White Glove Delivery for Furniture Brands That Sell Online Nationwide

Furniture brands that sell online can have Elite Anywhere receive their stock, hold it and deliver it to customers' homes nationwide, carried in, unpacked, assembled, placed and with the packaging taken away. For the homeowner who bought the sofa, that means one crew that brings it into the room and leaves it ready to sit on. For the brand, it means the most important moment in the sale, the moment the customer finally sees the piece, is handled to the brand's own standard in every state.

A brand that sells online has no showroom where a customer can be reassured, and no salesperson the customer can call by name. Everything the customer knows about the company comes from a website, a confirmation email and, weeks later, a knock at the door. The delivery crew is often the only people from the brand the customer will ever meet in person. If they are late, careless or leave a stack of cardboard in the hallway, that is the brand's reputation, whoever employs them.

This article is written from the brand's side: what white glove delivery should do for a furniture company that sells direct to consumers, and how Elite Anywhere runs it.

Choosing the delivery your customer is buying

Online furniture brands usually offer more than one level of delivery, and the clearest offers describe exactly what each includes. Elite Anywhere provides two distinct services that a brand can put in front of its customers.

  • Room of choice. The piece is carried inside, up or down stairs, to the room the customer names, and set down still in its packaging. Unpacking, assembly and taking the packaging away are not part of it. It suits sturdy pieces that a customer is happy to unbox.
  • White glove. Everything room of choice includes, and then the piece is unpacked, assembled, placed where the customer wants it, and every bit of packaging leaves with the crew. It suits sofas, beds, dining tables, case goods with glass or stone, and anything a customer cannot comfortably put together alone.

Keeping the two clearly separate matters. A customer who paid for white glove and received room of choice will remember the difference. A brand that explains both plainly at checkout avoids the argument at the door.

Getting stock close to the customer

A brand selling nationwide faces a simple geographic problem: its products are made or stored in one place and its customers live everywhere. Shipping each order the whole distance as a single long trip makes every delivery slow to schedule and exposes each piece to the most handling.

Elite Anywhere's 34 warehouse locations let a brand hold stock nearer to the people buying it. A brand with customers across the Pacific Northwest can have stock received at our warehouse in Portland, Oregon; one with buyers along the Southeast coast can use our warehouse in Jacksonville. Each order then starts its last leg close to the house, and the delivery can be booked around the customer's week.

When the brand's shipments reach a warehouse location, they are checked against the list the brand sent, the outside packaging is photographed, and every piece is barcoded. Damaged packaging is reported to the brand before anything is stored, and the brand decides what happens. Cartons are opened and inspected on request, whenever the brand asks, at no charge; many brands ask for this on the first shipment of a new product, so that any issue with a production run is found before customers find it. Damage is documented and the claim filed with the vendor that shipped it.

Stock waits in secured, climate-controlled storage, with pest and humidity control and no minimum period. That suits brands whose sales are seasonal, and pieces made to order that wait for a customer's move-in date.

Selling into a new region

For a growing online brand, the first sales in a new part of the country raise an awkward question. Leasing a warehouse there and hiring a delivery team is a large commitment to make on the strength of a few orders. Shipping every order the full distance keeps costs unpredictable and delivery dates vague.

A warehouse network offers a middle path. The brand can place a modest amount of stock at the warehouse location that serves the new region, see how it sells, and add more as demand grows, without signing a lease or employing anyone locally. The delivery standard in the new region is the same as everywhere else from the first order, so customers there get the same experience as the brand's longest-standing ones.

Made to order, delivered when the customer is ready

Many online furniture brands make to order, and customers often order well ahead of a move or a renovation. A finished piece can be ready weeks before the customer can take it. Holding it at a warehouse location until the customer gives a date means the brand does not have to store finished goods at the factory, and the customer does not have to accept a sofa into a house with no floors. When the date comes, the piece is delivered from close by.

Collected straight from the maker

Some brands prefer that pieces go directly from the workshop or factory to the customer, especially for made-to-order furniture. Elite Anywhere collects from the maker, and the condition of each piece is documented before it travels. If the piece is boxed, the box stays sealed unless the brand asks for it to be opened; that is on request, and free. The piece then travels to the warehouse location nearest the customer, or is handled end to end across state lines, before it is delivered.

What the customer sees before the doorbell rings

The anxiety of buying furniture online is the wait. A customer who has paid for a sofa wants to know where it is. Elite Anywhere gives customers photo check-ins and live tracking, so they can follow their own item rather than emailing the brand's customer service team to ask. On the day itself a text goes out roughly half an hour ahead of the crew, long enough to clear the hallway and put the dog in another room.

