As the centrepiece of your living room, a sofa needs to be stylish but, above all, comfortable.
Before you part with your cash, know which sofa shops offer great range, excellent value for money and the best customer service, so that you can feel confident about your purchase.
Discover the best and worst sofa shops to see how the most popular sofa retailers ranked in our survey, and which ones offer the best customer service.
Best sofa shops
Our table shows the scores for the two popular sofa shops that topped our table, and the two at the bottom, so you can see the difference between the best and the worst we gathered data for.
| Shop ranking | Customer service | Quality | Range of sofas to choose from | Value for money |
| 1st | ***** | ***** | **** | ***** |
| 2nd | *** | **** | **** | ***** |
| 8th | *** | **** | *** | **** |
| 9th | *** | **** | **** | *** |
The best retailer scored five full stars across nearly all our criteria, being the only one to get five stars for the quality of its sofas.
But customer service was the area where we saw the biggest differences – only two retailers earned the full five stars while three others got only three.
When choosing a sofa, members felt spoilt for choice in only one of the shops.
The retailer at the bottom of the table also scored the lowest for both customer service and value for money.
Head over to our guide to the best sofa shops to find out which shops we’re talking about.
Find out the best and worst furniture and homeware stores.
Five things to consider when buying a sofa
When you’re choosing a new sofa, there’s plenty to think about, from the look of the sofa to actually getting it in through your door. Here are five important points to bear in mind.
What colour and style of sofa will go with your existing décor?
Make sure your sofa complements your flooring and walls. You might feel very differently about a sofa once it’s in your living room compared to looking at it in isolation. Order a swatch, if you can, and take your time selecting a colour and fabric.
Style is important, too. Do you want country or Chesterfield, traditional or mid-century? If you’re not sure what the differences are between them, head over to our guide to buying a sofa.
What size sofa do you need?
Do you often have guests round or usually socialise out and about?
Think about how many seats you need – but then measure how much space you have. Crucially, don’t forget to measure your doorways.
Do you need a sofa that’s easy to clean?
Important if you often eat on your sofa, or you have pets or children and you don’t want to fuss around with a throw. Some materials are much easier to clean than others. We explain how to clean a leather, velvet or fabric sofa.
What are your rights if want to return your new sofa?
Particularly important if you’re buying online without having seen your sofa (though we’d recommend going to a store and trying out your new sofa if you can).
Know in advance what you’re entitled to if you don’t like your new sofa or there’s a problem with it.
Head over to our guide to your consumer rights when shopping to find out more, including what to do if an item you’ve bought develops a fault, arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive on time.
How to get rid of your old couch
Think about how you’re going to dispose of your existing sofa. Can you get it taken away for free by the company you bought your new sofa from, for example, or by a charity?
Remember that, after ordering your new sofa, you may have to wait weeks or months for it to arrive. You might have to do without one for a spell if you’re too hasty in getting rid of your old one – not ideal if you basically live on your sofa.
On the other hand, you might decide it’s better to be sofa-free for a time than risk overlap, particularly if you’re short on floor-space and won’t be able to manoeuvre your vacuum cleaner around two sofas.
Deliveries and returns
The good news is that the majority of people we surveyed didn’t experience problems. But issues still cropped up – these were the most common.
- 22% – said their sofa arrived later than expected
- 19% – had difficulties getting it thought the door
20% – of those who experienced issues returned their sofa.
How we rate sofas
In May 2021, we asked more than 2,930 Which? members who had bought sofas in the past 10 years to rate the shop they bought it from on its range of sofas, delivery services, value for money and product quality.
Customer score is based on how happy people were overall with their sofa-buying experience and whether they would recommend their sofa shop.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/09/best-places-to-buy-a-new-sofa/