Whether you prefer to sit out with a glass of wine or dine on the patio after a summer barbecue, your garden furniture will get most of its use during the spring and summer months. However, because everyone often rushes to buy garden furniture in time for the start of the summer season, prices tend to be high in the spring. So, to get the best possible garden furniture at the best possible price, we recommend buying at an altogether different time…
Make a late summer splurge
Although a lot of garden furniture flies off the shelves in May and June, almost all garden furniture suppliers have at least one restock throughout the summer. However, from August onwards, demand falls as many potential customers decide that they’ll make do with their current garden furniture until next year.
This creates a surplus of stock and means that garden furniture is often in the sale from mid-August onwards. In fact, from August to October, most stores place their garden furniture on sale so they can clear stock and launch their autumn and Christmas furnishings.
As with most sales, the longer you leave it during this period, the greater the price reductions you’ll receive, and by October you could get as much as 70% off. However, you’ll need to be aware that leaving your purchase that long is a risk because the selection available will get slimmer and slimmer as time passes.
Alternatively, look for seasonal sales
Although late summer and early autumn are great times to buy your patio furniture, you may simply not have the cash available. If so, there’s no need to worry as other sales opportunities will present themselves throughout the year. As a result, you always need to be on the lookout.
Popular sales times include:
- Boxing Day and New Year – Although you may not usually think about patio furniture while you’re taking the Christmas tree down, this is an ideal opportunity to buy as prices are cheap out of season.
- Bank Holidays – These appear throughout the year but keep a close eye on the May Bank Holidays in particular, as these will allow you to potentially buy cheap patio furniture right at the start of the outdoor season.
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday – The traditional American post-Thanksgiving holiday is now big in the UK and Ireland, so there are some great deals to be had. In-store promotions take place on Black Friday, while deals go online on Cyber Monday.
How to catch the best deals
Of course, deals can appear at any time and each retailer will work to their own calendar. As a result, you have to be alert. One great way of doing this is to do your research in advance and find the products you like. Then, once you’ve found a few options and a couple of retailers, you should create a Google Alert for the product. Then, you’ll be the first to see if it goes on sale.
In addition to this, you should also sign up for that retailer’s mailing list and ensure that you follow them on all of their social media channels. Often, email subscribers get access to exclusive sales and social media followers are often given discount codes for an extra 5% off. Alternatively, you may get an added bonus such as free shipping.
To summarise, although late summer and early autumn are the best times to buy your garden furniture, opportunities will arise throughout the year. Although sales are least likely to happen during the summer, it is still possible to nab a bargain. And taking a methodical approach by signing up for mailing lists and following your favourite stores on their social channels gives you the best possible chance of spotting sales before others do.
