Leading e-tailers
$4.6 billion - that’s the amount of furniture sold via the Internet last year. The $4.6 billion sales figure amounts to about 6% of total consumer spending for furniture and bedding.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, online retail sales, excluding travel, digital downloads and event tickets, totaled $132.4 billion last year, up 4.9% from 2007 sales of $126.2 billion. Total online retail sales have absolutely exploded since 2004, increasing 86.7%.
Because of these large sales figures, Furniture/Today took a stab at analyzing leading players within the online channel in its first-ever e-tailer report. The exclusive report highlights 20 online-only players and published in Furniture/Today’s July 20, 2009, issue. It can also be accessed online for a limited time.
Online-only furniture giants include Boston-based CSN Stores and Omaha, Neb.-based Netshops. Both companies sell furniture through more than 200 niche storefronts, with each store focusing on one product category.
Other major players include Seattle-based Amazon.com and Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com.
And, mid-tier online-only players, in terms of sales, include Witchita, Kan.-based iFurn Stores, www.ifurnstores.com Savannah, Ga.-based FurnitureBuzz and Dallas-based Max Furniture.
You can check out the complete e-tailer company listing by going here.
If there are e-tailers you think we’ve missed, please let us know and we’ll consider them for next year’s report.
