What’s the Best Time to Save on Furniture?

Did you know you could save over 50% on furniture? Depending on when you buy, you will usually find different prices.

What’s the point of selling the same piece for less? The answer is supply and demand. Retailers want to profit as much as possible while reducing expenses. Keeping large units in storage is expensive, so they try to find a balance between units sold and price.

When nobody is buying, or they have an excess of inventory, prices fall. When approaching the holiday season or demand spikes, prices go up.

Best of all is, you don’t need to be an insider to know the right time to buy. And because these patterns repeat every year, you can easily predict when the price will drop.

The Best Time To Buy Funiture

Before starting, we need to set the right expectations:

You might think after reading this article: “I’ve found discounts of over 50%, and I wasn’t shopping in those moments.” Expect these exceptions to happen.

Maybe the furniture brand targets cheap buyers or has low prices as its selling point. Perhaps someone returned what you wanted to buy right before you arrived, so the sellers offered it for a discount. You can find good deals anytime — it’s just easier if you know when to buy.

As a side note: If you’re also wondering about the elusive cheap plane ticket, you might also be interested in what the best day to buy a plane ticket is.

Ready for Discount Shopping?

Buying Off-Season

It’s common knowledge that prices drop when nobody is buying. If you were a seller and need to liquidate those units fast, discounts are a clear solution.

It works with anything you want to buy that follows seasonal patterns. In fact, there may be products you wouldn’t ever think that were seasonal (e.g., Try searching “jello syringe” on Google Trends)

You may already know what is seasonal and what isn’t. It doesn’t hurt anyway to check the furniture you want to buy on Google Trends.

If the price is too high right now, it doesn’t necessarily mean you found a pricey retailer, or you don’t have enough money. Look at the chart, come back to the store off-season, and see how the price changes. Even if it doesn’t, most stores will sell similar models at a discount.

With Google Trends and Facebook Insights, you can narrow down and see the buying patterns in each state. If you’ve been thinking of retail arbitrage, don’t ignore these tools. Data updates every few days.

Based on that trend analysis, we’ve found that:

Also, do you know when it’s best to buy appliances?

Returned Furniture

Because people use winter products less in summer (and the contrary), if they want to return furniture, they might pick this season. People will more likely return summer products in winter, although it’s not predictable (also known as renting).

Guess what: used furniture will sell for considerably less, even if the quality is perfect. Small imperfections make returned furniture the best saving opportunities.

Refunds may be frequent as well right after holidays, whenever demand lowers, or new models come up. You’re more likely to find returned products when buying furniture with lots of size and color variations. New furniture designs may also have higher refund rates (people may buy these for testing and later decide whether to keep them or not).

New Releases

New models look more attractive than other versions, especially with superior quality and price. But no matter how much you improve the design, it’s hard to justify spending 3x or 2x more for it.

Often, new models sell at similar prices set by previous models. When making a buying decision, clients may see the new model as an upsell, and fewer will buy the earlier models. Problem? Excess of inventory. You’re driving demand from one product to another.

The solution? Drop prices for the original models, so they sell as much as the new ones.

New furniture appears in winter (January and February) for indoors and in summer (June and July) for outdoors.

Of course, each retailer does it differently. According to Clark.com, Amazon, Walmart, and The Home Depot have the most furniture deals.

3 Tips For Saving On Furniture

Given the many saving opportunities, buying at full price is rarely a good idea. Even if you need it right away, someone may be selling used furniture with the same high quality and condition. 

How you buy saves as much money as knowing when to buy:

#1 Compare different stores

It’s no secret prices drop when sales do. But because every retailer is following this strategy, you need to discount even more. Because they lower prices so much, they have less margin for advertising.

You’ll need to visit different stores before finding the best deal. At the same time, you neither have much time to compare before someone else takes the best deal. 

Because of their size, you’re more likely to find deals on Amazon and Walmart. If you’re not in a hurry, take a look at local stores as well. 

If you’re interested in saving for furniture you might also be interested in different ways to save money on groceries?

#2 Negotiate

Retailers want to sell as much for as high as possible. Find a piece of furniture you want with low demand. Talk to the seller.

Offer to buy the product for, say, a 10% discount. But if they can’t sell it and need to liquidate, they might change their mind. Tell them to phone you in that case.

If you’re buying a good piece of furniture, you may want to reserve it even if you don’t buy it. If someone else wants to purchase, the retailer can call/email you to ask whether you still want it. If you respond or don’t want it anymore, they’ll sell. But if nobody buys, they may offer you the discount.

#3 Save on purchase

Many companies will pay you to buy through their platforms! 

When buying the right furniture at the right time, you can get it for five times less than what you would pay otherwise.