For the brand, that visibility reduces the number of "where is my order?" messages, which are among the most common and least productive conversations an online furniture business has. The brand itself gets a login to Elite Anywhere's own warehouse system, where it can see its stock and deliveries on the way, follow each item's status, and message the warehousing team.

Inside the customer's home

A white glove delivery for an online brand looks like this. Before anything comes in, the crew protects the route: blankets and coverings over door frames, railings and the floor wherever the furniture will travel. Heavy pieces move on professional moving equipment rather than being carried at an angle through a doorway. The sofa or bed goes to the room the customer chooses, is unpacked and assembled there, and placed where the customer wants it. Case goods are leveled. If the order includes a mirror or wall art, it can be hung. A pendant or chandelier can be hung too; wiring it stays with an electrician.

Then the packaging goes. Boxes, foam, wrap and blankets all leave with the crew, which for a customer in an apartment without anywhere to put a sofa-sized carton is no small thing. Where the new piece is replacing an old one, the crew can take the old furniture away and arrange disposal or donation, for a fee, so the customer is not left with a second problem.

Everything handled with care, in a stranger's home, with the brand's name on the order. That is the service the brand is really buying.

Questions customers ask about the crew

Customers who have never had a white glove delivery tend to ask the same few things, and a brand can answer them before they are asked. Will the crew take their shoes off or cover the floors? The route is protected before anything comes in. Will they put the bed together? On white glove, yes. Can they move the sofa again if it looks wrong under the window? Placement is where the customer wants it, and that includes changing their mind. Should they tip? Crews accept tips, there is no set policy, and a customer can tip the crew directly or through Elite Anywhere.

Damage reported at sign-off

Before the crew leaves, the customer is asked to check the piece and report any damage, and to give feedback on the delivery. The piece's condition is photographed at delivery, and that sign-off is documented and kept.

For an online brand this record does a great deal of work. If a customer later reports a scratch, the brand can see what the piece looked like when the crew left, along with the photographs taken when it was received at the warehouse and the condition recorded when it was collected from the maker. A dispute that would otherwise come down to one person's word becomes a matter of looking at the record. And where something genuinely arrived damaged, the brand knows at once, rather than when a review appears.

Customers in apartments and condos

A large share of furniture bought online goes to apartments and condos, and those buildings have rules. Many want a certificate of insurance before a delivery crew can enter, and a booked freight elevator and loading window. A customer who does not know this can have a delivery turned away at the lobby.

Customers can arrange it themselves with their building manager, and many do. Elite Anywhere will also provide the certificate of insurance and book the elevator and loading window with the building, which a brand can offer as part of the delivery. Where a sofa will not fit the elevator or the stair, hoisting is available.

Customers anywhere in the country

An online brand's customers are not limited to the cities where it holds stock. Elite Anywhere delivers anywhere in the country, from 34 warehouse locations including ten staffed hubs. A customer in Salt Lake City buying a dining table from a brand based on the other side of the country receives it the same way as a customer next door to the warehouse: tracked, carried in, assembled, placed, packaging gone and the condition signed off. White glove deliveries can also be booked for evenings or weekends, which suits customers who work during the day.

Who else uses the same service

Online sellers and e-commerce brands use Elite Anywhere alongside the rest of the furniture trade: furniture manufacturers, showrooms, retailers, interior designers and art galleries, all of whom install as well as deliver through it. The common thread is that each is handing a customer relationship to the delivery crew for an hour, and needs that hour to go well. Elite Anywhere makes more than 50,000 deliveries a year.

Questions a furniture brand should ask a delivery company

  1. What exactly does each delivery tier include? The answers should be specific enough to print at checkout.
  2. Where will my stock be held, and how close is that to my customers?
  3. What is recorded when my shipments arrive, and when a piece is delivered?
  4. Can my customers follow their own orders?
  5. What happens to the packaging, and to the customer's old furniture?
  6. How is damage reported, and will I see the record?
  7. Can your crew deal with my customers' buildings?

The short version

For a furniture brand that sells online, white glove delivery is not an add-on; it is the part of the purchase the customer remembers. Elite Anywhere receives a brand's stock at warehouse locations close to its customers or collects it from the maker, keeps the customer informed with photo check-ins and live tracking, carries each piece into the room, assembles and places it, takes the packaging away, and records the condition at sign-off, in every state the brand sells to.

Robert Sabo is Director of Operations at Elite Anywhere, which provides white glove delivery, receiving and installation from ten staffed warehouses, delivering nationwide.