Youth segment proves robust
Consumers hungry for innovative room solutions
By Jane Kitchen -- Furniture Today, December 29, 2002
Just like kids, the youth market keeps growing — and getting more sophisticated. While not so long ago, children's furniture was something of an afterthought, today it's a full-fledged category with a wealth of possibilities and choices.
Youth furniture is incorporating more function than ever before. Underbed storage, bunkbed cubbyholes, extra shelving, armoires with built-in videogame storage — all of these continue to be important in kids' bedrooms, as today's kids have more and more stuff.
Bryan Edwards, national vice president of sales for Lea, sees this as an important continuing trend.
"Consumers are hungry for innovative ideas and solution-oriented furniture," said Edwards. "Furniture was getting to the point where there was nothing left to talk about but price."
Room for computers
Gary Bryant, vice president of sales and marketing for A.P. Inds., echoes that sentiment, but sees one particular aspect of functionality that stands out. "Keeping up with the functionality of kids' rooms will be the biggest challenge we'll face over the next three to five years," said Bryant. "Computers will change dramatically and rapidly — there will be major shifts in what a computer is. They will become more affordable, and will start playing a more major role in how kids study and play.
"Staying on top of that will be the industry's most major challenge."
Surfing for information
Computers may play a big role in parents' decisions, too. A recent study by comScore shows that 7.1 million Internet users in the United States in the first quarter of 2002 were new or expectant parents.
And while new fathers don't show much difference in their Internet viewing habits from other young men, new or expectant mothers spend their time surfing retail sites focusing on apparel, babies and home furnishings.
As stores like Pottery Barn Kids, Land of Nod and Bombay Kids — all backed by major, brand-name retailers — continue to grow in both number of stores and visibility, parents are realizing that they have more choice in children's furniture than ever before, and manufacturers are taking notice, too.
"Rooms to Go, coupled with the catalogs opening stores, is bringing more consumers to the marketplace," said Will Johnson, president of My Room. "It creates more awareness about furnishing your child's room — as (parents) start looking, they find options."
Even with the economy in the shabby shape it's in, home purchases remain strong, and as kids grow, they need new furniture for their rooms.
"Our sector is so much more recession-proof," said Johnson. "Parents always want to buy for their kids before themselves."
2nd bedroom opportunities
But a slow economy may have parents looking to extend the life of their kids' furniture by buying classic pieces that can later be converted to guest bedrooms. Kids' furniture has been moving toward more mature looks and finishes — in part, because tastes are moving in that direction, but also because there is a push toward merchandising youth furniture for second bedroom use as well.
"A lot of manufacturers are trying to get (into) second bedrooms and using youth as part of that," said Gene Clark, vice president of youth sales for Vaughan-Bassett. "Styles in youth have changed enough that it's more feasible now — a lot of looks are in line with what's popular in adult bedrooms.
"Dealers want to use youth as more than just youth — for second bedroom, or retirees. That way, a dealer says, instead of giving me one shot, I get something that gives me three shots."
A trend, then, has been to introduce four or five SKUs in youth that are simply smaller versions of an adult collection. This allows prices to be more competitive than introducing 15 SKUs in a youth-only collection.
It's also easy for dealers to simply add on to master collections that they already carry.
As the number of women between the ages of 20 and 35 — prime childbearing ages — is projected to increase 7% between 2001 and 2010, it doesn't look like there will be any shortage of young customers to outfit with bunkbeds or student desks.
And the children's furniture market has outpaced adult furniture over the past few years, growing 12% between 1999 and 2001. More and more manufacturers are recognizing that fact and looking for a way to enter the youth market. Introducing a youth version of an adult collection is a simple way to make a first foray.
Demographic changes
Population trends are the key to growth, and the Hispanic market is becoming an increasingly important one for the kids' market — births to Hispanic women made up 20% of all births in 2000, and birth rates for Hispanic women were 1.7 times the national average.
But birthrates are also rising for older and better-educated women, who tend to have more money to spend on their children, and to be more discriminating in their tastes.
"I think the kids' market is going to continue to stay strong — I'm very optimistic," said Vasso Unks, marketing director for P.J. Kids.
Unks added that she's intrigued by major retailers who are getting into infant furniture.
"It speaks to the fact that all retailers are trying all avenues of the kids business," she said. "They're not limited to the same old standard stuff, and they're looking at full pictures for parents.
"When you hear of people like Rooms to Go Kids getting into cribs — that's big. That's the trend. Retailers are trying to capture the market from crib to college."
Youth continues to be a category to watch.
"We're still in our infancy with this market," said My Room's Johnson. "We have a few years still to grow."
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