The Changing Retail Landscape Retail Sales Select Furniture and Home Furnishings Retailers

March 29, 2019  by Laurie Northington in General   

The retail landscape has evolved over the last ten years and continues to shift as more brick and mortar stores shutter their doors amid a growing e-commerce industry.

This is the fourth factoid in a series of five factoids detailing the dramatic shifts in the furniture industry’s distribution channels, taking place in both sales and in-store counts. The U.S. became over-stored in many channels during the 1990’s and early 2000’s as developers kept building shopping centers and companies continued opening retail outlets.

During the recovery period from 2012 forward, all furniture and home furnishings distribution channels grew in sales, despite store closings, with the exception of electronics and appliance stores and department stores.

Retail sales from electronic shopping and mail-order houses catapulted 131.3 percent from the peak of the recession in 2009 to 2017, but furniture stores and home furnishings stores experienced a healthy growth in retail sales, increasing by 23 percent and 21 percent from 2012 to 2017.

Both furniture stores and home furnishings stores’ sales have grown a yearly average of 4 percent in the past five years. Warehouse clubs and superstores have slowed momentum of sales in the last five years, but are still growing an average of 2.6 percent each year.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Retail Trade
*2007 to 2012 contains five years of data surrounding the Great Recession, 2012 to 2017 reflect recovery and economic growth years