by New always wins in retail, and old, vintage, antique and second-hand are the new
For more than 20 years retail strategist Connie Post has been counseling her furniture store clients that “new always wins.” That makes the news that in the coming expansion of her Jamestown, N.C., furniture store she is planning a selection of vintage furnishings a bit surprising.
“I’ve designed successful bedding departments and concepts for other retailers for decades, and I’ve decided to add one to Affordable Design Furnishings which means adding square footage,” says Post, who uses her store as a laboratory to test her concepts. “The twist is that the mattresses will be merchandised with vintage pieces for the bedroom and all kinds of unique accessories.”
According to Post, there is a clear and growing trend among younger consumers regularly shopping thrift and vintage outlets. “They feel strongly about supporting the future health of the planet, and to them that means reusing, refurbishing and simply not buying ‘new.’ This perplexes many parents, especially some of my retailer friends who can afford to buy their kids new and can’t quite get their heads around the fact that their kids are shopping this way. Really, it’s funny when you think about it, because so many of my contemporaries grew up in the ‘60s when we all thought buying vintage was cool.”
Post believes that mainline furniture retailers will ignore this trend at their peril. “It’s important to pay attention because these younger consumers will be representing more and more of our customer base in the future, but the key now is that they are already influencing their parents and grandparents, your current customers.”
And the surveys say…
New research from First Insight, which works with some of the world’s leading brands and consumer products companies, suggests Post is on to something big. In a trio of surveys of 1,000 consumers and more than 50 retailers performed in conjunction with the J. Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School fielded over the past three months, the company found that the vast majority of Generation Z shoppers say sustainability is more important than brand name when making purchase decisions. Additionally, Generation Z is influencing the older generations—Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials—to place more importance on sustainability in their purchasing decisions.
But the most startling fact to emerge from the series of studies may be that a clear disconnect exists between consumers of all ages and retail executives in regard to shopping preferences, especially in the case of sustainably produced goods.
“What struck us is that there was a dramatic difference between what retail executives thought and what consumers actually say,” relates Jim Shea, chief commercial officer of First Insights. “Essentially, two-thirds of consumers said they would be willing to pay more for sustainable products, whereas the responses from the executives were flipped. Two-thirds of the retailers, the majority of which were specialty stores and direct-to-consumer entities, thought that consumers would not pay more. Yet the surveys found that they not only would, but there has been a significant increase over the past two years in terms of the percentage of consumers across all the generations that say they are willing to pay at least 10% more for sustainable products.”
When it comes to big-ticket items like furniture, 10% translates to significant dollars left on the table. “So much of the sustainability conversation in our business has focused on manufacturer’s processes,” Post says. “But look for example at what IKEA is doing now, selling refurbished furniture and encouraging the circular economy. They know this is a huge opportunity for furniture retailers, and they are figuring it out.”
Susan Inglis, executive director of the Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC) concurs. “These enlightening surveys from First Insight back up our conviction that furniture retailers would do well to participate in the circular economy and to tout their efforts in messaging to the customers. Our own research shows that 90% of consumers would choose eco-friendly furnishings, provided of course, that they like the style and the price is within their budget.”
Inglis also points to data from First Insight that found 46% of consumers prefer to purchase and sell through brand or retail-operated resale platforms. “That is a huge opportunity for our industry, especially in these times of persistently constrained supply chains,” she says. “There has never been a better time to deal in second-hand furniture as a supplement to newly manufactured collections. Shopping second hand is fun for the consumer, inspiring for the designer and profitable for the retailer.”
“Bingo!” says Post. “I would tell any retailer having trouble wrapping their heads around this to start with your clearance center. Include recycled items that you can tell a story about, and you’ll find yourself selling to a crowd that is hungry for the merchandise and the stories you tell about it.”
“Let’s face it,” Shea adds. “Gen Z is very mobile, they are changing jobs all the time, and in the urban centers in particular, they are doing things like ‘stooping,’ (slang for finding furniture and other goods on curbs) or using rental companies like Feather which is like Rent the Runway for furniture. And we know they are antiquing and shopping in thrift and vintage shops, trends that have all ramped up during the pandemic due to the broken supply chain, but more importantly, because these consumers are placing such an importance on sustainable materials and practices. Gen Z in particular really calls out sustainable manufacturing as a factor that is very important to them, at least as important, if not more so than the use of sustainable materials.”
“It’s not just younger consumers. We need to think about their parents too,” Post says. “Your existing customers who may not want to frequent auctions or even be inclined to, but they would likely welcome the opportunity to continue giving you their business. And if this all sounds woo-woo and fringe-y, bear in mind that when anybody buys something new, they often have to get rid of something old, so you need to build that too into your business model.”
Hammering out new approaches
For her part, Inglis says the SFC has taken note of the research findings and “wants to be sure the industry as a whole understands how we can help. Our own nearly annual consumer research also shows that consumers are particularly concerned about sustainability issues, and they are often more aware than most sales professionals that the furniture industry has a particularly large environmental footprint because of global manufacturing. We burn a lot of fossil fuels both in factory production and in transporting materials and goods all over the globe — resulting in more C02 emissions than many others, and consumers know this. They also understand that we use a lot of adhesives and finishes, all of which off-gas, and compromise the quality of our indoor environments.”
If all this sounds a bit overwhelming to executives already stretched with multiple, unprecedented challenges, consider that the SFC “offers copious resources to companies, especially its member companies,” Inglis says.” At the same time, we have daily engagement with consumers who come to our website looking for eco-friendly products and make use of the product finder on our home page in their search for more eco-friendly furnishings.”
Not incidentally, the SFC’s research has also found that consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable goods. “But too often, they do not know when the furniture they are considering actually has these attributes, because retailers and sales associates aren’t always telling the story,” she notes.
In Post’s eyes, that supports the case for improved storytelling, as well as the exploration of additional marketing and merchandising opportunities. “The First Insight research studies have found that secondary market shopping popularity is soaring across all generations,” she says. “We know that third-party and brand-operated resale and recommerce are the most popular sustainable retail models. We know that consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable brands and products than retailers expect. And while pricing and affordability continue to be important, especially to Gen Z, all generations prefer to shop sustainably out of concern for the planet and a preference for sustainability and circular shopping.
“For all of these reasons I would encourage everyone to take advantage of all the resources that SFC has to offer,” Post says. “They provide research to member companies at no cost, and other benefits of membership include training for sales staff to help them understand eco attributes and to empower them to speak about them effectively in their sales presentations. GREENleaders education is available online anytime — I’ve taken advantage of it myself—and their monthly Sustainability Essentials series, which runs live on the third Thursday of each month at noon EST is recorded and posted on SFC’s YouTube channel where it can be viewed for free. Again, I would say, all this valuable research points up significant opportunities for mainline retailers to tell a new story and engage more customers and we’re foolish to ignore it.
“The bottom line is that new always wins in retail, and old, vintage, antique and second-hand are the new things now. Get onboard!”
