Research Says
Welcome to Furniture/Today’s Research blog where we take a look at interesting research data related to the home furnishings industry. Our focus may come from research we have conducted ourselves or it might be something we’ve come across and just want to share. We hope you’ll use this space too, to share your thoughts or to weigh in with what you think about the topic under discussion.
Retail sales forecast
Furniture and bedding retail sales totaled $82.5 billion in 2010, an increase of 2.9% from 2009 sales of $80.2 billion. This slow, but positive growth is much-welcomed, coming on the heels of an 8.1% decrease between 2008 and 2009 and a 6.2% decline between 2007 and 2008.Retail sales will climb a projected 9.94% to $90.7 billion by 2015, according to statisticians at Easy Analytic Software Inc. (E... Read More
Comments (3)Retailers, how's business?
Furniture/Today surveyed furniture retailers last month and asked about general business conditions, including fourth quarter 2010 sales and sales predictions for 2011. We also asked about retailer's current product and advertising strategies. Results of this exclusive survey were presented at Furniture/Today's 2010 Leadership Conference, held this week in Naples, Fla. You can download a summary o... Read More
Comments (4)It’s a small world
I'm often reminded of our small world. I was on a conference call this week with a gentleman from India and he made the statement that India is one of the "largest English-speaking country in the world." Sure enough, nearly one-fourth of India's population speaks English. India's total population nears 1.1 billion, so about 232 million people there speak English. According to the U.S. Ce... Read More
Comments (2)No place like home
"A housing recovery is taking place but will be choppy at times depending on the duration and impact of a foreclosure moratorium," Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtor's (NAR) Chief Economist stated this week. He goes on to say the "overall direction should be a gradual rising trend in home sales with buyers responding to historically low mortgage interest rates and ver... Read More
Comments (0)Are consumers redecorating?
The latest consumer spending figures from the Department of Commerce predict retail sales of furniture and bedding will increase 3% or so for all of 2010, after experiencing devastating, consecutive sales decreases in 2009 and 2008.And, according to an exclusive consumer survey fielded last January in partnership with HGTV, seven out of ten consumers have home redecorating on their mind. More than... Read More
Comments (2)Merchandise mix update
Furniture/Today's Furniture Store Performance Report takes an overall look at store operations and provides data in which industry insiders can use to compare industry results against the annual results of their own store. Presented in two parts, store operations and merchandise mix , these reports provide a composite view of retail operations data and sales floor information, based on responses... Read More
Comments (4)A peek inside furniture store operations
Many changes have occurred with the economy, consumers and retail operations over the last year. Furniture/Today, takes a look inside furniture store operations in its latest Furniture Store Performance Report survey, presented in this week's print issue, to give the industry an idea of how things are progressing and what opportunities remain ahead. What did we find? Overall, furniture retailers... Read More
Comments (10)Happy Labor Day
Here are some labor stats compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau in celebration of upcoming Labor Day. Let's hope consumers buy some of furniture over the holiday weekend! 154.4 millionNumber of people 16 and older in the U.S. labor force in May 2010. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics7.6 millionNumber of workers who have more than one job - 5% of the working population. Source: U.S. Bureau of La... Read More
Comments (1)Roller coasters are not always fun
We were all hoping the economy would continue to gain steam but with housing sales on a downward spiral, it seems consumers are having a hard time remaining optimistic. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported earlier this week existing single family home sales in July, which account for the bulk of total existing home sales, plunged 27.1% from June and 25.6% from July 2009. And though... Read More
Comments (0)Personal income growth by metros
Personal income decreased in 223 or 61% of the country's 366 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) last year according to new data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. It increased in 37% MSAs and stayed the same in 2%. Simply defined, personal income is all income received by all people from all sources. Here's the strange twist to the data. Actual net gains in personal earn... Read More
Comments (2)Today's consumers
I ran across a great research study on Twitter last week called "Engaging Consumers in the New Normal." This survey received a nationally representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adults and was conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies in April via an online survey and follow-up interviews. I couldn't help but see the parallels between it and results from F... Read More
Comments (1)The power of social media
How social is your business? Are you on Twitter or Facebook? And maybe more importantly, are consumers really interacting with brands through social media? A recent article from eMarketer, How Consumers Interact with Brands on Social Networks, reveals some interesting stats.According to eMarketer, 58% of all U.S. Internet users, 127 million people, will use social media at least once a month this... Read More
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