Delivering trade furniture straight to your client's home in Canada

Direct-to-client delivery means your furniture supplier ships an order to your client's home, project site or staging address instead of to you. Also called drop delivery or residential dropship, it saves designers, stagers and retailers a second trip, a second handling and the risk of damage in between. Designers name residential delivery as one of the things they check before signing up to a trade program, because many vendors only ship to a business address or a receiving warehouse.

What delivery options do trade furniture suppliers offer?

Trade suppliers typically offer four delivery levels, from cheapest to most complete:

1. Curbside or threshold delivery: the carrier leaves the furniture at the door or in the garage.
2. Room-of-choice delivery: carried into the room you name.
3. White-glove delivery: placed, unpacked, assembled where needed, and packaging removed.
4. Receiving warehouse: delivered to a third-party receiver, which inspects it and delivers it with the rest of a project.

Ask which level a supplier's "free delivery" includes before you quote a client.

What should you check before delivering to a client's address?

A successful residential delivery depends on access, timing and paperwork:

• Access: stairs, elevators, door widths and condo loading-dock bookings. Measure the narrowest point against the piece's packed dimensions.
• Timing: whether the client or you will be there, and whether the condo needs an elevator reservation.
• Paperwork: packing slips and invoices that show no trade pricing.
• Inspection: who checks the piece on arrival, and how damage is reported.

Can the paperwork hide your trade price?

Yes, if your supplier allows it. Ask for packing slips that carry no retail or trade pricing and no supplier branding, so the delivery reads as yours. That protects the markup or design fee you charge the client.

How does direct-to-client delivery work with Artisan Furniture Canada?

Artisan Furniture Canada delivers free to residential addresses in all 10 provinces from its Brampton, Ontario warehouse. Trade customers (designers, stagers, retailers and online stores) get 25% off MSRP and can send each order to their own address, a project site or their client's home. Packing slips can go out with no retail pricing and no Artisan branding on request.

How long does delivery take across Canada?

Delivery time depends on the distance from the warehouse. Ontario and Quebec addresses are closest to Brampton; Alberta, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada take longer. Every product page shows whether the piece is in stock or made to order.

Collecting the furniture yourself instead

The opposite approach is to have everything delivered to your studio or warehouse and run the final delivery yourself. It gives you full control over inspection and staging, but adds handling, storage and a second delivery. For stagers who reuse furniture across listings, owning and moving the stock yourself often makes more sense; see where home stagers buy furniture in Canada.