By Joanne Friedrich, Research Editor
HIGH POINT — In a year beset with challenges — closed or limited access to stores, a fractured supply chain and a workforce hampered by COVID-19 — the nation’s Top 100 furniture stores managed to eke out a small gain as stay-at-home consumers sought products to refresh or reconfigure their homes that often doubled as workplaces and classrooms.
The 2020 sales increase of 1.9% to $48.9 billion marked the 11th year-over-year rise as well as the fifth straight year in which the growth rate slowed, coming in below 2019’s moderate gain of 2.9%. The Top 100’s share of total U.S. furniture store sales remained about the same, however: 84% for 2020 vs. 85% in 2019.
The Top 10, which account for more than half of the total sales at $25.6 billion, experienced a 3.8% decline in sales vs. 2019, as well as a nearly 6% drop in number of units, losing 369 stores. The sales share for conventional and specialty stores tightened in 2020, with specialty stores upping their share by 2 percentage points to 48% vs. 52% for conventional furniture retailers.
Conventional furniture stores within the Top 100 experienced a sales dip of 2.7% to $25.5 billion, while retailers within the specialty store category experienced a nearly 11% increase to $23.4 billion despite losing about 400 retail units.
The sales discrepancy between conventional and specialty furniture retailers could likely be attributed, in part, to specialty stores’ online savvy, with many of the largest players such as RH, Williams-Sonoma, Ikea and Crate and Barrel being poised for serving online shoppers as the pandemic took hold in March.
In fact, Crate and Barrel reported that online sales accounted for about 70% of its business, while specialty bedding retailer Sleep Number credited phone, online and chat transactions for 15% of its sales.
That’s not to say conventional retailers didn’t up their game for Internet sales, as many reported percentages of sales coming via online from 1% to several in the 5% to 6% range.
Weekends Only Furniture & Mattress, a seven-store retailer that has been selling online since 2014, said e-commerce now represents its largest “store.”
Ins, outs, ups, downs
As is often the case, the Top 100 saw shifts within its ranks, with five retailers exiting the list — Art Van, Pier 1 Imports, Mattress1One, FAMSA and FFO Home — the latter becoming part of American Freight Furniture-Mattress-Appliance through an acquisition.
Taking spots within the Top 100 for 2020 were At Home and Casper Sleep, both of which filled slots in the Top 40; The Great American Home Store and Georgia Furniture Mart at Nos. 97 and 98, respectively; and the return of Levin Furniture & Mattress, which was part of Art Van Furniture for a few years.
Ashley HomeStore held on to its No. 1 ranking, a spot it has owned now for 15 years. The network of corporate-owned and licensed stores increased sales by 2%, eclipsing the $5 billion mark.
Also among the Top 100 list are 18 Ashley licensees. To eliminate double counting of sales and store counts, Furniture Today’s Strategic Insights adjusts the aggregated data for the Ashley HomeStore network as well as for La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, which has two independent licensees among the Top 100.
While the players within the Top 10 remain the same, Williams-Sonoma and Big Lots each jumped up a spot to Nos. 2 and 8, respectively.
Companies making the biggest leaps this year in percentage sales growth included American Freight, which saw a sales gain of nearly 52% buoyed by its acquisition of the 31 FFO Home stores and the rebranding of 127 Sears Outlet stores to its banner, which nearly doubled its store count; and Tempur Sealy International, which experienced a 53% sales increase and a 29% rise in store count to 198.
As a result of improved performance, American Freight rose to No. 19 from 28 in 2019 and Tempur Sealy skipped eight spots to land at No. 31.
Others making significant moves within the ranking were Lovesac, now at No. 35 after experiencing a 37.4% sales increase; Gardner-White up from 57th to 45th based on a 40.3% sales jump; Big Sandy Superstore, which registered sales growth of more than 48% and catapulted 16 spots to No. 46; and Puerto Rico’s Empresas Berrios, moving to No. 63 from No. 73 based on a nearly 24% boost in sales.
From a brick-and-mortar real estate perspective across the Top 100, 28 experienced a downward shift in store count, 29 added stores, and 41 stayed the same. That’s a significant change from 2019, when 45 companies added stores and just 19 trimmed units.
