Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Survey Said: Majority of Furniture Retailers See Q2 Increases
May 15,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Economic News, Industry 
More than half the retailers surveyed at last month’s High Point Market believe furniture purchases will increase in the current quarter, while nearly two-thirds believe recent interest rate hikes won’t have any impact on furniture sales in the coming months.
In a survey conducted by third-party financing provider TD Bank, some 52% of respondents said purchases will go up in the second quarter, while another 43% predicted they would remain steady. Only 5% said furniture purchases would decrease.
In addition, 65% said they didn’t think recent interest rate hikes would affect sales in the next three months, while 28% said it would have a negative impact on sales. Another 7% said the hikes would have a positive impact.
The survey also asked several questions about customer loyalty programs and promotional financing efforts, and found that less than half (45%) even have a loyalty program in place. Among those who did, discounts on future purchases was the most common benefit offered. That was followed by extended warranties, in-store credit, access to promotional coupons and cash back, in that order.
Survey results also showed that 34% of respondents said promotional finance programs are “extremely important,” and another 26% said they were “very important.” Only 17% said they were “not very important” or “not at all important.”
Among survey respondents, 73% said most of their customers were ages 35 to 54, while 17% said most of their customers were age 55 and above.
The survey was taken at the market on April 24-25, and TD Bank said 101 responses were received.