Furniture Store Performance Report for 2014

The hottest products on a furniture sales floor are bedding, motion sofas and decorative accessories, including area rugs and lamps. Each category gained one percentage point of share this year and now comprises a larger portion of sales, according to Furniture/Today's 2014 Furniture Store Performance Report.

On the losing side of the ledger were master bedroom, youth bedroom and other products, such as consumer electronics, major appliances, floor coverings and textiles. Each lost one percentage point of market share.

Those data points were reported by furniture stores answering Furniture/Today's 2014 Furniture Store Performance Report. This exclusive report provides an overview of furniture store operations and offers benchmarks for retailers to compare merchandise mix breakdowns, profitability measures, price point structures and sourcing and advertising practices.

Specific data includes: statistics for gross margin, overall stock turns, close ratios, average square feet of selling space and sales per square foot of selling space; details on a furniture store’s advertising budget; market share by product for sales; market share by product for selling space; median number of lines carried by product; best-selling price points by product; online stats including the percentage of stores with a web site, the percentage that accept orders online, the percentage that use social media and the percentage that offer free Wi-Fi; direct sourcing figures; in-store gallery figures; and the average number of returned goods.

Furniture/Today's exclusive Furniture Store Performance Report looks at retail operational data within the furniture store channel. Companies representing more than 10,000 storefronts participated in the 2014 survey. Data reflects the fiscal year ending closest to December 31, 2013.

Responding retailers represent an assortment of furniture store types, including full-line furniture stores, product and style specialty stores and manufacturer-branded stores. All regions of the country are represented. One-fifth of the stores carry low price points; 64% carry middle price points; and 29% carry high-end lines.

Source: Furniture Today