Who are these people buying sofas, mattresses, pillows etc online? Bedframes, end tables, storage? Sure. Amazon knows what's up and realizes it has to have some form of brick-and-mortar to sell goods that [normal] humans will never be comfortable buying sight unseen.
There's no point looking at a mattress in person; poking and lying down on it doesn't tell you what it's like to sleep on, so you have to go on reviews anyway.
A divan is just a box for the mattress to go on. I wanted some particular mechanical properties, which i could check by sending emails. Staff in a shop wouldn't have had a clue.
I bought a mattress online. I read somewhere that people who buy mattress that they have tried out in store aren't more satisfied than people who buy one online sight unseen - lying on it in the store doesn't really tell you what it's going to be like sleeping on it long term. So I just went for it because the price was right. Turns out I'm happy with my the mattress.
Pillows are pretty much all the same to me and are replaced regularly so I'll buy those online if there's a sale.
I bought from one of those mattress in a box companies. They had free return with pickup so I figured it was pretty low risk and I was very happy with the result. Best mattress I've owned.
Since you ask: I bought a sofa (from Joybird) and mattress (from Leesa) online recently. Both came with free delivery and a 365-day return period. Happy with both of them.
The two are very different. With a book, you have a reasonably known quantity and it's much easier to ship it back. I'm half convinced people keep IKEA furniture because they can't figure out how to get it back in the box.
You don't necessarily need to disassemble and return it in the box. I bought and returned two bedside tables (HEMNES) recently. I only constructed the first and was unhappy with how it looked once it was in my room. They accepted the returns no questions asked.
Has that changed? I know several who have complained about needing to return it in its original packaging. At least I'm pretty sure it was IKEA that they conplained about - and there have been several.
I'll defer to you, as I haven't actually even been in one, personally.
