Comscore: A look at the numbers behind online home furnishings sales

Jenny Heinzen York -- Casual Living, 11/16/2010 3:55:34 PM

CHICAGO — The online marketplace is growing, and furnishing sales along with it, according to Jennifer Vlahavas, senior director of Comscore, a digital marketing media intelligence provider.

Her presentation at the Sandow Media Online Technologies Conference in Chicago looked at the overall world of e-commerce, then drilled down to furnishings-specific data.

Comscore uses a 2 million member panel of consumers, representing more than 170 countries and 43 markets, to gather its data.

According to its data, following a soft 2009, total e-commerce sales through Q2 2010 were up 7% versus a year ago. Last year recorded $209 billion in online sales.

Also notable, e-commerce continues to gain share of retail spending, hitting 8.1% of overall sales in the first quarter of 2010.

The middle-income segment ($50,000-$99,000 household income), which had shown little signs of growth in prior quarters, grew at a rate of 11% in Q3 versus a year ago; it contributed 5% of the total e-commerce growth for the third quarter of 2010.

When it comes to researching products online, six in 10 consumers say the Internet has become important when making buying decisions, and 59% of them say that has increased in the past year, according to Comscore research.

"Consumers are becoming more comfortable buying bigger ticket items online, and that shows in the total spend," Vlahavas said.

In the first eight months of 2010, online home furnishings sales showed strong growth over 2009 - up 10.1% to reach more than $2.7 billion, she said.

Vlahavas said about half of consumers will abandon an online shopping cart if free shipping is not offered. But, 66% of those said they would be more likely
to continue their purchase if special pricing or discounts/rewards on future purchases were offered.

Among the home furnishings sites popular with the Comscore panelists, Ikea was by far the most visited, followed by Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. The
strongest year-over-year growth was posted by Rent-a-Center, up 32% for 2010.

Flash sale sites, such as OneKingsLane.com, HauteLook.com and Gilt.com, all also showed significant growth in 2010, up more than 100% each as the flash sale
trend continues to build momentum.

"Flash sale sites are becoming a new way to shop online and for consumers to feel smart about the way they shop," Vlahavas said.

She also got into details about the online search for furniture.

She reported 18.5 million searches on furniture so far in 2010, an 8% growth increase in terms of searches and 11% increase over 2009 in the number of
searchers entering the term "Furniture." All households with income of more than $25,000 increased their share of searches by double-digits, while the strongest growth came in the 55-64 age group, which was up 16%.

While search (paid keywords, for example) was more effective than display advertising, the most effective home furnishings promoters online use a combination of search and display advertising, Vlahavas said.

The top home furnishings advertisers by total display impressions are La-Z-Boy, Sleepy's, Ashley Home Stores, RC Willey, Wal-Mart, Pier 1 and Value City.