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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.

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.

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

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.

Wayfair also debuted a new loyalty program, which will cost $29 a year and offer 5% back in rewards. Lowe鈥檚 recently added a new feature to its loyalty program, Lowe鈥檚 Digital Home Platform. This platform gives members access to free, personalized information about products in their homes, including warranties, manuals, maintenance suggestions, and how-to content.

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.

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.

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.

That鈥檚 had a trickle-down effect on retailers and brands ranging from Home Depot to Wayfair to Sherwin-Williams. So far, the US Federal Reserve鈥檚 interest rate cuts have done little for mortgage rates, which more closely track yields on 10-year Treasury bonds.

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.

Better-than-expected earnings for Etsy and eBay give retailers a glimmer of hope: But continued losses for Wayfair and Peloton show some categories have a longer, difficult road to recovery.

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.

As a result, a wide swath of companies that sell housing-related products鈥攊ncluding home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Lowe鈥檚, consumer electronics retailers like Best Buy, and furniture sellers like Wayfair鈥攕uffered. Making it cheaper to borrow money could drive more consumers to splurge on big-ticket items like TVs.

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.

Tighter economic climate forces companies to focus on profitability: The paradigm shift away from long-term bets has driven changes everywhere from Amazon to Wayfair to Sweetgreen.

This deck provides an in-depth analysis of the home furnishings sector in ecommerce, including forecasts for sales growth, digital ad spending, and KPIs. It also highlights consumer shopping behaviors, spending trends, and the growing influence of social media.

As the share of US ecommerce sales on marketplaces continues to expand, our latest survey examines consumer buying habits and expectations across leading platforms.

The situation drove Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah to compare consumers鈥� reluctance to spend to the landscape during the Great Recession. In addition to the looming economic storm clouds, consumers have also been distracted by the flood of news that turned consumers鈥� attention away from shopping, Olsavsky told reporters, according to The New York Times.

Cosmetics, Wayfair, Alo Yoga, J.Crew, and StockX have already created shopping experience for the device. 蘑菇AV research is based on the idea that multiple sources and a variety of perspectives lead to better analysis.

Big partners: CMX, Albertsons Media Collective, Wayfair. The Trade Desk. What it does: The Trade Desk has a self-serve DSP that allows advertisers to compare potential ad buys across retailers on the platform. It empowers off-site retail media ad growth by marrying purchase information with off-site platforms.