TRENDS

Furniture

• Some segments, such as mattresses and bedding are seeing an opportunity since the bankruptcies of Sears and Mattress Firm, events that show that having a store, inventory, and promotional saturation are not keys to sustainable success.
•  Restoration Hardware shifted its brand to be more expensive and fashionable, created bigger stores, and created a memorable and radical brand and created a "must-visit" store or website.
•  AR is one of the biggest trends that allows a shopper to interact with the pieces online, rotating them and being able to place them in a real living space to make important buying decisions while at home and with family, making them more confident and drives e-commerce sales.
• More people are renting their homes, which will cause furniture rental businesses like Rent_A_Center to trend upwards into 2020. Thus, more people are looking for smaller, streamlined, and multipurpose furniture.
• As the younger demographic groups become harder to reach through traditional mediums, social media influencers may drive brand perception more than TV ads. AR and 3D configuration are also efficient sales tools.

Bedding/Mattresses

•  Smart mattresses and a focus on health and wellness are current and future mattress trends. Diamond innovations revamped its product line with four bed-in-a-box models, branding, and a new website that educates the customer, connects them to a nearby store or associate for assistance, and order from their own home with the benefit of free shipping and returns, white glove delivery, and a forever warranty.
• The younger generations are more likely to purchase foam mattresses than spring mattresses and would prefer to buy beds vacuum-sealed in a box, from innovative brands such as Diamond Mattress Company.
• With the rise of diagnoses of sleep conditions such as sleep apnea, mattresses with a health and wellness focus try innovations such as cooling technologies, thermal alarms, sleep trackers, and integration with other smart home devices such as Nest and Alexa.
• Existing brands like Sleep Number and former bed-in-a-box brand Casper have repositioned themselves as a modern health and wellness companies while opening experiential locations. Sleep Number offers five different experiences and interactive technology to provide the customer with dynamic sleep data and product information.

Kitchen/Cookware/Cutlery

• Wayfair analyzed thousands of search trends over 10 million products and found top kitchen trends to be rustic styles like farmhouse frenzy, chic black and black matte finishes for faucets and sinks, gold-toned faucets and fixtures, and space-saving floating vanities that keep clutter out of sight.
•  Cookware trends show colors, the continued popularity of copper, and adaptable cookware (smaller, stackable) for smaller living spaces.

Marketing

• Home decor company, Wayfair, quickly began running campaigns with pictures of staged, at-home settings on Instagram, and essentially transformed their checkout process using the medium's Shopping update feature that automatically tags products in photos with a price and way to order. Instagram's platform is credited with remaking part of Wayfair's business model in demonstrating that the presentation of content optimized for social media channels is as important as the content itself and showing the need for brands to make use of new technologies and retail capabilities, The integration of these methods led to a three-fold increase in their site traffic via social channels.
• Graphics and CGI-empowered visuals draw attention to social media campaigns such as those on Instagram.
• Restoration Hardware does not use social media platforms like Instagram directly. Instead, it generates buzz on the platform through its luxury stores and print catalog, which it considers as its marketing.
• Branding "private-label lifestyle collections" is a growing trend in the home furnishings market, as demonstrated by Walmart, Target, and Wayfair. Wayfair recently opened its first outlet store, while others like Ikea use smaller showrooms and testing city-center locations. Space showcases the brand, but the ultimate fulfillment of inventory comes from cheaper warehouse spaces.

E-Commerce

• In addition to social media platforms, earnings of home furnishings websites continue into double digits at 11.3%, and by 2021, 27% of total revenue will come from online sales.
•  CGI visual marketing and product customization are e-commerce trends that allow consumers to tailor-make their products and take part in the creative process. AR is one of the biggest trends that gives the consumer the chance to see the product by downloading to a mobile app and making sure the product fits.

RESEARCH STRATEGY