Pandemic realigns consumer furnishing priorities

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The COVID-19 pandemic has already established a profoundly disruptive influence on consumer lifestyles, impacting everything from how they spend time in their homes to how and what they buy. It has been evident across the home furnishings industry as customer demand through the entire second and third quarters of 2020 reached record levels.

One of the most profound shifts features been the dramatic increase in online shopping, you start with widespread shelter-in-place orders in the spring of 2020 but continuing through the entire remainder of the entire year and into 2021.

However, a recently available consumer survey conducted simply by Furniture Today Strategic Insights signifies that the impact of these shifts is definately not uniform across almost all consumer segments.

Buy it online
Furniture Today’s research shows that shopping patterns and product selections can differ significantly by generation.

For example, practically 23% of Millennials indicated they are “much” more likely to store the Internet therefore of the pandemic, compared with no more than 9% of SENIORS. Yet another 35% of Millenials described themselves as “somewhat” much more likely to shop the Internet with just 28% of Boomer expressing that intent.

Perhaps not amazingly, Gen X’ers fell anywhere in the middle over both counts, with about 18% expressing they are “much” much more likely to shop the web and about 32% declaring they are somewhat more likely.

Another area where in fact the Internet’s influence appears uneven is the product types consumers expect to buy there.

For example, almost 70% of consumers say their next table purchase is likely to be online, compared with only about 44% of recliner buyers and about 48% of sofa customers. Similarly, eating tables, another low touch-and-feel merchandise category, saw practically 60% of shoppers say their next pay for will be online.

The one seeming outlier and the  traditional high touch-and-feel category to see over fifty percent of consumers express an Internet preference was mattresses. That segment, which includes viewed boxed beds upend the original shopping paradigm and get large numbers to look online, saw practically 53% of consumers say their next buy will come to be on the Internet.

Money to spend
The pandemic in addition has had an uneven effect on consumer income, with Millennials appearing to fare much better than their generational counterparts and SENIORS appearing to suffer the virtually all.

It’s noteworthy, for instance, that roughly 30% of Millennials said their profit has increased because the pandemic, while no more than 17% of SENIORS said the same. Alternatively, a majority of Baby Boomers (52.2%) said their profits has remained the same, while less than 40% of Gen X and Millennials held their incomes stable.

The pandemic in addition has served to reshape consumer spending priorities, unsurprising given the increased furniture sales activity in the last several months. As much have advised anecdotally, that spending is normally fueled by reduced expenditures in travel, clothing and health and fitness activities, this last encompassing factors such as for example gym memberships.

Nearly 73% of consumers said their travel and leisure activities have decreased, with apparel spending seeing a decline with about 40% of consumers, and health and fitness spending down for nearly 37% of consumers.

As companies make an effort to examine the longevity of the existing spike in furniture sales these numbers suggest that travelling and apparel spending could serve as leading indicators of a good go back to pre-pandemic spending priorities and warn of a good leveling in furniture demand.

In terms of sprucing up their homes through the pandemic, the living room and bedroom top the priority lists of the best percentage of consumers: 40.6% and 40.1%, respectively.

Not surprisingly, foundational portions - sofa or loveseat in the living bedroom and mattress in the bed room - rank as the most notable priority with a substantial plurality of consumers.

However a look down the priority list to other product segments implies that Millennials are still quite definitely in their early house-holding years  and so are searching for a much wider variance of pieces including coffee and side tables, reserve cases and - somewhat remarkably - television set console/entertainment centers.

Where you can spend it
This last category is noteworthy for the reason that it runs counter to the prevailing thoughts and opinions that Millennials consume the overwhelming most content, both informational and entertainment, on the phones.

The analysis showed that 22.3% Millennials are planning a entertainment center purchase in the year ahead weighed against only 9.2% of SENIORS and 14.6% of Gen X shoppers. This locating shows that as Millennials happen to be establishing their first home and moving into their primary child-rearing years they are moving closer to past generations in searching for full-size tvs and the home furniture to accommodate them.

The analysis offered additional evidence to aid the idea of a home entertainment renaissance, to arrive the form of consumer allocation of discretionary budgets.

When asked to examine spending since the pandemic, only 1 area - in-home entertainment - found a rise over pre-pandemic levels. Practically 1 / 2 (45.6%) of overall respondents indicated their spending had increased in this area, which includes specific things like streaming services, video games and other varieties of electronic entertainment.

Significantly, the region with the second highest percentage of consumers indicating increased spending (26.6%) was Household Electronics, a category which includes products such as for example computers and televisions. Without a direct indicator of a pieces of furniture purchase heightened activity in both these areas could fuel secondary purchases later on.

Another area which has seen dramatically increased interest because the pandemic’s onset is going to be office at home (see sidebar). Among all areas in the home, the house business office ranked third as an area of intended purchase in the year ahead, with 30.6% of consumers indicating their intent to make a residence office purchase in the next six months.

While the study didn't particularly address whether consumers designed to locate these purchases in a dedicated “home office,” it isn't unreasonable to focus on the premise that individuals are reallocating space of their homes to accommodate performing or schooling from your home. For example, the analysis demonstrated that 47.4% of individuals are working at home more because the pandemic’s onset, and 41.4% are doing school work at home more often.

It’s likewise instructive that while large percentages of consumers say they are food preparation more frequently at home because the pandemic’s onset (69.4%), the dining room ranked among the lowest regions of intended future purchasing activity (18.4%), suggesting this room may be a likely applicant for re-purposing as residence offices are more necessary.

Potential purchases
Across all bedrooms of the home, the analysis also showed significant variations in the spending patterns of the many generations, with SENIORS generally having higher price anticipations for furniture purchases than either of the two younger generational cohorts.

There were most noteworthy exceptions, which might again reflect the comparatively higher percentage of Millennials who say their income has increased because the onset of the pandemic.

For example, of these who cited a recliner as a probable upcoming purchase, nearly 50 % (45.6%) of Millennials explained they likely to pay a lot more than $1,000 vs. 20.9% of GenX shoppers and 16.1% of SENIORS.

It is further value noting that across all classes and all generational cohorts, opening price points usually do not draw the best percentage of responses among those going to make a buy. Instead it is usually the first few levels above the starting price where most buyers say they be prepared to find their meant get.

This suggests that those that finish up trading down could be giving an answer to advertising and promotional messages or even to engagement with the retailer at which they ultimately make a purchase.
Source: https://www.furnituretoday.com

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