Home Furnishings Stores

Brief Excerpt from Industry Overview Chapter:

Companies in this industry sell new home furnishings including kitchen and bath products, linens and curtains, decorative items, and small appliances. Major US companies include Bed Bath & Beyond, Pier 1 Imports, and Garden Ridge, and at the high end Restoration Hardware, Sur La Table, and Williams-Sonoma.

The US home furnishings store industry includes about 20,000 stores with combined annual revenues of about $25 billion. Moderate growth is forecast for the next two years. Key growth drivers include consumer income; home furnishing purchases are highly dependent upon discretionary spending, which makes them vulnerable to economic downturns.

Furniture stores and retailers of floor coverings are covered in separate industry profiles.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by consumer income. Large companies compete through volume purchasing, breadth of products, and effective merchandising and marketing. Small companies focus on a market segment and compete through depth of products and superior customer service. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 75 percent of industry revenue.

Competition for home furnishing stores includes department stores, mass merchandisers, home improvement stores, and online and mail order retailers.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major product categories are domestics (20 percent of sales); window treatments (20 percent), cookware (10 percent); and dinnerware (7 percent); and decorative accessories (7 percent); . Domestics are towels, sheets, blankets, and table linens. Decorative accessories include lamps, mirrors, pictures, clocks, and desk sets. Dinnerware includes china, glassware, and flatware. Window treatments are curtains, draperies,...