Made-to-order furniture is sold before it is made.

What makes it hard to sell, and how Specify is built for it

Each piece is built after the order, from choices the customer makes online. Each problem is set beside how Specify is built for it.

1. In the trade

   The delivery date is a promise

   Before an online order, the customer must be told when the piece will be delivered. If that date passes, the customer may set a last deadline and then cancel. When dates slip, customers buy something in stock instead.

   In Specify

   A make time for each choice

   Each wood, fabric or finish can carry its own time to make. The longest of the customer's choices sets the estimate. The customer sees the working days to make before ordering, and shipping comes on top.

2. In the trade

   Only a size the customer gives is exempt

   EU law gives a 14-day right to change one's mind. Goods made to the customer's own specification are left out of it. The Commission's example is furniture made to the customer's measurements. A colour or fabric picked from the maker's catalogue is not enough. The Danish and Swedish consumer authorities read it the same way.

   In Specify

   Sizes within the workshop's limits

   A customer types a length or a width within the workshop's smallest and largest size. A size outside them is refused as it is typed. It is checked again before the order is placed.

3. In the trade

   A one-person workshop makes a regulated product

   Since December 2024, EU product safety rules apply to every maker, whatever its size. Before a piece is sold, the maker assesses its risks. The maker keeps technical documentation for ten years.

   In Specify

   Only what the workshop will make

   A combination the workshop will not make is refused before anyone pays. So the website offers only what the workshop has chosen to make. The customer reads why, and the maker keeps the reason.

4. In the trade

   Most makers are a few people

   In 2023, nine in ten of the EU's furniture makers had fewer than ten people. In Denmark in 2024, 462 of the trade's 622 workplaces had fewer than ten. In Sweden in 2022, two in three furniture companies had no employees.

   In Specify

   Every choice in one request

   A customer chooses a length, a width, a wood and the details. They can describe the table in words. Or they ask for something the workshop does not list. It all reaches the workshop together, with every choice made.