A drop in store count didn’t necessarily translate to a corresponding drop in sales, however. Specialty retailer Williams-Sonoma, for instance, closed 43 stores and opened 10 in 2020, yet the company experienced a 15% sales increase. Mattress Firm also dropped stores — 81 — but benefited from 133% growth in e-commerce, which accounted for 8% of total sales.
Retailers that did shed stores and also saw sales fall included America’s Mattress, down 34 stores and down more than 15% in sales; Dufresne Spencer Group with nine fewer stores in 2020 and sales falling by 9.5%; Macy’s Furniture Gallery, with 50 units vs. 55 in 2019 and a sales drop of more than 15%; and Cost Plus World Market, which lowered its store count by 18 and also experienced a 12% sales decline.
Among the biggest gainers in retail real estate were newcomer At Home, up 39 units; Ashley HomeStore, up 30; Lovesac, up 17; Badcock Home Furniture & more, up 14; Bob’s Discount Furniture, up 13; and another new-to-the-list name, Casper Sleep, up 12.
Outlook for this year
Despite the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, many retailers within the Top 100 furniture stores have mapped out plans for expanding their brands during 2021, which could bring about some positive store count changes, and possible sales gains, for next year’s ranking.
Here are some of the projections and/or recent openings:
- Rooms to Go has six new showrooms or superstores in the works, including a Corpus Christi, Texas, unit that opened in January, along with plans to expand within the outdoor furniture category with standalone or in-store showrooms.
- RH is continuing with its larger Design Galleries in major markets but is also planning on some smaller ones for secondary markets such as Oklahoma City, Okla., and Milwaukee, Wis., with the goal of opening five to seven per year, up from three to five.
- Although not putting a number to it, Big Lots wants to accelerate new store openings after an increase of just six stores in 2020.
- After closing more stores than it opened in 2020, Sleep Number is projecting having as many as 652 units by year-end, which would be an increase of 50 stores.
- Bob’s Discount Furniture has already opened five units since Jan. 1, with more in the works.
- La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries had one opening since Jan. 1 as well as one relocation.
- American Signature opened stores in two former Loves Furniture locations in February.
- One superstore and one satellite store are set to be opened this year by American Furniture Warehouse.
- At Home has opened seven of 15 stores slated for its current fiscal year and plans to refresh, remodel or relocate some of its existing base.
- July and November openings are set for two 100,000-square-foot-plus City Furniture stores, along with a renovation of its Naples, Fla., store.
- New for Room & Board will be a showroom in Bethesda, Md.
- Regency Furniture has four stores in the works for 2021: two Ashley HomeStores and two combination Regency/Ashley units.
- Conn’s has already opened six of a planned nine to 11 new showrooms.
- After opening two new stores in 2020, Furniture Mart USA has another planned for Duluth, Minn., this year.
- Big Sandy Superstore has stores openings slated in Kentucky and Ohio.
- Two new stores and two replacement units are in the works for Broad River Retail, which opened four and closed one in 2020.
- Along with opening a superstore in Downers Grove, Ill., Steinhafels is also revamping its website this year.
- America’s Mattress has pending openings for the first half of this year in Illinois, Kentucky, Florida and New Mexico.
- Levin Furniture & Mattress is projecting to open one new unit in Cleveland, along with three mattress stores, two Ashley HomeStores and an Ashley outlet during 2021.
- Marking its 50th year, Bob Mills Furniture will open a Wichita, Kan., location in late 2021.
- A new store is coming for Trivett’s Furniture in August.
- The Wellsville Group opened a unit in Medina, Ohio, in March.
- Weekends Only Furniture & Mattress will open its eighth location in the second quarter.
- Weir’s Furniture’s flagship store, closed since 2019, is set to reopen in fall.
- An expansion of Exclusive Furniture’s smallest store will bring it to 30,000 square feet when the remodel is completed this summer.
- As part of its multi-city strategy, Clive Daniel Home is opening a 65,000-square-foot showroom in Sarasota, Fla., later this year.
- Newcomer to the Top 100 Georgia Furniture Mart is opening its second location in the Atlanta area in fall.
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Top 100 group makes modest gain during pandemic-dominated year - Furniture Today
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