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Vegas seminar: What consumers, retailers want

David Perry, Executive Editor -- Furniture Today, July 22, 2007

Here's a quick quiz to test your bedding knowledge.

True or false?

Last year, only 8% of consumers who purchased a bed bought two or more beds.
Queen-sized bedding accounted for 45% of bedding purchases last year.
Younger consumers (34 and under) are much more likely to purchase bedding at a furniture store than a bedding specialty store.
Bedding specialty stores are much more likely to carry sleep pillows than furniture stores.

If you said all of those statements are "true," then good for you. But do you know why they are true?

Those are some of the issues that we will be examining at our upcoming seminar at the Las Vegas Market. We're calling it, "Who are today's bedding consumers and what do they want?"

The seminar is set for Monday, July 30, at 1 p.m. at the World Forum on the 16th floor of the World Market Center's Building B. Yours truly will be sharing the highlights of Furniture/Today research on bedding's performance among consumers and with retailers.

Some of our findings, I will be the first to admit, are a bit controversial. For example, our research found that 56% of the dollars spent on bedding last year were at retail prices of $1,000 or higher. Some think that number is too high, but we do have some key qualifiers to share with you before you question our number. We will tell you what they are at the seminar.

Our research compares how furniture stores and bedding specialty stores did in the bedding category last year. One key finding: Bedding specialists sold queen-sized bedding, the key driver in the market, for substantially higher prices last year than did the furniture stores.

We will also share some thoughts on the rise and reported fall of a portion of the specialty sleep market. Do you think specialty sleep units dropped last year? We'll tackle that vital issue.

And we'll also take our first look at how the sleep accessories segment fared last year at bedding stores and at furniture stores. There are major differences between those two channels. Do you have any ideas why that might be? We do.

The research studies conducted by Furniture/Today are a hallmark of our reporting on the bedding industry. Whether you agree or disagree with our findings, you need to give them careful consideration.

It is always important to know what retailers and consumers say about bedding.

See you at 1 p.m. on Monday of market week.

Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com

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Vegas seminar: What consumers, retailers want

Jul 23, 2007

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