NEW YORK— From the time the new century began, mass-market furniture has gone through an evolution that has been prompted, in both a literal and figurative sense, by a consumer need for flexibility.
As the HOMEWORLD BUSINESS® Home Entertainment Furniture Report, conducted by AIMsights Group, demonstrates, consumers today are ready to consider new furnishing designs that better serve their specific lifestyle requirements and preferences.
Profound changes to furniture retailing have emerged as more consumers have gravitated to mass-market retailers and into the off-price and e-commerce channels. At the same time, housing preferences have shifted away from McMansions to apartments, townhouses and smaller homes, often with open floor plans that allow consumers to use space in non-traditional ways.
Indeed, the Millennial generation, which has become the prime demographic for the furniture category, has approached the market with different priorities than did those generations preceding it, with lifestyle choices influenced by social outlook but also by the larger role of electronics in their everyday lives.
As such, a table stopped being a table. Or, to put it differently, it became a table plus. What might once have been identified as a table might, today, engage consumer consideration as a desk or a TV stand or a buffet or a gaming station or whatever other purpose it might serve in the shopper’s imagination.
At the same time, a fireplace stopped being a fireplace. What once was a molding-enhanced niche in a wall surrounding burning logs became a gas-burning appliance that, later, emerged out of the wall altogether as furniture with electronic faux replacing actual flame in a box situated amid an independent mantel, a housing which soon was eclipsed, if not replaced, by a console.
In some cases, an electronic device in a piece of furniture might find itself helping to support electronics, in the form of a flat panel television, above it. The occasional incorporation of speakers might be regarded as trumpeting the point all the louder: Things really have changed.
In part, the evolution evident in the furniture world has been driven by consumers who are looking for solutions to the challenges new housing and lifestyle options impose upon their living spaces. However, the furnishings category, and especially the mass-market channel, has contributed to the metamorphosis by seizing on the chances new challenges offered. Quick to spot trends and act on them, the vendor and retailer ends of the mass-market furniture segment have effectively responded to evolving conditions.
Among retailers, companies such as Ikea, TJX and Wayfair are conspicuous examples. However, just about all mass-market retailers who offer home furnishings have responded to the changes in the marketplace, which has transformed how consumers shop for everything from kitchen islands to accent furniture.
A Versatile Approach
HomeWorld Business explored the issue of furnishings flexibility in the 2017 Home Entertainment Report consumer survey.
In many cases— and supported by online links and merchandising that can effectively picture furniture in various settings— a broader, more flexible approach to how furnishings are conceived and fabricated results in products that allow consumers to use furniture and accessories in ways that fit their lifestyles.
Of course, furniture that does double or triple duty isn’t new to the market. Storage options in everything from sofas to beds to, in a least one Ikea instance, clocks have proven attractive to many consumers, such as those in urban settings and in the process of raising children.
Lately, though, vendors have taken the lifestyle customization of furnishings further afield. As brick and mortar retailers link their in-store and online merchandising, and web-based retail elaborates presentations with multiple images of products functioning in various lifestyle settings, the opportunity to sell a more diverse range of consumers, and often with variation of the same basic item, has become more widely recognized.
Vendors and retailers today realize that consumers are using products for multiple purposes as they try to do more in their domestic spaces.
Certainly, the rise in popularity of sofa tables, which began a few years ago, demonstrated that consumers wanted furniture that could suffice as part-time workspace suitable for common areas of the home. In contrast to a more formal desk, sofa tables served emerging lifestyle needs in terms of appearance and function, and could serve not only as a workstation but also as a bar, a buffet or place where someone might play video or online games. However, as they responded to changing consumer demand, designers began to tinker with the basic sofa table form, in some cases just adding a small storage drawer, in others features such as charging stations and cable management.
Lately, a wider range of products that can fit more than one set of circumstances has emerged, such as accent pieces that can work as an end table or a bed stand, often with added features such charging.
When asked if they would consider furniture that is designed so to suit more than one function, 71.7% of consumers responding to the Home Entertainment Furniture Report survey said they would. Only 19% said they prefer to shop for furniture that has a specific designated use.
Consumers seem to be interested in furniture that provides a number of customization options including, for instance, open storage, bins and baskets and even sound bars and fireplaces.
When asked if furniture that could be customized might engage their attention, 46.3% of consumers responding to the survey said they would find the availability of such options very interesting and 33% said they would find them interesting. Only 4.3% of consumers characterized customization options as uninteresting.
An increasing proportion of furnishings introduced to the market can configure in multiple ways. Some furniture pieces, although individual in form, can work together in modular arrangements. Some furniture products have components that purchasers can assemble to fit various spaces or multiple purposes, while still others allow flexible assembly of elements such as shelves so purchasers can adjust an item to best serve their needs.
