The retail channel’s annual end-of-summer sales event proved to be better than expected for independent appliance and furniture and bedding retailers across the country. Foot traffic to stores and dollars spent were up, according to multiple industry sources. This comes at a time when economic pressures are starting to lessen with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates this week for the first time since 2020.

The economy isn’t out of the woods yet, in terms of a turnaround and especially with a contentious election still just a few weeks away. But the early returns from the weekend set the independent retail channel up for what could be a strong finish to what’s otherwise been a rather bleak year.

Growth during the holiday continues a recent trend in the larger retail channel, as recently noted by the National Retail Federation after the release of the August 2024 Retail Monitor.

“Retail sales data shows that consumers continued to spend on household priorities in August,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said last week. “Even with slower employment growth, unemployment is near historical lows and ongoing job and wage gains coupled with lower inflation should keep consumers on solid footing heading into the holiday season.”

Let’s take a closer look at some of the key figures to come out of the Labor Day promotional period across the different retail categories.

Home Appliances

Labor Day marked the second promotional period in a row (and second of the year) in which independent retailers saw year-over-year growth in both total revenue and number of units sold, according to data from Nationwide Marketing Group’s proprietary PriMetrix platform. Total volume was up over 4 percent for the 21-day Labor Day promotional period, while total units sold was up 0.6 percent.

From a category perspective, refrigeration saw the biggest year-over-year gains with volume up 7.3 percent compared to Labor Day last year. That was followed by Laundry (up 5.6 percent), Dishwashers (up 4.2 percent) and Cooking (up 1.1 percent).

And no matter the time of year, the home appliance category is known to be driven by the duress shopper – the consumer who’s in the market for a new appliance simply because they need to replace a broken one. Recent data has shown that this year, roughly 75 percent of all appliance sales have been made under duress. Consider it a win, then, that during the Labor Day period, NMG’s data shows that roughly 66 percent of appliance sales were single-piece packages – likely duress shoppers. What that shows is that, even if another 9 percent of shoppers are coming in under duress, the independent channel is adept at upselling those consumers into two-piece or more packages.

Furniture

The furniture industry saw their biggest gains in just the sheer volume of shoppers walking through their doors. According to data from Trakwell.ai, furniture retailers saw an average of 51 visitors per day over the four-day weekend, an 81 percent increase compared to 2023 data. Labor Day Monday was the busiest day with an average of 68 customers, up 78 percent from last year.

Average ticket size and daily revenue were also moderately up year-over-year for the category, according to Trackwell.ai. Ticket size hovered around $2,394 (up 12 percent from last year), while daily revenue averaged a little more than $37,300 (up 10 percent).

On the flip side of things, with more consumers walking through their doors, furniture retailers did experience a falloff in their conversion rates compared to last year. Sales conversions were down around 12 percent over the course of the weekend, hovering between 40 and 48 percent throughout the holiday weekend.

Mattresses

The story was much the same for the mattress retail industry over the Labor Day weekend. Trackwell.ai found that traffic and spending were up in 2024.

On the traffic side, mattress retailers saw an average of nine visitors per day during the four-day weekend, up 55 percent compared to last year, Trackwell.ai reported. The busiest days, again, were Monday and Saturday.

Average ticket was an area of significant growth this year in the mattress category, a sign that consumers were willing to invest more in their sleep systems this year and strong step-up promotions from bedding manufacturers. Throughout the weekend, mattress retailers saw an average ticket size of $2,827, according to Trackwell.ai, a bump of roughly 33 percent year-over-year.

Daily revenue during the period was actually down 12 percent this year, coming in at around $8,850 per day. That correlates with slightly softer closing rates that were down 9 percent this year but still remained consistently above 60 percent throughout the weekend.