Amazon Furniture Assembly Service in the Works, Say Insiders

In a bid to retake some of the home furniture market share it has lost to Wayfair, Amazon is working on a furniture assembly and appliance installation service in the U.S. to complement furniture and appliance deliveries, according to Bloomberg‘s sources close to the matter.

Amazon hasn’t captured a 1 trillion USD+ market capitalization by being passive, and the Seattle-based tech giant continues to make power grabs in every space — AI, podcasts and other digital content, and now home assembly and installation.

Currently, Amazon customers can schedule deliveries of big items and electronics to specific rooms in their homes, but assembly or installation have to be arranged separately.

The planned service will have unpacking and assembly/installation taken care of by the drivers making the deliveries, with the option of an instant return if the customer isn’t satisfied by the product.

According to sources, the service will first launch in Virginia and two other markets.

Amazon already offers Amazon Home Services, which allows customers to hire contractors through Amazon to assemble furniture and install electronics in a select few markets. This new service is designed to further simplify Amazon’s current offering, streamlining it and bringing it to more cities.

The new service will make delivery more convenient, cheaper and easier for Amazon to manage, according to one of the sources. Amazon also has its own private-label furniture brands, which the service will go hand-in-hand with.

Amazon drivers anonymously expressed concerns over proper assembly/installation training and the possibility of the company setting unrealistic job completion times for its employees, but Amazon is yet to comment on any aspect of the situation.

A furniture assembly and appliance installation service will put Amazon right back in contention with Wayfair, whose only edge over the former was that it offered same-time delivery and assembly, as well as Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe’s, all three of which offer appliance installations.

While we don’t usually see new Amazon product launches in Canada on day one, it’s worth discussing to see what the company’s future road map is, as these new ideas may reach here one day.