Blog: Online channel grabs 21% share; sleep shops, furniture stores drop

Time：2019-10-12 16:37:21    Share：

That is a blockbuster figure, one that represents retail sales of about $3.4 billion in the $16.4 billion retail bedding marketplace last year.

The online category is growing rapidly. It has more than tripled its share in just four years, jumping from a 6% share in 2014 to that 21% share last year. We update these distribution figures every other year.

Needless to say, no other distribution channel can match the soaring growth rate recorded by the online channel. In fact, only one other channel recorded growth from 2016 to 2018, and that was the “other” channel that includes Big Lots and Walmart.

Significantly, the two biggest channels for bedding distribution — bedding specialty stores and furniture stores — once again lost market share. The online growth has largely come at their expense.

Bedding specialty stores saw their share drop by six percentage points last year, to 39%. Furniture stores saw their share drop three percentage points, to 27%. Department stores lost one percentage point of market share, to 4%.

Since 2014, bedding specialty stores have lost eight percentage points of market share, and furniture stores have lost seven percentage points. That combined 15 percentage points of share loss happens to be the same as the 15 percentage points of share gain recorded by the online channel in that same time period.

If the current trends continue, the online channel will become the largest bedding distribution channel in the next three or four years. I’m not ready to make that prediction just yet, but I do think the online channel has a lot more disruption in its future.