Furniture Store Performance Report
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, December 26, 2004
Profile of respondents
Over 300 companies completed detailed questionnaires for Furniture/Today's 2004 Furniture Store Performance Report.
One-unit operations make up two-thirds of the responding companies. Respondents with two to five units represent 20%, and the balance have more than five units.
The four census regions were nearly evenly represented. Companies with stores in more than one region comprise 1% of the sample.
Of the over 1,250 units operated by responding retailers:
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87% are full-line furniture stores
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12% are specialty stores by style or product
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1% are manufacturer's gallery stores
Style specialists include contemporary, traditional and country. Product specialists include bedding, juvenile, bedroom and dinettes.
The smallest of the retailers has annual sales of $101,000; the largest, more than $500 million. Median annual sales are $2.5 million. By sales volume, the responding retailers are categorized as:
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Smallest stores, with annual sales of less than $2 million (43% of respondents)
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Small stores, with annual sales of $2 million up to $5 million (28% of respondents)
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Medium stores, with annual sales of $5 million up to $20 million (21% of respondents) and
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Large stores, with annual sales of over $20 million (8% of respondents).
| Profitability measures | |
|---|---|
| Median response | |
| Net return on sales Net income divided by net sales | 3% |
| Net return on asset Net income divided by total assets | 7% |
| Gross margin percentage Net sales minus cost of goods sold divided by net sales | 43% |
| Efficiency measures | |
|---|---|
| Median responses | |
| Hours open a week | 55 |
| Customer visits per week per sales employee | 27 |
| Close ratio Percentage of customer visits that result in a sale | 36% |
| Sales per salesperson | $434,782 |
| Merchandise/display mix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For stores that carry the product | |||||
| Medians: | |||||
| By product group | Sales | Selling space | Number of lines carried | Gross margin % | Special order % |
| Source: Furniture/Today market research and Karen Haver, CPA |
|||||
| Case goods | |||||
| Bedroom | 15% | 18% | 6% | 45% | 25% |
| Crib/infant | 1% | 1% | 1% | 40% | 15% |
| Dining | 10% | 11% | 6% | 44% | 15% |
| Entertainment centers | 5% | 4% | 3% | 43% | 10% |
| RTA | 2% | 2% | 1% | 45% | 5% |
| Desks | 1% | 2% | 3% | 41% | 8% |
| Other home office | 1% | 1% | 3% | 43% | 20% |
| Occasional tables | 5% | 5% | 5% | 42% | 5% |
| Upholstery | |||||
| Stationary upholstery | 25% | 30% | 6% | 43% | 30% |
| Motion upholstery | 7% | 8% | 2% | 44% | 20% |
| Motion chairs | 6% | 4% | 3% | 42% | 20% |
| Other | |||||
| Bedding | 10% | 7% | 2% | 44% | 18% |
| Space allocation | |
|---|---|
| Percentage of gross space, by function | |
| Selling space | 69% |
| Warehouse | 27% |
| Administration | 3% |
| Other | 1% |
| Employee by function | |
|---|---|
| Percentage of staff | |
| Administrative | 26% |
| Sales, including interior designers | 37% |
| Warehouse/delivery | 30% |
| Repair/deluxing | 3% |
| Janitorial/maintenance | 2% |
| Other | 2% |
| Transaction types | |
|---|---|
| Percentage of sales by payment type | |
| Cash | 35% |
| Bank cards | 40% |
| In-house credit (Deferred payment plans offered by the store and managed by the store) | 10% |
| Other financing (Deferred payment plans offered by the store and managed by a third party) | 15% |
Payroll as a percentage of revenues
Includes all payroll costs, salaries, bonuses and commissions 17%
Benefits as a percentage of revenues
Includes all payroll taxes, workers' compensation, retirement, group health, disability, etc. 3%
| Advertising | |
|---|---|
| Median response | |
| as a percentage of sales | 5% |
| Received co-op advertising from manufacturers | 64% |
| No-no-no financing offered | 96% |
| No-no-no financing as a % of sales | |
|---|---|
| Median response | |
| Planned 2004 | 25% |
| Estimated 2003 | 20% |
| Type of advertising used | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: Furniture/Today market research and Karen Haver, CPA |
|||||
| Newspaper | 40% | ||||
| TV | 22% | ||||
| Radio | 10% | ||||
| Direct mail | 10% | ||||
| Yellow Pages | 7% | ||||
| In-store events | 2% | ||||
| National magazine | 1% | ||||
| Local/regional/state magazine | 4% | ||||
| Sponsorships | 1% | ||||
| Internet | 1% | ||||
| Other | 2% | ||||
| Sourcing | |
|---|---|
| Percntage of stores that import directly | 29% |
| Percentage of their sales that are direct import | 14% |
| Frequency of marked-down sales | |
|---|---|
| Median response | |
| Never | 11% |
| Annually | 10% |
| Twice a year | 27% |
| Four times a year | 20% |
| More than four times a year | 32% |
| Average markdown | 20% |
| Products imported directly by stores that import directly | |
|---|---|
| Case goods | |
| Master bedroom | 75% |
| Youth bedroom | 28% |
| Dining room/casual dining | 68% |
| Entertainment centers | 43% |
| Desks or other home office | 34% |
| Occasional tables | 50% |
| Upholstery | |
| Fabric-covered upholstery | 24% |
| Leather upholstery | 62% |
| Recliners | 11% |
| Other | |
| Outdoor furniture | 9% |
| Lamps | 17% |
| Area rugs | 13% |
| Other decorative accessories | 25% |
| How is advertising produced? | |
|---|---|
| Outside agency designs | 18% |
| Publication/station staff designs | 25% |
| Use ads supplied by vendors | 42% |
| Owner/store designs ads | 73% |
| Other | 1% |
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Furniture Store Performance Report
Dec 29, 2002
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