This is a tricky one as people seek to look at and feel such significant purchases. (Significant in terms of amount of money and impact on their everyday lives.) However more and more consumers are choosing to buy digitally first – the pandemic has only enforced this. Augmented reality and improved online product information will accelerate the transformation.

The key words are “rationalizing the store count,” “feel” (of the fabric), “stay-at-home trends” and one or two others. This points a rebalancing of the sales by channel. There are many home goods items that can easily be purchased online, and will be. The bottom-line prediction: fewer but more profitable stores and more online sales. What is wrong with that?

Everything has become more digital because of the pandemic, and some of that shift will stick around into the years ahead. However this year only 17.7 percent of total home spend (which includes home improvement as well as homewares and furniture) will be online, so it is very much short of being digital-first. Stores also play a vital role in supporting many online sales, including for browsing, tactile interactions, and getting advice. In short, the role of the store is far from dead in the home category.

Fit and feel and scale will always be important in home furnishings, just like they are in apparel. But a number of AI and VR apps I have seen lately look like they will greatly enhance the shopping process for home furnishings. Being able to populate a VR room with various furniture options is going to be table stakes, but the stores’ role in confirming all the shopping homework will still be vital. There just won’t be as many of them.

Before the pandemic struck, digital and virtual shopping were emerging forces as part of the end-to-end customer journey. While the narrative has changed with the great digital COVID-19 acceleration, Home furnishings is far from a digital-first business operating model. Most customers still want to touch, feel, and experience the products in person.

We should expect digital home furnishings commerce to gain prominence, especially with e-commerce representing 16 percent of the overall retail commerce pie. However in a post COVID-19 pandemic world, we should expect a hybrid physical and digital model. Most pre-shopping and research are completed online; however most conversions will still occur in a physical space for the foreseeable future.

We are told to be capable of holding two opposing ideas in our minds at once. Why? Because very often the truth a combination of the two.

I cannot believe that Williams-Sonoma is unable to hold the “mix” idea together and seems to need to believe the world is either digital-first of bricks-first.

It’s not. Brick and clicks thrive together and survive together. History shows that by making clicks first, a company is embracing doom.

Let’s hope wiser heads prevail. I know it’s difficult to look at what’s going on today and have it all make sense. But making one’s long-term choices based on short-term pandemic economics is a sign of weak strategic thinking. I’m disappointed.

I think signature pieces of furniture for living rooms and bedrooms are tough to buy online. Office furniture got a boost from all the work-from-home demand, but I personally won’t buy a sofa that will last me 10 years without seeing it in a showroom. Smaller accessories, side tables, and shelves I can see moving a lot online.

In the short term everyone is buying online. Who knows where that will land once the pandemic is under control? I agree with TJX’s CEO: not everyone wants to buy online. Personally I am okay with home decor accessories, but not with a significant furniture purchase. For that I need to see it, sit on it, feel the fabric, look at its size to see if it will work in our home, etc. I think too many are all rushing to push a world where every purchase is made online and, frankly, I don’t think that will happen. People still want a brick-and-mortar experience.

Home furnishing and decor is a pretty broad category. The logistics of shipping big-and-bulky items like furniture varies greatly from smaller items like vases and pillows. I can absolutely see a continued shift in the latter moving online. For the bigger items, I wonder if more stores will move towards the showroom-store model focused on experience—to allow customers to sit on their future couch before purchasing—but then the transaction is made online. The perk for consumers is not having to transport, but that results in higher freight and final-mile costs for the retailer.

There will always be a mix of digital and in-store buying for home goods products. It will vary based on which products we’re looking at — furniture pieces, despite Wayfair’s pandemic success, will still favor store-based buying, but many decor products will shift to online first. We can’t underestimate the difference that age demographics can make in this respect. The notion of “impulse buying” when you see a product you “must-have” can be quite different across demographics that have grown up buying online first for every product category. Yet there will be many others who will never feel right buying that next sofa online without sitting in it first in a showroom! The idea of right-sizing your store count makes sense, however. I believe what the Williams Sonoma CFO said could be a bit oversimplified. You can’t ignore that when you close stores in a region, you risk cutting off some of your online sales as well because you’re now out of mind for that customer segment. However, Williams Sonoma is in a good position… Read more »

Almost every other category is moving to digital first, so I don’t see home furnishings being any different. The main obstacle with ordering furniture online is the return process. Things can look very different in person and the key to keeping this under control is excellent photography, videos, and product reviews. If you’re missing any of those, your business could be in for a major returns debacle.