There’s Some Good News for Home-Furnishing Retail After All



Unsurprisingly, March was not a good month for home-furnishing retail. Coronavirus-induced closures of brick-and-mortar stores across the country caused an industry heavily dependent on in-person sales to suffer sharp month-over-month and year-over-year declines. Those drops came in at well over 20%, translating to billions of dollars in lost revenue.To get more news about China Furniture Factory, you can visit beour.com official website.

However, there’s evidence that at least some demand is translating to online actions. Just as so many other facets of life have moved online, a variety of sources and data points suggest that consumers are increasingly looking for and buying their home furnishings on the internet.According to data from analytics firm V12 cited by Furniture Today, March saw a 200% surge in online furniture browsing. Category-level data suggests that those stuck sheltering in place are actively searching for new items that can help them work from home and get outside: There was a 242% increase for desks, as well as a 260% jump in outdoor furniture.
That demand is translating into improved sales figures too. Based on an ACI Worldwide analysis of hundreds of millions of online retail transactions shared with the Associated Press, the home-products and furnishings category saw a year-over-year online sales increase of 97% in March 2020. Imagine Retailer, an e-commerce software provider that focuses on the home furnishings industry, also saw sales for its 400 family-owned retail clients increase by 127% in the first half of April compared to the first half of March, according to HFN Digital.
This new normal has proven beneficial to some big-time retailers who had faced challenges earlier in 2020. As recently as February, costs associated with an increased focus on digital retail contributed to Bed, Bath & Beyond’s sinking stock. However, the struggling retailer saw its digital sales increase 16% in March, as closed brick-and-mortar locations transformed into fulfillment centers to facilitate thousands of curbside pickups a week. Similarly, e-commerce-driven furniture retailer Wayfair saw its revenue growth more than double during the month of March, potentially putting it on the path to profitability moving forward. That comes less than two months after the company laid off 3% of its workforce.

It’s important to both place all of this good e-commerce news in context and take it with a grain of salt. HFN Digital estimates that online transactions only make up about 20% of total sales for the home furnishing retail sector, so the current e-commerce growth is far from enough to completely offset the collapse in brick and mortar sales. The growth in online sales could also trend downward once consumers have what they need to work from home and the realities of a potential recession force them to cut back on discretionary purchases.