The furniture industry is alive and well, projected to generate a total of $799.46 billion in revenue in 2025. According to research, 92% of shoppers begin their furniture search online. But 77% still want to sit, touch, and test pieces in-store before buying.
That gap—between finding it online and feeling good about it in person—is where a smart furniture business can really shine.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown to help you get started with your own furniture business, complete with real-world examples and practical tips along the way.
Start by grounding your idea in reality. Good instincts help, but research gives you clarity.
Also, take a look at other furniture stores in your local area.
What are they doing well? Where could you offer something different or better? Spotting those opportunities can give you a real competitive edge.
Next, create a solid business plan that tells your store’s story. A one-page plan is fine to start.
Map out your costs, expected sales, and marketing ideas. Keep it practical and specific. Your business plan works like a roadmap, and opens doors when you chat with potential investors or banks.
Each business structure has different implications for taxes, liability, and operations:
💡Pro tip: Use Shopify’s AI Business Name Generator to brainstorm creative, brandable names. Just enter a keyword—like “modern,” “wood,” or “cozy”—and get a list of names tailored to your niche. Once you find one you love, you can check domain availability and claim it in seconds—no tech skills required.
Once you’ve chosen a business structure:
This makes managing your finances much cleaner and easier.
Time for the official stamps of approval.
Retail regulations vary by location, so remember to check local guidelines.
A basic cash register won’t cut it. If you want to host an online furniture business that also extends to a brick-and-mortar store—or vice versa—you need a point-of-sale (POS) system that connects everything behind the scenes.
The reason is simple: buyers don’t shop in a straight line. They might browse a showroom, compare options online, request a custom quote, and return later to complete the purchase. Your POS system needs to support all of that—without friction.
This is the foundation of unified commerce. And it’s where Shopify POS shines.
A Shopify POS-based unified commerce strategy for retailers boosts sales by 8.9% annually, while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by as much as 7% upfront and 16% on an ongoing basis. The savings allow retailers to reinvest resources in creating exceptional customer experiences.
Shopify is the only unified commerce solution that natively connects your ecommerce store and point of sale.
That means no middleware, no third-party workarounds, and no double data entry.
Everything—your products, furniture inventory, customer profiles, sales reports, and marketing tools—flows through a single, scalable system.
Plus, with the Shopify POS app, every sale you make is automatically synced with your Shopify store, keeping your orders and inventory aligned across all channels.
When California lifestyle brand Jenni Kayne expanded into furniture with Jenni Kayne Home, they needed a platform that could support both rapid store expansion and thoughtful, relationship-driven sales. Shopify POS gave them the flexibility and functionality to grow without sacrificing the customer experience.
“What excites me most about being on Shopify is having that true omnichannel experience. Our clients have the ability to explore beautiful imagery and videos on the website, and it translates seamlessly to the store where everything and everyone is on the same page,” says Sam Mella, director of home experience.
With Shopify POS, Jenni Kayne has:
“Shopify has helped us fulfill our omnichannel vision and provide a customer experience that is smooth and seamless. We can sell everything from clothing to dinner tables all in one system. Everything just feels easy for our clients and our team.”
Retail space doesn’t come cheap—costing an average of $22.95 per square foot. So, choosing the right location is a make-or-break decision for your furniture store.
Start by asking: where do your customers already shop, live, and spend time?
Furniture is large, heavy, and expensive to move. That makes logistics just as important as foot traffic.
Some entrepreneurs skip the traditional showroom entirely—and still find success.
When Andre Jr. Ayotte and Mackenzie Duncan launched JM&Sons, a furniture brand known for its rugged mix of reclaimed wood and raw metal, they didn’t rent a storefront. They rolled out a walk-in shipping container in downtown Toronto.
Yes, a shipping container. Outfitted like a tiny showroom, it gave customers a way to experience the look and feel of their furniture without the cost or commitment of a full retail lease.
Once you’ve secured your location—whether it’s a flagship store or a creative popup—the next step is layout.
Your floor plan should make it easy for customers to picture how your products might fit into their own lives. Think less warehouse, more walkthrough inspiration.
✨Get inspired: A Cottage in the City is a boutique retail store specializing in vintage and farmhouse-style furniture sourced from around the world.
The shop uses a free-flow layout, encouraging customers to explore at their own pace. Display pieces double as products for sale, creating a cozy, country-barn feel that helps shoppers picture how items might look in their own homes.
People take time with furniture decisions. Make your store a place where they want to linger, sit on that couch, and imagine it in their living room.
Some furniture stores keep it simple by buying wholesale. Others partner with local artisans or even make pieces in-house. Your sourcing strategy should align with your store’s identity, your customer expectations, and your operational capacity.
Here’s a breakdown of the four most common sourcing models furniture retailers use:
| Sourcing Method | Best For | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale suppliers | Fast catalog build-out with proven products | ✅ Quick to market ✅ Lower per-unit cost ✅ Wide selection |
❌ Minimum order quantities ❌ Shipping & freight costs ❌ Limited customization |
| Local furniture makers and artisans | Sustainable, handmade, or story-driven brands | ✅ Unique designs ✅ Local sourcing appeal ✅ Strong brand story |
❌ Smaller production capacity ❌ Inconsistent lead times ❌ Higher costs |
| Dropshipping | Low-overhead online furniture stores or testing new styles | ✅ No inventory needed ✅ Easy to test new items ✅ Minimal upfront investment |
❌ Lower margins ❌ Less control over fulfillment ❌ May limit brand cohesion |
| In-house manufacturing | Custom or luxury furniture brands with in-house production capabilities | ✅ Full creative control ✅ Higher margins ✅ Supports made-to-order workflows |
❌ High startup cost ❌ Labor-intensive ❌ Requires space, tools, and skilled staff |
Not sure where to start? Many first-time store owners begin with dropshipping to test product fit and keep costs low, which can be a great way to begin your journey of owning a furniture business with less upfront risk.
