Younger millennials to make the most purchases
By Alan Wolf, YSN
As the holiday selling season quickly approaches, a recent report by Consumer Insights Now (CIN), the research arm of industry news site Home News Now, has shed some light on where furniture dealers can expect the most sales activity.
According to a CIN consumer survey, sofas are the most sought-after home furnishings item for the back-half of the year, followed by area rugs, decorative accessories, mattresses (for the primary bedroom) and occasional tables.
Specifically, 39% of furniture shoppers expect to purchase a sofa before the year is out, and 30% plan to buy an area rug. Mattresses continue to make the shopping lists of 25% of consumers, unchanged from the first half of the year.
See: Bet on Bedding This Season
And who will be snapping up all these sofas, beds and area rugs? The poll showed that younger millennials, ages 27-34, will be making the most home furnishings purchases, accounting for 25% of all third- and fourth-quarter sales. They’re followed closely by a younger Gen Z cohort (ages 18-26) that will make 24% of furniture buys, while older millennials (ages 35-42) will account for 22% of all purchases.
CIN also found a distinct preference for in-store vs. online shopping among consumers. Two out of three home furnishings purchases overall will be made in brick-and-mortar showrooms, the survey showed, while 80% of sofa sales, 75% of recliner purchases and 72% of mattress and dining room furniture buys will be transacted in-store. National, regional and local furniture specialty stores will be shoppers’ main destinations, cited by 68% of respondents, while 32% of consumers will procure their home furnishings from big-box chains, Amazon, Wayfair and local designers.
Most (21%) plan to spend between $1,000 to $1,999 on home furnishings before the close of 2023, followed by 19% who expect to drop between $500 and $749 on the category.
The CIN survey was conducted this past summer among 1,877 U.S. consumers comprising a broad mix of ages, ethnicities and incomes.
