, too.