In responding to the survey, 18% of consumers said they definitely would be interested in purchasing a piece of furniture that they could configure to suit particular or multiple needs, while 32.7% said they would very likely purchase such items and 43% said they would be somewhat likely to do so. Only 6.3% of survey respondents said they were not at all likely to purchase furniture they could configure variably, down from 10.2% in last year’s Home Entertainment Furniture Report. The proportion of consumers who said they would definitely purchase such furniture gained almost five points year over year.
Electronics Put A Charge Into Furniture
The proliferation of personal electronic devices has provided mass-market furniture makers and retailers the opportunity to add features that help consumers solve lifestyle dilemmas. Today, consumers use personal and often multiple personal electronics devices all over the home, so means to store, mount and charge smartphones, tablets and laptops can strike consumers as attractive options.
Many mass-market furnishings today include charging capabilities. More manufacturers are adding charging, as might be expected, to desks and other workstations, but vendors also are offering end table/night stands and lamps with at least some capacity to power up electronic devices. In certain cases, charging means incorporating a multi socket/slot power bar, in others it just translates into a single UBS port. Whatever the case, the option of charging will be a significant design issue going forward as more mobile phones become wireless-charging enabled.
In the survey, 13.3% of respondents said they would definitely purchase furniture that supported the use of a tablet computer or smartphone, including the provision of charging, while 25.7% said the very likely would and 38% said they were somewhat likely to do so. Only 23% said they were not likely to purchase furniture with a charging capability. In last year’s study, 29.3% of respondents said they were not likely to purchase such products. In 2016, 13.9% said they would definitely do so while 22.4% said they would very likely do so and 34.4% said they were somewhat likely to favor furniture that supported device use.
Considered another way, 61% of survey respondents said they would find a product that can mount, store and/or recharge multiple electronic devices more attractive this year than they would have a year earlier, a result that is consistent with the 2016 report. Only 4.3% of consumers would find such furniture less attractive versus 5.1% in last year’s survey. The degree of attraction suggests that options supporting the use of personal electronic devices will continue to draw consumer attention.
Many consumers are seeking furniture options that can not only support but also enhance the entertainment function. For example, just over a third of consumers responding to the HomeWorld Business survey said they were very likely to purchase furniture than housed a sound bar or speakers, while 48.3% said they were somewhat likely to do so. Both of those readings were up several points from last year’s report.
Of course, electric fireplaces have been gaining in the furnishings market as an option that can add ambiance to a room for entertaining guests or just making the home more pleasant for family, whether in aesthetic terms or, when called for, to make a room environment more comfortable with heat and fan functions.
Electric Fireplaces Still Hot
Electric fireplace furniture is a category of products that offers consumers fresh variations. In the case of electric fireplaces designed for inclusion in furniture, vendors have lately been providing more choice in the form of consoles consumers can purchase with or without fireplace inserts. As such, retailers can stage a console in multiple ways, as a piece of electric fireplace furniture, as a piece of furniture with additional storage, either open or enclosed, or as both, given that the piece of furniture can be sold with the option of adding an electric fireplace insert later.
In the survey, 17.7% of consumers said they had purchased an electric fireplace for their homes over the past three years compared with 12.9% in the year prior. As they look forward, 16% of respondents said they would very likely purchase an electric fireplace/mantel combination and 27.3% said they were somewhat likely to do so, while 14.7% said they would very likely purchase a fireplace/furniture console combination and 28% said they were likely to do so. In all cases, the figures are higher in this year’s survey versus the 2016 version.
Somewhat fewer consumers in this year’s survey said they were willing to pay over $500 for electric fireplace furniture, yet, simultaneously, a lesser proportion expressed a preference for opening pricepoint-type items listed for $100 or less. More consumers said they were willing to pay between $201 and $500 year over year, a result that may have been affected by the introduction of new and more feature-rich mid-priced electric fireplace furniture over the past couple of years.
Shopping Preferences
In general, the prospects for home entertainment furniture purchasing over the next year seem a bit better than was the case in last year’s Home Entertainment Furniture Report.
In a gauge of precursor purchasing, however, consumers were slightly less enthusiastic about electronics shopping in the latest survey. The proportion of consumers who said they would definitely purchase a personal electronic device in the near future was off about five-and-a-half points to 33% from the 2016 survey, but the not-at-all-likely reading was flat at 5%. As such, most consumers will at least consider picking up an electronics item during the year and a third of them essentially plan to do so.
When asked what electronics they might consider purchasing in the months ahead, just over two-thirds of survey respondents identified a smartphone as the object of their interest. After that was a television, with 62% of respondents saying that they could make a purchase in the product category. Laptop, tablet and personal computers come in next. The jump down from televisions was significant, to about 40.7% in the most coveted computer, a laptop in this case. However, when they are considered together, computers continue to generate considerable interest.
