The prospects for furniture associated with electronics looks positive for the year ahead, according to the results of the Home Entertainment Furniture Report survey conducted for HOMEWORLD BUSINESS® by The AIMsights Group.
Not only are more consumers interested in purchasing electronics in the year ahead, some critical categories are proving more popular this year than was the case when the study was conducted a year earlier, including flat panel televisions and personal computers.
In addition, the study determined that consumers continue to consider purchasing furniture associated with home entertainment and often in greater proportions. The advantage there for furniture manufacturers and retailers is that ready-to-assemble furniture associated with electronics is more often a situational if not quite impulse purchase rather than a planned purchase. In addition, by looking at how lifestyle and furniture purchasing affect one another, the study determined that consumers are increasingly interested in furnishings that can be employed in home entertainment occasions.
A significantly larger proportion of consumers responding to the survey this year, which was conducted in the fall, is looking to buy electronics compared with last year. In fact 38.6% of survey respondents said they definitely and 31.9% said they would very likely do such purchasing over the course of the year ahead versus 33.8% and 23.6% in the survey conducted last year.
Smartphones remained the top consumer choice among consumer electronic devices, and more so this year. Just under 70% of consumers surveyed identify a smartphone as their number one purchase priority among electronics devices versus 55.3% a year ago.
Televisions followed, coveted by 55.8% of study participants, up from 41.6% a year ago. The preference for laptops, tablet computers and gaming consoles, were down somewhat year over year, but the demand for personal computers was up to 23.3% from 20.8%, demand for personal gaming devices was up to 13.9% from 11.7% and demand for audio components was up to 23.6% from 13.5% year over year. Laptops, the second highest purchase priority in the 2015 survey, coveted by 49.4% respondents, fell to third place in this year’s version, cited by 47.2% of participants.
As for purchasing furniture, consumers who intend to buy electronics are not quite as keen as they were last year to purchase something to house it in, with 11.5% saying they definitely would and 17.4% saying they very likely would. In last year’s survey, 16.4% of respondents said they would definitely purchase furniture to house new electronics and 17.1% said they would very likely do so.
However, a lot of consumers are on the fence, with 39.2% saying they are somewhat likely to buy furniture in conjunction with their electronics purchase as opposed to 30% last year.
New device-oriented furniture purchases probably will wind up in the living room as 86.7% of consumers said that’s the location in they home where they are most likely to use electronics, up from 71.9% last year.
For the Home Entertainment Furniture Report, see the December 12, 2016, issue of HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®.
