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Wayfair to open a 150,000-square-foot store in Atlanta: The retailer鈥檚 physical stores act as three-dimensional billboards, driving sales by keeping the brand front-of-mind.

Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Wayfair launch spring sales: Retailers are likely to lean on tentpole events to drive cost-conscious shoppers to spend.

Wayfair is in a tough spot: A weak housing market and economic headwinds are shifting consumers鈥� focus away from home furnishings.

Wayfair pivots from Germany to focus on physical retail: The country鈥檚 challenging economic climate is one reason the retailer is reallocating resources to areas with better long-term potential.

The number of US homes changing hands is incredibly low: That poses a challenge to housing-related retailers like Wayfair.

Wayfair, Amazon鈥檚 October sales events delivered outsize results: The home furnishings retailer鈥檚 sales were up nearly 46% compared with the prior 4-week average, while Amazon鈥檚 sale drove a 26% lift.

Wayfair is actively testing the impact of increased ad load on conversion, highlighting its focus on turning media into a scalable, high-margin revenue stream. Early results: US consumers鈥� rush to buy home furnishings before tariffs caused prices to rise, helping Wayfair deliver strong results in Q1.

Wayfair. Wayfair released a new AI-powered app called Muse, designed to help shoppers visualize furniture and decor in their homes. The app allows users to enter prompts like "Moody 1920s-style living room" and generates scenes featuring Wayfair products.

Case in point: Wayfair is expanding its footprint after its Illinois sales grew 15% faster than the national average after it opened a store just north of Chicago in May 2024. Harry & David, after shuttering stores in 2020, has returned with pop-ups and a new permanent location on Long Island, with an eye toward opening more stores this year.

At the same time, many furniture retailers鈥攊ncluding Wayfair and RH鈥攁re reliant on Vietnam and China for sourcing, leaving them (and their customers) vulnerable to tariffs. The toy industry is also vulnerable. Asia is a popular manufacturing destination for Crayola, Hasbro, Mattel, and Funko.

Wayfair laid off 340 tech workers, as it downsizes in response to the difficult market for furniture and home goods. Saks Global will lay off 5% of its corporate employees following its merger with Neiman Marcus, in addition to job losses related to its decision to close the latter鈥檚 flagship Dallas store.

Case study: Take Wayfair, for example, which has been increasing its ad spending. The home furnishings retailer said its advertising expenses rose 5% YoY in 2024. Advertising spending equaled 12.4% of the company鈥檚 net revenues last year, up from 11.6% the year before鈥攈ighlighting how even established furnishings players are investing more just to maintain visibility and drive sales.

In this report, we鈥檒l contextualize retailers鈥� Q3 revenues across four key verticals: department stores (Kohl鈥檚, Macy鈥檚, Nordstrom); home (Home Depot, Lowe鈥檚, Wayfair); mass merchants (Amazon, Target, Walmart); and off-price (Burlington, Nordstrom Rack, Ross Stores, TJX). Kohl鈥檚 and Macy鈥檚 relevance fades as shoppers go upscale or off-price.

That could create even worse headaches for retailers like Wayfair and Best Buy that rely on discretionary spend. Our take: The frozen housing market will eventually thaw. In the meantime, housing-related companies should take proactive steps to position themselves for future growth.

Our take: The ecommerce data is a welcome bit of good news amid a challenging environment that recently led Wayfair to close up shop in Germany to focus on faster-growing markets. This article is part of 蘑菇AV鈥檚 client-only subscription Briefings鈥攄aily newsletters authored by industry analysts who are experts in marketing, advertising, media, and tech trends.

A host of retailers鈥攊ncluding Save A Lot, Lowe's, and Wayfair鈥攈ave recently launched or revamped US loyalty programs. This effort comes as US consumers held an average of 19 loyalty program memberships per person in 2024鈥攖he highest rate in 10 years, according to The Bond Loyalty Report.

With elevated interest rates curtailing consumers鈥� desire鈥攁nd ability鈥攖o purchase a home or finance large-scale renovation projects, retailers like Home Depot, Lowe鈥檚, and Wayfair are feeling the pain. Off-price retailers like TJX, Ross Stores, and Nordstrom Rack are thriving amid the current era of economic uncertainty.

US retail marketplace ecommerce sales will grow 11.4% to reach $428.30 billion this year, per our forecast. Because Amazon (73.4%) and eBay (8.2%) will rake in the majority of those sales, smaller marketplaces like Shein, Michaels, and Wayfair are getting creative and taking the battle for sales in-store.

Early adopters like Sephora, Wayfair, and the NBA have successfully used the new tools for targeted campaigns. In addition, Reddit announced that Integral Ad Science鈥檚 integration into its limited inventory safety tier achieved 99% brand safety scores across 500 million North American impressions in Q4 2024. The IAS partnership was announced last June.

Retail job cuts pile up: Even as Macy鈥檚, Wayfair, and Stitch Fix cut staff, other retailers have good reason to feel optimistic about 2024.

TikTok and Meta continue to diverge on social commerce strategies, Pinterest teams up with Wayfair on a data clean room test, and YouTube introduces unskippable ads.