One-Fifth of Secondhand Shoppers Bought Pre-Owned Furniture Last Year

As retailers see consumers trim spending on large-ticket items, many shoppers are turning to secondhand channels to make large purchases such as home furnishings.

By the Numbers

For the “Consumers Shop Secondhand Stores as Often as Other Retail” installment of the “Consumer Inflation Sentiment Report” series, PYMNTS Intelligence surveyed more than 2,300 U.S. consumers to understand how inflation and increasing retail prices changed their shopping behavior.

The study found that among the 43% of consumers who used secondhand channels to make retail purchases last year, 1 in 5 did so to buy furniture. That share jumped to 38% for bridge millennials (older millennials and younger members of Generation X) and 34% for millennials.

The Data in Context

Retailers, for their part, are noticing consumers pull back on buying new furniture.

Take, for instance, Big Lots. President and CEO Bruce Thorn told analysts Thursday (June 6) during a call discussing the discount home goods retailer’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings results that the company has seen pressure in the category.

“Although we’ve seen solid results out of our extreme bargain offers, our overall results have been muted due to our high assortment mix in the home furnishing categories where even though we’ve held share, there has been a significant consumer pullback in big-ticket items, particularly within the furniture and patio furniture categories,” Thorn said.

Across the furniture industry, brands are seeing this downturn, as Hooker Furnishings CEO Jeremy Hoff highlighted on the company’s Q1 fiscal 2025 earnings call Thursday.

“Year over year industry-wide, U.S. furniture store sales compared to the prior year same month have fallen for 14 consecutive months, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau,” Hoff said. “Our first quarter was disappointing as the industry-wide weak demand, which began last year, persisted.”

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