A £2,400 sofa is a hard yes. £100 a month (two years, interest-free) is an easy one. Here's what the numbers say about finance, and how to offer it without it looking like an afterthought.
If you've ever worked a showroom floor, you've seen it. A customer falls for a sofa, turns over the tag, reads the total, and goes quiet. Then comes "I'll have a think about it", and most of the time that's the last you hear.
They didn't stop wanting the sofa. They just weren't ready to pay for all of it today. Finance changes that question from "can I afford £2,400?" to "can I afford £100 a month?", and for a lot of households those are very different conversations.
Most of the data on this comes from finance providers, so treat it with the right amount of salt. But the direction is consistent across several sources:
54% of furniture buyers told Novuna they wouldn't have made their purchase if finance hadn't been available, and 40% said they spent more because it was.
Product Partnerships found that 80% of consumers said finance availability heavily influenced where they bought, and that retailers without a finance offer risk losing around 44% of customers: 26% would abandon the purchase or buy elsewhere, and another 18% would have second thoughts.
And it's already normal in your category. V12 Retail Finance data showed furniture made up 57% of retail finance values in the first quarter of 2026. Novuna also reports that 94% of finance transactions in furniture retail are interest-free credit, so customers aren't looking for clever products. They want to spread a big cost without paying extra for it.
When household budgets are tight, people don't stop needing furniture. They still move house, have kids, and replace sofas that have given up. What they do is delay, or buy somewhere that makes it easier to say yes. If a big chain can show "from £99 a month" and you can't, you've lost the sale before the customer reaches your door.
Plenty of showrooms offer finance and still don't get the benefit, because nobody knows about it until they're at the till. A few fixes that cost almost nothing:
Put the monthly figure on the price tag. "£2,400, or from £100 a month" is a much smaller number to react to than the total on its own.
Say it before they ask. Train your team to bring it up while the customer is still deciding, not after they've gone quiet over the total.
Put it on the website and in your ads. A "from £X a month" line on a product page or an ad is often what gets someone to book a visit in the first place.
Follow up with it. If someone asked for a quote and went quiet, a short message that mentions spreading the cost can restart the conversation. It's one of the best reasons to contact old quotes and past customers.
Interest-free finance usually costs the retailer a fee or subsidy, so it isn't free. The useful comparison isn't finance versus no finance. It's finance versus the blanket 20% off you might otherwise run to get people through the door. A sale cuts your margin on everything and trains customers to wait. Finance only costs you on the orders it helps close. Ask your lender for their rates and run the numbers on your own margins.
The FCA brought buy now pay later and similar deferred payment credit under regulation on 15 July 2026. One practical effect: mentioning these products on your website, social posts, emails or banners can count as a financial promotion. If you aren't FCA-authorised yourself, your lending partner generally has to approve the wording before it goes out. Ask your finance provider what they need to see before you publish anything. This isn't legal advice, so if you're unsure, check with them or a solicitor.
Finance doesn't make people want a sofa more. It stops the price from getting in the way. If you offer it, put the monthly figure where customers can see it, bring it up early, use it in follow-ups, and check the wording with your lender first. If you don't offer it yet, you're probably losing customers who wanted to buy and just couldn't do it that day.