One piece of good news for the home entertainment furniture segment is that, while other major categories are flat or a bit weaker year over year, more survey respondents said they are considering a television purchase this year versus last, when the proportion was 55.8%. Of course, television purchases tend to prompt furniture purchases.
More good new: 17% of survey respondents said they would definitely purchase furniture to house new electronics versus 11.5% in the 2016 version, and 26.3% said they very likely would buy this year versus 17.4% last year.
Consumers identified living/family room, adult bedroom and office or study as the three top rooms for electronics use, and in pretty much the same proportions as in 2016.
Survey respondents were fairly enthusiastic about buying accompanying furniture from the store where they might get their electronics this year, with 15.7% saying they would definitely and 24% saying they would very likely purchase from the same retailer versus 10.6% and 16.5%, respectively, in last year’s study.
Consumers seem to be loosening up the purse strings as regards home entertainment furniture. This year, 23.7% of consumers responding to the study said they would pay $350 or more for a piece of electronics-compatible furniture versus 20.9% in the survey previous. At the same time, 22.7% of respondents said they would pay $251 to $350 and 20.3% would pay $151 to $250 versus 15.6% and 19.5% in last year’s survey.
Although price always is a concern, survey respondents indicated they it isn’t necessarily the most important factor in the purchase of TV-related furniture, as style of furniture matching room décor was their top purchase consideration, at 53.3%. Price came in number two, well behind at 19.7% and unique features at 10%. Year over year, style gained about two points in terms of importance while price slipped by about the same amount.
About 14.7% of consumers responding to the survey said they would definitely purchase furniture to house a flat panel TV over the next year versus 16.3% a year earlier while 23.7% said they would very likely purchase a TV stand or related piece, versus 15.4% a year prior.
When considering a purchase of a flat panel TV of 50 inches or more, 17% of consumers surveyed said they would definitely and 28.7% said they would very likely purchase a piece of furniture to house it, up from 14.8% and 25.7% of respondents last year.
Consumers generally expressed receptiveness to a home entertainment system purchase. When asked about the prospect of a purchase in the product category, respondents more often said definitely and very likely than was the case last year.
When it comes to computers, 13.3% of survey respondents said they definitely would purchase furniture in conjunction with a device purchase as compared to 12.7% in 2016 and 20.3% said they were very likely to do so as compared to 17.5% last year.
In a perhaps unexpected twist, traditional furniture stores have became the foremost place survey respondents said they would shop for furnishings that support electronics use, at 29.7% this year versus 24.3% last year, replacing home electronics superstores, which fell to third place at 19% versus 28.9% last year. Climbing into the second slot are digital retailers at 26.7%, up from 21.5% in 2016. Of course, trouble in the home electronics superstore channel, such as the liquidation of hhgregg, may have played into the result.
Discount stores also tumbled, with 8.3% of respondents favoring the retail channel and down to fifth place trailing warehouse clubs at 9.7%. In proportional terms, discount stores slipped from a 12.6% reading while warehouse clubs gained from a 5.9% figure in the year-previous survey.
At a time when mixed materials are commonplace among new furniture offerings, half of consumers in the survey said they prefer products made from some combination of wood, metal and glass. It’s noteworthy that only 4% of survey respondents expressed a preference for metal and glass only. Wood and wood-based materials won the favor of 46% of consumers responding to the survey. Both wood and mixed constructions gained a bit from last year’s survey while the metal and glass preference fell from 9.5%.
Entertaining Spaces
As to how consumers entertain, the living and family rooms are the most likely spots for hosting guests at home, according to the survey. Family room benefited from a several points shift year over year from living room, but the combination of it and living room came up to roughly the same proportion year over year. Kitchen picked up a couple of points in the study from the 2016 study but other locations slipped slightly, even patio/balcony for all the introductions that outdoor and indoor/outdoor furniture have seen at furniture markets over the past year.
Still, many consumers do regard patios and balconies as places where they would like to entertain guests. When asked what furniture they might purchase over the next year to help them entertain guests, more consumers, 40%, cited patio furniture than they did any other category except accent chairs, 41.7%. Both of those furniture segments gained substantially from last year’s study when 20.8% of consumers said they were likely to purchase accent chairs and 22.4% planned to purchase patio furniture to help entertain guests.
When they consider entertaining, more consumers say they are likely to purchase in every category designated in the Home Entertainment Report survey— standard TV stands, electric fireplace TV stands, electric fireplace mantels, entertainment centers, accent chairs, accent tables, stools, folding furniture, dining furniture, kitchen island, bar cart and patio furniture— than was the case in the survey last year except for none of the above, which came in at half last year’s number.
As such, prospects for mass-market furniture sales in 2018 really do look pretty good.