With Sales Of Home Furnishings On The Rise, Retailers Like Article See 200% Growth

With people continuing to spend more time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, many are turning a closer eye on their home environments.

Retailers within the home furnishing industry are seeing the impact of this in the form of sales growth: Salesforce data from Q1 shows that digital revenue within the home goods space is up 51%.

What’s more: Searches for outdoor furnishings at CB2’s website are up more than 90% from last year, while sales at Revival Rugs are currently up 30% year-over-year, according to internal sources from both brands.

But these two retailers within the category aren’t unique outliers.

Direct-to-consumer home furnishing brand Article shared that April of 2020 was their highest revenue month to date, with sales up 200% compared to April of 2019. 

In addition, Aamir Baig, Article’s Co-Founder and CEO, shared that the brand saw a 2X increase in new and repeat customers that month as well.

A surge in consumer demand and orders placed doesn’t come without challenges, however.

In Article’s case, the business was well-positioned to meet increased demand in part because of a pure-play eCommerce model—which is powered by proprietary software that was developed in-house. 

This eCommerce model allowed the brand to quickly launch new initiatives (like contactless delivery and furniture bundles) in as little as 24 hours, which helps them stay agile during the COVID-19 crisis.

In-house logistics have also been crucial for Article being able to manage the increased sales volumes. 

Launched in January 2019 as part of the brand’s efforts to improve the end-to-end shopping experience for customers, having in-house delivery infrastructure (including 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space throughout the US and in Canada) meant they could maintain fast, safe delivery to customers while other retailers were scrambling to coordinate with external partners.

Through March and April of 2020, Article maintained a one to two-week shipping and delivery speed for customers, while others within the category (like Amazon
AMZN
) are operating on a two to eight-week shipping delay while more essential orders are given fulfillment priority.

The question now is: Will this demand for home goods, especially those ordered from direct-to-consumer brands online, continue as physical stores begin to re-open?

If you ask Ricardo Belmar, Senior Director of Global Enterprise Marketing at Infovista, there’s still a high level of concern about health and safety that remains—so it’s too soon to tell.

“The fact is: we’re not at the end of the pandemic yet; we’re still squarely in the middle, and safety issues will remain important in the eyes of many customers and employees for many months to come,” he said.

In Article’s case, they plan to continue with increased safety efforts in the coming weeks.

“As the world opens up a bit, we want to make sure we continue to act responsibly and proceed with the same caution we have over the last few weeks,” Baig said.

“This means maintaining the same health and safety protocols we’ve established for our frontline and HQ teams, and if anything, being more on guard due to higher social activity.”