There’s been some good news lately when it comes to furniture sales. Memorial Day, and most of May for that matter, looked good. Indications are that store traffic is rebounding, and those consumers who felt most cooped up and eager to get out have made furniture shopping one of their priorities.
In fact, inventory issues have been creeping up, and many stores are re-engaging with their resources to refill the pipeline. We’ll have a better indication of that later this week as the pop-up event that will see showrooms open by appointment in downtown High Point winds down. At that point the question of which and how many retailers are eagerly seeking goods will have more clarity. We should also get some early indication on whether there will be a shift in buying patterns.
Is the rumored home office boom reflected in retail buying activity? Did Americans’ lock-down-imposed cooking lessons result in renewed dining interest? Are the previously hot accent and motion upholstery categories cooling or continuing their hot streak? And who’s got the goods on hand and the pockets deep enough to help retailers dig out of their pandemic-inflicted payment challenges.
Those are big questions heading into the recalibrated late-summer-fall market season. Getting money from cooped up consumers eager to break free and refurbish their homes and unable to spend on travel, movies, shows and other experiences is table stakes. The real test comes when the initial fervor cools and other discretionary distractions return.
This isn’t going to be a sprint. It’s a marathon. And anyone who broke quickly from the gate and now thinks it’s time to cruise and collect their winnings could be in for an unpleasant surprise. There are a few key players who have been quietly laying the groundwork for the coming battle, marshalling assets, building their teams and investing in the resources it’s going to take to compete, not next month, not even next year, but for the next decade.
Now is the time you’re going to see savvy players begin deploying those resources. On the retail side that means maximizing existing customer bases, finding new customers and rethinking the shopping experience across every touchpoint. It’s going to mean owning your trading area, plus seeing how far that area can be stretched both physically and digitally to create scale and drive velocity. It means increasing share of voice in an already crowded media environment. Silence is anything but golden in this marketplace.
On the manufacturer side the competition will be no less aggressive, and it won’t be long before those prepared to hit the accelerator and surge forward will separate themselves from those who lack the will, the scale or the resources to survive the demands of a disrupted marketplace. A number of significant players have fallen in the past year, and there are others on the brink. The competition for the business that remains will only intensify.
Things are improving, but now is the time to hit the accelerator, not the brake.
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June 15, 2020 at 05:05PM
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Blog: Now's the time for furniture industry to hit the accelerator - Furniture Today
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