A furniture store's chatbot: delivery to the room, assembly and made-to-order items

Furniture is a considered purchase. A customer about to spend €1,500 on a sofa will ask questions first: when will it arrive, will they carry it up to the fourth floor, can it be returned, is assembly included. Most stores answer those questions on their delivery and returns pages, and most of the answers come with a condition.

That is what makes furniture a demanding test for an AI assistant. The rule is easy to find; the condition is often in the next sentence, on another page, or in a product’s small print.

What furniture customers ask

Question	Condition that usually applies	Source
“When will it arrive?”	In stock or made to order; region	Product page, delivery page
“Is delivery free?”	Order value; region; item size	Delivery page
“Will they bring it upstairs?”	Floor; lift; extra fee	Delivery page, services
“Is assembly included?”	Product; paid option	Product page, services
“Do you take the old sofa away?”	Paid option; area	Services page
“Can I return it?”	Made to order or stock; condition; collection fee	Returns page
“Can I get a fabric sample?”	Free or paid; how many	Samples page
“Will it fit through my door?”	Dimensions, packaging	Product page
“Can I pay in instalments?”	Order value; provider	Payment page
“Is there a showroom where I can see it?”	Which models where	Showrooms page

The conditions assistants drop

Made-to-order and returns. Made-to-order or customised items are often excluded from returns, and EU consumer rules allow that exception for goods made to the customer’s specifications.¹ An assistant that answers “you can return any item within 14 days” without the exception is promising something the store won’t honour.

Kerbside versus room of choice. “Free delivery” usually means to the door or the kerb. Carrying a wardrobe to the third floor is often a paid service. The two are on the same page, often in different paragraphs.

Lead times by product type. Stock items arrive in days, made-to-order ones in weeks. An assistant asked “when will the corner sofa arrive?” that gives the stock lead time is wrong by a month.

Assembly by product. Some items arrive assembled, some include assembly, some offer it as a paid option. The assistant may generalise from one product page to all of them.

A made-up example

A furniture store’s delivery page says: “Free delivery on orders over €800 to mainland addresses. Our team delivers to the door; carrying to an upper floor without a lift is €25 per floor. Assembly is available for €59 per item.” Its returns page says: “Stock items can be returned within 30 days. Made-to-order sofas and items in a fabric of your choice can’t be returned.”

A customer asks: “I’m ordering the Oslo sofa in green velvet, €1,200. Will they bring it up to my third floor? We don’t have a lift. And if the colour isn’t right, can I send it back?”

The assistant replies: “Yes, delivery is free on orders over €800, and you can return items within 30 days.”

Every fact in the reply is on the site. The answer is still wrong: carrying to the third floor costs €50 more, and a sofa in a chosen fabric can’t be returned. The customer finds out on delivery day, and again when they try to return it.

The fix: write the conditional answers as single sentences: “Delivery is free to the door on orders over €800; carrying to an upper floor without a lift is €25 per floor.” “Sofas made to order or in a fabric you choose can’t be returned; stock items can, within 30 days.” Then add to each made-to-order product page: “Made to order: can’t be returned.” The assistant finds the condition wherever it looks.

A test for furniture stores

Ask these, as a customer would, and compare each answer with the pages:

1. “When will the [made-to-order item] arrive?”
2. “Is delivery to the fourth floor without a lift included?”
3. “Can I return the [made-to-order item] if I don’t like it?”
4. “Is assembly included for the [flat-pack item]?”
5. “Do you take away my old mattress?”
6. “Is delivery free to [an island or remote region]?”

If any answer gives the rule without the condition, put the condition into the same sentence as the rule. We explain why that matters in what to put in the knowledge base and why chatbots invent return policies.

For stores that want this done properly, Assistant Setup writes the conditional answers from your own pages and tests them before launch. More examples for shops on our e-commerce page. The EU’s guidance on delivery rights is another useful reference for what customers can expect.²

Footnotes

1. European Commission, Your Europe, “Guarantees and returns”, europa.eu/youreurope. ↩

2. European Commission, Your Europe, “Delivery of goods”, europa.eu/youreurope. ↩