Home Furnishings in France

PROSPECTS

Home furnishings suffers falling sales

The decline in housing, real estate and construction market in France did no favour for home furnishings in 2018. End of the year saw negative impact from social movement ‘gilets jaunes’ which encourages many consumers to collectively curtail shopping habits and deliberate more carefully when making investments in properties, with regards to both existing holdings and new acquisitions.

Kitchen and bedroom remain part of the main investment areas

With home furnishing budgets greatly downsized, practical minded French consumers continue to invest in both Kitchen and Bedroom upgrades, realizing the importance of home functionality and its effect on overall quality of life. Cooking is very important to the French and consequently, kitchen appliance sales continue steady.

Internet retailing increases in importance

While it remains a small retail channel overall, internet retailing continues to increase in importance as a distribution channel for home furnishings. Sales are rising as technologically advanced products are offered online at prices that are marginally lower than in stores, while online players are engaging in aggressive advertising campaigns in an effort to capture the interest of a consumer base who now spend a lot of time in front of computers and mobile devices.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Furniture specialists remain leading with different performances

Chained retailers continue to dominate the positions at the top of the leader board in home furnishings in France. Among the most prominent of these are IKEA, Conforama, BUT, Maisons du Monde, Schmidt and Fly, all of which operate chains of very popular stores that offer the complete range of home furnishings under one roof.

Internet pure-players set to gain further ground

Internet pure-players offering home furnishings have an increasingly prominent media advertising presence in France, with Made.com the prime example of this.

Dichotomy exists between low unit prices versus quality

The competitive landscape in home furnishings in France is largely defined by the stark dichotomy that exists between companies and brands that focus on offering high-quality, beautifully designed home furnishings at the higher end of the price spectrum; and those which pursue a strategy of offering basic items with neutral design features at the lowest possible prices. This mean that there are two major consumer groups for home furnishings: those who are looking for long-lasting furniture and textiles, often French-designed and French-made, that will be part of their home’s décor for many years on the one hand; and those who are looking for items to fulfil an immediate need.

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