In November, the furniture industry overcame lower foot traffic than November 2020 and increased nearly every metric.

Compared to November 2020, foot traffic was down 20% from an average of 27 customers last year to 22 this year. Compared to last month, foot traffic stayed consistent with an average of 22 opportunities in both October and November 2021.

With Black Friday and the holiday season resulting in people shopping with more intent rather than browsing, the conversion rate increased 19% year-over-year and increased 6% compared to October 2021. 

In addition to an increase in conversion, those people who did buy ended up spending more on average than they have in years past.  The average ticket in the furniture industry increased from $2,078 in November 2020 to $2,417 in 2021, a 16% increase. The increase in both conversion rate and average ticket resulted in daily revenue seeing a 4% increase year-over-year.

When it came to spending an adequate amount of time with customers, salespeople in the furniture industry spent an average of 3 extra minutes with each customer.

While we can always expect an increase in traffic on Black Friday, the last few years have proven it’s harder than usual to predict how much traffic will truly increase.

On average across all the industries, foot traffic was only down 2.69% since 2019, before the pandemic had started.  All things considered, we would consider that pretty impressive.

For the mattress and footwear industries, they saw an increase in foot traffic compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Compared to last year, every industry saw an increase in foot traffic.

The star of foot traffic this year was the footwear industry, which saw a 37% increase compared to 2109, and a 67% increase compared to 2020.

Overall, we are starting to see old shopping behaviors come back into fruition.

Earlier this week, ICSC released their Thanksgiving weekend Intentions Survey. It detailed how consumers plan to tackle their Thanksgiving week shopping.

The survey expects that Thanksgiving shoppers will spend $491 on average between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. That’s a total of over $108 billion for the weekend. 49% of consumers plan at shopping at brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving. 36% of Thanksgiving shoppers will decide where they shop based on discounts rather than brand loyalty.

For those who work in malls, the survey suggests that 59% of consumers will go there to shop, 47% will eat at a restaurant,  and 24% will see a movie.

In regards to Black Friday specifically, 73% of shoppers plan to shop in-store or online depending on where the deals take them. Even with sales being spread out over the past month, the tradition of shopping in-store with your friends and loved ones over Thanksgiving weekend is still not going away any time soon.

Last week, payment provider Square released its annual report on consumer trends and analysis on how people are navigating through retail in 2021.

Although Amazon has taken a major hold on retail, local brick-and-mortar stores still hold a special place in consumers’ hearts. As explained by David Rusenko, Head of eCommerce at Square, “Local shops offer many advantages over the warehouse approach of retail giants, like Amazon and Argos. Being physically close to their customers creates opportunities to shine, by understanding their wants and needs, and offering faster access to high quality selection of products” 

Despite people still finding their way into physical stores, Square’s report highlights that 97% of consumers now make monthly retail purchases online. While shopping on social platforms was seen as an experiment that wouldn’t last, now we are seeing a shocking 73% of consumers buying from social platforms at least once a month.

As I think everyone can agree with, there is a sense of joy that comes from shopping in person that cannot be matched with online shopping.  The instant satisfaction of getting your product is something that will never go away. And because of that, nearly 50% of retailers now offer next-day delivery.

Going forward, analysts are expecting online shopping to go hand and hand with physical stores as a complement to them as opposed to replacing them.

Black Friday has made the shift from a sprint, to a marathon. Waiting until Black Friday to offer deals or to do shopping of your own is quickly becoming the old way to do things.

With the combination of supply difficulties, worker shortages, and the ever-changing trends of shoppers, Black Friday is no longer symbolic of a day of crazy sales, but instead a month-long sales event.

In 2020, Black Friday sales began as early as October and did not end until early December. On average, prices were reduced by 48% for retailers in the US as many retailers had a surplus of inventory that needed to go, in contrast to 2021 where inventory has become scarce.

In 2021, the overarching message is to shop early to avoid disappointment. Thankfully for retailers, who can feel pressured to give big deals, most companies have reduced their discounts to the 5-25% range this year as supply chain issues make it increasingly hard to offer door-buster deals.

Despite the challenges, shoppers are still eager to get out of the house and start hunting for deals in person.

