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Survey: Bedding Stores Poised to Gain Ground

David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 28, 2011

Retail Bedding Playbook HIGH POINT - Bedding specialty stores, a fast-growing channel of distribution, may gain even more ground on their competition. Furniture stores, meanwhile, may lose share.
     Those are two of the key findings that emerge from a look at consumer attitudes about the mattress shopping process. Furniture/ Today teamed with home design resource HGTV on the consumer survey. The survey was conducted last year but included a number of forward-looking questions.
     The question about mattress shopping plans produced findings suggesting more growth ahead for the bedding specialty store channel, which had a 42% share of the mattress distribution pie in 2009, the last year Furniture/Today examined bedding distribution trends. The newspaper updates its bedding distribution report every two years; the next update will be published this fall.
     Ahead of that report, the Furniture/Today-HGTV Mattress Survey may portend some big changes in the offing. The survey found that 46% of consumers plan to shop for bedding first at a bedding specialty store, if price is not a consideration. As the bedding specialty segment had a 42% market share in 2009, if those 46% of consumers responding to the F/T-HGTV survey do indeed buy at a bedding specialty store, that segment would gain significant ground.
     The situation is different with furniture stores, which maintained their 39% market share in the 2009 Furniture/Today survey. But just 27% of consumers responding to the F/T-HGTV survey said they plan to shop for bedding first at a furniture store. That could mean a big market share loss for furniture stores.
     The F/T-HGTV survey also suggests that department stores could gain share in the bedding distribution pie, as could warehouse clubs. Department stores had a 5% bedding share in 2009, but were listed by 11% of consumers as being the first place they plan to shop for bedding. Warehouse clubs, which had a 5% share in 2009, were cited by 6% of consumers as being the first place they plan to shop for bedding.
     The F/T-HGTV survey says that 8% of consumers plan to shop for bedding first online, which would make that a fast-growing bedding distribution channel.
     Retail Bedding Playbook is a regular feature about mattress retailers by David Perry, bedding editor. Ideas for future coverage can be shared with Dave at dperry@furnituretoday.com.

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