How Storytelling is the Key to Connecting with Today’s Home and Garden Shoppers

As humans, we’re hardwired to gravitate toward stories, which can often heavily influence our decision-making.

We see this in everything from social situations to consumer buying habits. As a brand, it's important to be aware of this and explore how to use narratives to connect with consumers. This helps you showcase your identity and values, making you appear authentic and trustworthy.

In fact, a 2023 study by Statista found that 28% of U.S. consumers consider a brand’s transparency and trustworthiness the most important factor in their purchase decision.

While every ecommerce brand should strive to be transparent and showcase the story of their products, this especially holds true for those in the home, garden, and furniture industry. A recent article by Business of Home shared 2024 predictions by leading industry experts. In their forecast, storytelling is this year’s key to connecting with customers.

Consumers want to bring more than just aesthetics into their homes; they want to bring meaning.

By sharing the story behind your products and giving shoppers a clear look into who you are as a brand, you allow customers to build an emotional connection and put meaning behind what you offer — driving sales.

Ready to harness the power of a well-told story? Let’s look at how you can incorporate this trend into your home, garden, and furniture site, as well as some brands on BigCommerce that are already successfully doing this.

Enable shoppers to emotionally connect with products

Every item has a story. Whether you offer antique decor or designer furniture, there are always qualities that make a product unique.

Perhaps it’s why you decided to carry the item, its specific use, or how you made it. Identify what makes your products stand out and how to highlight this in a way that resonates with your target audience.

Below are a few ways to add meaning to your products throughout your ecommerce site.

Build depth by educating customers.

Educating consumers about your products will position you as an industry expert, creating trust among shoppers. This will also create a life behind what you offer, allowing customers to become more invested in your product line. 

There are countless ways to share this knowledge, such as dedicated site pages or content like blogs and videos. Taking different approaches to educating customers will reinforce your industry expertise and the individuality of your items.

Brands like House of Rohl masterfully highlight the life behind its designs in several ways. This business offers a wide range of luxury kitchen and bathroom brands, with many of its design collections holding a unique story that celebrates art and history. House of Rohl demonstrates this through designated site pages. The brand also offers content like brochures and videos to further convey the personality and inspiration behind its different products.

Displaying this information helps businesses appear more trustworthy and authentic, as well as adds a deeper value to products — enabling shoppers to emotionally connect with pieces.

Create unique narratives with product descriptions.

Creative product descriptions can help brands emphasize the story and value of their items. This is one of the few instances where an individual product is given the spotlight throughout an entire ecommerce site, allowing brands to build depth behind each unique item.

A strong product description paints a scene for shoppers that sparks an emotional connection, leading them to envision the item in their very home. Understanding why your customers buy from you specifically and playing into that through descriptions can make a shopper go from wanting to needing your product.

Designerie is a perfect example of a brand that knows its target audience and crafts product descriptions curated just for them. This European designer furniture importer and distributor builds a narrative for each item by showcasing details regarding a product's style, intended use, and the designer.

Pieces like this rattan lounge chair are given a concise yet unique story that embodies culture, luxury, and relaxation. This charges the piece with life, allowing customers to not only build an emotional bond but also feel they’re purchasing an exclusive, valued item.

Showcase the product’s lifecycle.

Brands that take a specialized approach to developing items have an opportunity to tie this into their products’ backstory. This could mean using sustainably sourced natural materials or non-traditional methods to manufacture products. Not only can this add to the individuality of your items, but it can help consumers who value these practices resonate with your products.

Furniture brand Jennifer Taylor Home creates transparency by providing a look into its manufacturing processes. The company prides itself on hand-crafting all of its furniture with high-quality materials, which it highlights on its About Us page along with photos that help bring this narrative to life.

Displaying the behind-the-scenes of your products adds to their story and can foster connections with shoppers in search of items that reflect their personal values.

Become a transparent and trustworthy brand

As a home, garden, and furniture brand, demonstrating that you're more than just a business can build on the overarching story of your products and establish an emotional connection between you and your shoppers. Finding opportunities to be open, honest, and share your unique narrative can help consumers see the greater meaning behind your products — generating sales and brand loyalty.

Tell your origin story.

There are a variety of ways home, garden, and furniture brands can convey who they are throughout their ecommerce site. One technique is to share the story of your brand and the people behind it. Businesses like Melbourne Tool Company take this approach by demonstrating that they were once members of their target audience and took on building their company to fill a product gap.

Sharing your brand's humble beginnings creates a more personal relationship with shoppers, establishing trust and adding depth to your products.

Convey your brand identity.

Having a unique style that’s true to your brand is another effective way to show transparency and connect with consumers. The use of imagery and videos can visually showcase your brand’s personality and history. Other stylistic tactics like having a distinct written voice can help convey your identity and bring your story to life.

Molly Mutt is a brand that clearly demonstrates its fun and relatable personality to customers. Its online site consistently uses a playful voice and imagery to connect with shoppers. The brand even incorporates a link to a playlist with songs that it named all its custom prints after. Added touches like this further immerse consumers into the Molly Mutt narrative, making them feel a deeper connection with the brand and its products.

The final word

With home, garden, and furniture consumers looking to incorporate items they feel a personal bond with into their homes, it’s more important than ever for brands to take advantage of the power of storytelling. 

Finding ways to weave stories throughout your ecommerce site can help shoppers foster an emotional connection with your products and establish you as a trustworthy and authentic brand — creating sales and loyal customers.

Check out our 2024 Global Ecommerce Report to learn other trends and predictions we expect home and garden online brands to see this year.