More time at home drove growth for interior design
Furniture and interior design retail online has been extremely strong in 2020, with growth of 63 percent.
From being one of the more store-heavy product categories, the pandemic has resulted in a major shift in sales from physical to digital channels in the furniture and interior design sectors. E-commerce has also been consolidated during the year through Bygghemma-gruppen’s acquisition of Nordic Nest and Egmont’s upcoming acquisition of Royal Design.
Furniture retailers have also made major e-commerce investments to adapt the flow of goods to the digital channels. IKEA, for example, has started offering consumers the option to collect their products in a new drive-thru service. Kitchen and wardrobe planning is now also offered digitally and can be done from your sofa. When travel, restaurant visits and other consumption have been put on the back burner and at the same time more and more time is being spent at home, many people have taken the chance to update their home interiors. In addition to a newfound interest in interior design in general, there has been an upturn in buying new furniture as a result of the emergence of working from home. The pace of renovation has also been at high levels, and according to the Swedish Tax Agency, ROT (Repairs, Conversion, Extension) deductions increased by just over 10 percent in 2020.
The home furnishing sector also benefited when the darker evenings came and more and more people started decorating for Christmas earlier and more prolifically, to brighten up their everyday surroundings. Both Black Week and Black Friday were incredibly strong for the furniture and interior design sector. A large increase took place in e-commerce, and could be seen, among other things, at Cervera, whose online sales broke records during Black Week.
Source: The E-barometern annual report 2020
