Buying Gap Stats Reveal Opportunity to Sell More
David Perry -- Furniture Today, June 1, 2011
HIGH POINT - Furniture/Today's latest Consumer Buying Trends Survey provides great news for mattress retailers - and also reveals a big missed opportunity.
The good news is that the Buying Gap for mattresses, which represents the percentage of households who shopped for various home furnishings products but didn't buy them that year, is an industry-low 14%. That means that of 100 households who shopped for bedding last year, just 14 of those households did not buy bedding. To state that in positive terms, 86 of those 100 households - or 86% - shopped for and purchased bedding last year.
As the chart of selected home furnishings categories above indicates, bedding sets a torrid sales pace on sales floors, one that no other furniture category comes close to matching. The buying gap for occasional tables, the second-best for any furniture category, is a much higher 19%. Stationary sofas had a buying gap of almost 40%.
These figures provide a ready roadmap for improvement for full-line furniture retailers. The easiest way they can close sales is to focus on bedding. "Be-backs," those consumers who say they will be back in the store later, are significantly lower for bedding shoppers than for those seeking any other furniture category.
At a time when retailers are trying to close every sale possible, the mattress category provides a happy hunting ground.
Overall, the Buying Gap for furniture and bedding stands at 19%. Bedding is the only category whose Buying Gap is well below that figure.
As for the missed opportunity, those 14% of bedding shoppers who didn't buy cost retailers an estimated $1.8 billion in sales. That's a huge chunk of business that walked out the door.
| Percentage of households that shopped for
specific products in 2010 but didn’t buy | ||
Potential lost sales in billions |
||
Bedding |
14% |
$1.8 |
Occasional tables |
19% |
$1.0 |
Motion sofas |
26% |
$1.3 |
Master bedroom |
26% |
$3.0 |
Stationary sofas |
38% |
$7.5 |
Average for all home furnishings categories: 19% | ||
Source: Furniture/Today's 2011 Consumer Buying Trends Survey | ||
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