Buying cabinets online can save you big money if you know what to look for. "How is that?" One may ask. Let's explore the topic by taking a look at a couple of the more traditional approaches to buying kitchen cabinetry.

First, the big box stores. That's right, many people are initially inspired to redo their kitchen or bath cabinetry after first browsing in one of the many Home Depot's, Lowes, The Great Indoors, or even Ikea. These places can be found in virtually every major town or city in the country, and in every one of these big box stores there are kitchen displays attracting onlookers and buyers. Typically the cabinet pricing in this type of outlet is less than cabinet pricing found in boutique style shops, yet, far from a true wholesale cabinetry pricing.  The overhead at these stores, obviously, is the main obstacle to really keeping prices down. The real problem with purchasing kitchen or bath cabinetry from a place like this is the lack of adequately trained staff. All too often there is a newly acquired trainee fresh from the paint department, eager to help, but ill equipped to handle the detailed world of cabinetry. Design, delivery, and service issues often ensue.

Next, we will take a look at the smaller boutique style, or independent dealerships that sell modular or semi-custom cabinetry. The good news here is that you are likely to find much better service, and more knowledgeable designers than in the big box stores. The downside is that the profit margins and final ticket price increase with the level of service and knowledge. You may be starting to see a pattern here. The more design time, labor, and overhead involved in kitchen cabinetry, the higher the price.

That brings us to the topic of buying cabinets online. As you may have guessed by now, the primary reason buying cabinets online is the least expensive way to buy cabinets is overhead. The hours of design time, consulting, etc. that are involved in purchasing cabinets through a big box store or boutique style dealership serve to drive cabinetry prices higher than necessary. Not to mention, the cabinetry is typically delivered to the dealership or big box store, then redelivered to the customer, again driving costs higher. What's the solution? Some online cabinet companies are starting to offer customers tools to do their own design work, even offering design review, and therefore, lowering the overhead and final price to the customer. The information needed to complete a design, or the ability to get answers to basic product questions, even the ability to talk to a live designer is now available at some online companies. When consumers take advantage of this information now available to all, and help out with their own design, they find buying cabinets online really is the least expensive way to buy kitchen cabinets.