You get to focus on marketing, merchandising, and building your brand—while your suppliers handle the storage, packing, and fulfillment.
Shopify makes it easy to run a dropshipping furniture store by connecting your storefront to trusted suppliers and automating the fulfillment process. You can manage everything from a single dashboard—without the fuss of juggling spreadsheets, emails, or manual orders.
Even if you’re opening a physical store, most of your customers will check you out online first. They’ll want to browse your products, see your aesthetic, and figure out if your style fits theirs.
Whether you’re a small business owner or a growing furniture brand with multiple showrooms, Shopify scales with you.
With Shopify, you can create a fully customizable ecommerce website that looks and feels like you. Choose from thousands of professionally designed themes (many of them free), and tailor everything—from fonts and colors to page layouts and product descriptions—to match your brand’s aesthetic.
Shopify’s drag-and-drop website builder makes it easy to:
You don’t need to know how to code. You just need a vision—and Shopify gives you the tools to build it.
Take it from Mike and Doug, the father-son duo behind Wrightwood Furniture in Chicago. After years in wholesale, they launched their own storefront and ecommerce site to cut out intermediaries, reduce markups, and offer high-quality, handmade furniture at a fair price.
Wrightwood’s store doubles as a warehouse, allowing them to keep costs low and ship directly to local customers. Their website plays a crucial role, not just for online sales (which now make up over 12% of revenue), but for driving in-store visits—with more than half of buyers browsing online before coming in.
Here’s what Mike and Doug say: “Shopify provides us with one database with information on all our customers, orders and products. This is our first time engaging in the retail business, and we just can’t imagine doing it without this technology and streamlining those two sales components.”
Once your website is raring to go, it’s time to expand to social media. Use it to roll out new arrivals, share styling ideas, answer questions, and connect with your audience in a more personal way.
With Shopify, you can turn your Instagram and Facebook presence into a powerful sales channel:
From the first scroll to the final sale, Shopify helps you streamline your social strategy and turn engagement into revenue.
You’ve got the product and the online store. Now get people to see it.
Start spreading the news about your store:
Try offering something competitors don’t. Free delivery within 20 miles? Design advice with purchase? Easy financing? These extras turn browsers into buyers.
Your furniture store might look amazing from the outside, but it’s the behind-the-scenes operations that actually keep everything running.
You’ve got to optimize the back-end process for front-end success.
Here’s what to set up before launch:
Before opening their first physical store, modular furniture brand Cozey tested retail operations through a popup in Toronto’s STACKT Market. The original idea was to let people experience their product, not sell it.
But interest quickly outpaced expectations. Instead of installing a traditional checkout counter, Cozey gave sales associates iPads running Shopify POS, allowing them to sit on sofas with customers, chat, take orders, and look up stock—all without leaving the living room setup.
“I think in two days, not even, we were set up, capturing transactions, and ended up making hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in that container,” says Frédéric Aubé, founder of Cozey.
The team also used Shopify POS to collect swatch requests and create customer profiles, giving them valuable data for follow-ups, marketing, and future restocks.
Listen to the second episode of our podcast mini-series, Road To Retail, to find out how Cozey managed their first retail day and provided the Cozey experience to customers:
Their success came down to preparation. Testing first, learning quickly, and building a system that connected every part of the business under one platform: Shopify.
Frédéric says, “It’s simple for the customer, and it’s simple for our team. And it’s really the backbone of Cozey.”
Your launch isn’t the finish line—it’s the start of learning what works.
Prelaunch checklist:
Next, plan a memorable launch event:
After launch, start gathering data:
Refine based on that input—adjust your mix, improve your delivery options, and build systems that scale.
Before you flip the “Open” sign or launch your first product online, there are a few essential details to sort out.
Furniture is high-value, heavy, and not immune to damage, either in-store or during delivery.
You’ll want to look into:
Talk to a broker who understands retail or home goods specifically. They’ll help tailor a plan that matches your risk profile as you navigate starting a furniture business.
Your pricing should reflect more than your costs—it should also consider perceived value, customer expectations, and how your products stack up to competitors.
Some tips:
💡Bonus: Shopify’s analytics can help you track bestsellers and margins over time so you can adjust your pricing with data, not guesswork.
Different provinces, states, and countries all come with their own tax rules. Luckily, Shopify can help take the complexity out of sales tax collection and reporting.
With Shopify Tax, you get:
Stay on top of regulations affecting furniture retailers:
You’ve got the vision. You’ve got the products. And now you have the plan.
Shopify gives you everything you need to bring your furniture business to life—and keep it running smoothly. Build a beautiful online store, sell in person, manage inventory, and stay on top of every order—all from one unified platform.
Yes—depending on your business model. On average, a retail furniture store’s gross profit margin is over 40%.
The cost to start a furniture store varies, but here’s a general idea:
Here’s the quick version of what we just walked through:
