Shoppers have been slow to embrace buying furniture online. Most pieces are a major investment they want to see before acquiring. For retailers, furniture is bulky and expensive to ship (and return and restock). Even Ikea, the master of flat-pack furniture, built its entire low-cost model on in-store shopping, and only recently began exploring ecommerce.
That said, retailers are having success with the furniture and home goods category online. We expect US retail ecommerce sales of furniture and home furnishings will hit $50.32 billion in 2018. That will account for just 9.6% of total retail ecommerce, but it will represent the fastest growth (18.2%) among product categories.
Williams-Sonoma and its portfolio of brands like West Elm and Pottery Barn sees roughly half of retail sales coming through ecommerce (52.8%), and digital-only Wayfair ranked 10th in US retail ecommerce sales ($4.23 billion) last year, also according to our estimates.
Where does Amazon fit into the picture? It's not necessarily the first retailer you think of when buying furniture, but by many measures, online shoppers are increasingly eschewing search engines like Google and going straight to Amazon.
Last year the ecommerce giant launched an Amazon Home section, which encompasses everything from bed and bath to home improvement to lawn and garden. It also debuted two private-label furniture brands: Rivet, described as midcentury modern, and Stone & Beam, which features “family-inspired casual comfort.” This isn't as aggressive of a play as in the fashion category, but indicates interest.
According to new data from One Click Retail, furniture sales on Amazon grew 51% year over year in 2017. Mattresses and box springs were the No. 1 category, rising 82% with $1.1 billion in sales. Bedroom furniture (45%) and living room furniture (40%) were next on the list.