Everyone knows that the growth in e-commerce during the pandemic this year has skyrocketed but a closer examination of the numbers shows that when it comes to home furnishings purchases consumers still want to go to physical stores compared to other products.
New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that home furnishings, like virtually every category of consumer products, registered huge online increases. However, the rate of that increase in home furnishings products, including lighting and home décor, was slower than most other key classifications.
Overall, total online retail sales for all categories (except for automobile sales) more than tripled for the second quarter of 2020 when many physical stores were closed, compared to the first quarter of the year. But individual categories showed much larger increases: sporting goods, up by 10 times; apparel, up by five times; health and personal care, up by four times; and home improvement up also by more than four times.
By contrast, however, furniture and home furnishings showed one of the smallest increases, registering only an increase of a factor of three. Still a significant gain for e-commerce but smaller than other categories in comparison.
Reading these numbers, one can conclude that while consumers clearly increased their online purchases, they did so less with home products than with other categories, even as the entire furnishings and home goods market was experiencing strong demand.
In commenting on these numbers, Coresight Research, a leading consulting firm for the retail industry, concluded that multi-channel retailers -- those with both strong in-store and online market penetration -- would fare the best in the pandemic era.
“Given the evidence so far, store-based retailers are expected to drive this growth. While the crisis has hit store operations badly, it is providing multichannel retailers with an opportunity to capture online share from non-store rivals such as Amazon.”
The numbers tell the story: in-store shopping for home furnishings products is important and is likely to remain that way.