U.S. home furnishing sales achieved growth against the trend!

U.S. retail sales growth is slowing from pandemic highs , hurt by rising inflation, higher fuel prices and ongoing supply chain congestion , but the home furnishings market remains solid.

According to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce , sales of furniture and home furnishings in the United States in June increased by 1.4% compared with May, and increased by 4.6% compared with the same period last year. Overall sales in the first half of 2022 increased by 2.9%.

Although the growth rate of the home furnishing market has slowed down, the overall sales volume has increased steadily.

Deliveright , a US logistics platform , found through a survey of the top ten home furnishing retailers that sales of most sellers continued to grow.

However, the new home market in the United States has a certain impact on the home market. According to data from the U.S. real estate market report , sales of new homes in the United States in May increased by 10.7% compared with April , and have fallen to the lowest sales level since April 2020.

Doug Ladden, co-founder and CEO of Deliveright , said that although home sellers face many challenges, sales in the new home market are still higher than pre-pandemic levels, home sales have not fallen into recession, demand for home products remains high, and American consumers are currently purchasing low-priced home products.

Commerce Signals studied the credit and debit card transaction data of 40 million consumers in the United States and found that the sales volume of overall retail products in the United States increased by 8.4%, and the average transaction amount increased by 1.2%. In this data, only 17 states in the United States saw a decline in the average transaction amount. This shows that Americans are still spending, but they are beginning to prefer buying low-priced products.

Although home furnishing retailers are currently experiencing lower margins, they are still making a profit. High-income buyers are still increasing their spending on home furnishing products, while low-income buyers are choosing to buy lower-priced home furnishing products.

If home furnishing sellers want to maintain continued growth in store profits, it is necessary to reduce transportation costs.

At the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium in June, Tom Enright, vice president of Gartner , said that 53% of home furnishing sellers’ transportation costs and 41% of their total supply chain costs are related to last-mile delivery .

The main reasons for increased shipping costs are the complexity of heavy items and problems caused by damage, delays, and substandard delivery experiences.

Research shows that 93% of consumers want real-time information about the delivery process, 47% will abandon brands that don’t provide delivery information, and 44% say brands don’t provide a good delivery experience. It’s important to note that 98% of consumers say the delivery experience is a key part of their brand loyalty.

Therefore, sellers must pay attention to consumers' delivery experience and ensure that products are not damaged or delayed.

At the same time, home furnishing sellers can also increase their investment in technology to display the effects of furniture and supplies in room layout in stores, which can serve as a reference for consumers.

In summary, although sellers in the US market are facing numerous challenges due to the increasing inflation and the ongoing supply chain crisis, there are still great development opportunities in the US home furnishing market. Sellers can deploy low-priced products while improving consumers' delivery and shopping experiences.

US Home Furnishing Market

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