What an Appliance Store Website Needs

What the site is actually for

People shop for appliances in two moods. Some are planning a kitchen renovation months ahead; others are standing in front of a fridge that stopped overnight.

Both start on a website, often on a phone, with the same first questions: whether it fits, whether it is in stock, and how soon it can come.

An independent dealer competes with the big chains on those answers, and on service after the sale. The website's job is to give them before the customer phones somewhere else.

What a buyer checks, in order

• Fit: the sizes that suit the space, and how to measure.
• Stock: brands and models on the floor or in the warehouse.
• Price: with delivery, installation and haul-away made clear.
• Delivery: how soon, which days, and to which areas.
• Installation: what is included and what needs another trade.
• Service: warranty, repairs and parts after the sale.

Most dealer sites open with brand logos and a catalogue. The buyer's first question comes before either: a handsome range that does not fit the opening is no use.

Measuring for fit

Give measuring its own page, linked from every product. Explain how to measure the opening's width, height and depth, and the clearance needed behind and beside it.

Then the way in. A fridge that fits the kitchen still has to pass the front door, the hallway, the turn at the top of the stairs and sometimes a narrow laundry door.

Show each product's dimensions in inches and centimetres, with doors open as well as closed. A fridge door that swings into an island is a return waiting to happen.

Note the connections too: the outlet a range needs, gas or electric, whether a dryer vents outside, and whether a fridge needs a water line.

What is actually in stock

A manufacturer's full catalogue, loaded into the site, lists thousands of models the store has never stocked. A buyer in a hurry cannot tell which are on the floor.

List what you carry, say which models are in the warehouse today, and how long special orders take. Real photos and model numbers help buyers compare.

Many independent dealers sell scratch-and-dent and floor models. A page for them, updated weekly, gives bargain hunters a reason to check back.

Delivery, installation and haul-away

Put delivery on one page: the areas covered, the days and time windows, the price or free threshold, and how stairs and narrow entrances are handled.

Say what installation includes. Connecting a dishwasher or levelling a washer is routine; a gas connection needs a licensed gas fitter, and the page should say who provides one.

Explain haul-away of the old unit: whether it costs extra, whether it must be disconnected and emptied first, and where it goes. Buyers like to know it will be recycled.

Service and warranty

Service is what sets an independent dealer apart, yet most sites give it one line. Give it a page: the brands you repair, the area, the hours and how soon a technician can come.

Add a service request form asking for the brand, the model and serial numbers, and the fault, with a note on where those numbers are usually found.

Explain the manufacturer's warranty in plain words and say who handles warranty calls. If you sell extended plans, describe what they cover without pressing them on every page.

A worked example

An independent appliance dealer in an Okanagan city has a showroom, a warehouse behind it, two delivery trucks and two service technicians.

Its site opened with a wall of brand logos, each linking to the manufacturer's site, and a catalogue of several thousand models. Delivery and haul-away appeared nowhere.

The calls pointed to the gap. Most asked the same three things: whether a model would fit, whether it could come Saturday, and whether the old one would be taken away.

The logos now sit lower on the page and no longer link away. A measuring guide is linked from every product, and the catalogue lists only models the store carries, with dimensions.

A delivery page covers areas, days, stairs and the haul-away fee, and a service page takes requests with model and serial numbers.

The site now answers the three phone questions before the call, and keeps buyers on the dealer's pages instead of sending them to the manufacturer.

Prices, or a reason there are none

Some brands limit the prices dealers may advertise online. Where that applies, say so and give the next step: a phone number, or a form that returns a price the same day.

A product page with no price and no explanation reads as expensive, or evasive. A short note about the brand's policy reads as honest.

Built for a phone in the kitchen

Many buyers read the site on a phone while holding a tape measure in the kitchen. The measuring guide, the phone number and the hours must work on that small screen.

For the buyer with a dead fridge, say near the top of every page how quickly in-stock models can be delivered. That is the fact they need tonight.

The counter-case

In a small town where everyone knows the store, most sales happen on the floor and over the phone, and a full online catalogue may not repay the work of keeping it current.

There the site can be smaller: the measuring guide, delivery terms, the service request form, hours and the phone number. Each still saves a call.

Even in that town, the buyer facing a dead fridge at nine at night checks the website first, and leaves with either an answer or a reason to look elsewhere.

What to build first

1. Write a measuring guide and link it from every product.
2. List the models you carry, with dimensions and photos.
3. Publish delivery, installation and haul-away terms on one page.
4. Add a service request form that asks for model and serial numbers.
5. Show prices, or say how to get one the same day.
6. Put the phone number and hours at the top of every page.
7. Check every page on a phone, standing in a kitchen.

Step one answers the question every buyer starts with. A store that helps people measure sells appliances that fit, and avoids deliveries that end at a doorway.

A shop whose website also has to keep a catalogue, sizes and reservations straight, through a much shorter and busier season, is the case in what a costume shop website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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