Despite overly congested ports, retail analysts expect holiday sales in 2021 to reach an all-time high.

The National Retail Federation said it expects holiday sales during November and December to rise between 8.5% and 10.5%, for a total of between $843.4 billion and $859 billion of sales.

 Holiday retail sales have increased by 4.4% on average over the past five years, with last year’s holiday sales increasing 8.2% from 2019 to $777.3 billion.

This prediction comes from the fact that a majority of consumers have found ways to comfortably navigate their shopping during the pandemic, while last year, shoppers were still wary about going out into public spaces.

1 in 6 shoppers have already started their holiday shopping, and 57% plan to spend as much or more than last year.  For the shoppers who still aren’t fully comfortable going into stores, e-commerce is expected to rise between 11% and 15% with many shoppers still utilizing curbside pickup and home deliveries.

As we all know, no two shoppers are the same. There are endless shopping personalities and habits that consumers have. Some people wait last minute to buy holiday gifts, while others are constantly buying gifts throughout the year as they find deals.

Before we discuss the best ways to sell to different shopping personas, first we need to understand the different types of personas. First, we have the evergreen shopper. Similar to evergreen trees, evergreen shoppers are around all year finding and stockpiling gifts for when the time to gift arises. When trying to cater an experience for evergreen shoppers, constant nurturing throughout the year is the way to go.

Next, we have the supersaver or deal hunter.  These shoppers are most likely to buy between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Although, with deals being offered earlier and earlier over the past few years, we have seen a slight decline in super-saver shoppers.  

Lastly, we have the early bird and last-minute shoppers. As the name implies, these shoppers either jump the gun and shop before sales even start or last-minute who shop when the year-end deals come out swinging. Last year, 70% of shoppers went in-store the week before Christmas Eve to get their last-minute gifts. Conversely, many shoppers remember the nightmare of inventory issues and gifts arriving well after Christmas, which has turned many last-minute shoppers into early birds in hopes of not being the “sorry, your gift is on the way” person.

With the combination of the pandemic causing social distancing, supply issues, and a variety of different shopping personas, the one-day sale is becoming a thing of the past with sales spreading across the year yielding more sales for retailers.

As the summer heat waves come to an end, the average daily traffic per store decreased 21% year-over-year from 27.6 in 2020 to 21.7 in Q3 of 2021. In comparison to Q2 2021, foot traffic is down 7%.

Salespeople made the most out of the lack of foot traffic and converted 38% of their opportunities into sales.  Q3 2021 average conversion rate was up 10% year-over-year, with September having the highest conversion rate year-to-date.

The average ticket in Q3 is where we see a major improvement from 2020. Q3 average revenue per transaction was $2,383, up 22% from 2020 which had an average ticket of $1,951. In comparison to Q2 2021, the average ticket has increased by 8%.

Despite a significant drop in foot traffic, average daily revenue for Q3 increased 3.5% for an average of $18,992 in Q3 2021. Although there was only a $100 difference between July 2020 and 2021, August and September is where sales started to see an uptick. 

As we all know, it takes time to build a relationship with a potential customer. The average time spent with customers was 44 minutes in 2021, up 5% from Q3 2020.  

Download the full report to see an in-depth look at Q3 2021.

September was a month for the books in the furniture industry.

Despite a drop in foot traffic compared to the same time last year and last month, the furniture industry reached yearly highs for multiple metrics including sales conversion, average ticket, and daily revenue.

Foot traffic was down 25% year over year, yet salespeople took on the challenge and increased their conversion by 17%. A conversion rate of 39% is a 5% increase over the previous yearly high of 37.4% in July 2021.

Not only were salespeople converting sales at a higher rate, but they also found a way to sell more with each sale. The average ticket saw a 23% increase over September 2021, and a 5% increase over the previous month, which was the highest average ticket month thus far this year.

Up until September, May 2021 was the month to beat when it came to daily revenue with an average daily revenue of $19,728.41. With the help of salespeople making the most out of less foot traffic, September 2021 had an average daily revenue of $20,239.34 for the furniture industry.

Overall, September was a high-performing month where salespeople showed how more foot traffic isn’t always the answer to make more sales.