How the Furniture Market is Being Changed by Millennials

Being in the furniture business has its benefits, it’s a reliable consumer need that is always going to be required. However, due to the frequency and popularity of sale periods such as “Black Friday” a once traditional market is changing and businesses in this sector need to adapt to the new world of online trade.

In a recent consumer survey conducted by Furniture Today, it has shown that millennials are now the dominant consumer group for furniture and bedding. Last year a massive 37% of the market were millennials, which has grown a dramatic 14% on the previous two years. Not only have they become the majority of spenders, millennials have also increased their spending by over double the amount to previous years, from $11 billion to $27 billion. These statistics are too high to ignore, retailers need to change their marketing strategies to have a focus on millennials.

Millennials have all the advantages when it comes to the online world, they have been born into modern technology and have a higher trust to order online from mobile devices. With internet access research can be easily executed to learn about a furniture companies feedback and how their products are sourced. The younger generations are more conscious of the environment and will look to use environmentally friendly products. Social media and their social status are more important to millennials than previous generations, talking about their purchases and showing them off is a frequent trend online. Because of current wages and the housing market, it is a lot harder for millennials to take on home ownership. Likely, younger generations will look for multi-functional furniture to accommodate their flats and small houses better.

These changes to the market need to be looked at by the furniture industry, although each change doesn’t go hand-in-hand with other areas mentioned usually millennials will fall into one category, whether it's shopping online, needing sustainable furniture or wanting more practical products. The industry needs to adapt, an example of a sector that struggles with millennials is wicker conservatory furniture, the assumption is that wicker products are found in the older generations conservatory and it isn’t a current desire. However, this isn’t the case, different companies are throwing money at SEO, social media and advertising companies to help bring the wicker sector into becoming popular. Changing the demographics interpretation of the sector has increased sales over time and continuing to focus on younger audiences will help avoid these issues occurring in the future

Although the assumption would be that most shoppers will want to see their furniture in person before purchasing, the internet in proving differently. Every year the furniture sector grows by around 2.9% and in 2018 e-commerce sales are likely to double from $15 billion to $32 billion and that’s just the US stats. In 2014 e-commerce sales were at 21% of the total sector's revenue, but this is expected to rise to 30% in 2018, proving more and more people are happy to order online before they’ve even seen their furniture.

In the US, the amount of furniture stores has dropped by around 20% since the start of the recession. Although the recession may have contributed to that fall, people wanting to shop online for cheaper products has most likely also contributed to the drop in physical stores.

The furniture industry isn’t just benefitting from millennials, but also the housing boom. Since the housing crash, more houses are being built to accommodate the rise in population. In recent studies, it has shown that although millennials are taking longer to purchase their first home the renting market is raising and with that comes furniture sales. Sales can come from owners renting their homes out or from people renting unfurnished rooms. It’s likely that the furniture sector gains either way but focusing on millennials is defiantly key to improved success.