Specialty players gain more share

Changing channels

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 7/21/2003 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK —

Specialty stores continued gaining market share in home textiles during 2002, with an increase of two percentage points in share of the Top 50.

The retailers moved up to 22 percent of Top 50 sales, compared with 20 percent in 2001.

Despite the decline of Strouds, prior to its dissolution this summer, specialty stores also recorded the highest sales percentage increase among distribution channels for 2002. Sales for the segment soared 20.8 percent to $4.607 billion in 2002 from $3.814 billion in '01.

Interestingly, the gains of the specialty store segment were not accomplished at the cost of the department store channel's position. Department stores registered healthy gains in percentage of sales in the Top 50, an increase of 6.3 percent or $4.0 billion, up from $3.8 billion in '01. The segment's percentage of sales within the Top 50 remained constant at 20 percent.

And while discount stores/supercenters remained the largest home textiles retail sales segment, the channel lost market share in the Top 50, slipping to 43 percent of the total versus 44 percent in 2001. Ames, which exited the market early in 2002, accounted for much of the discount store decline.

But while market share declined, sales for the channel increased 5.6 percent to $8.9 billion, up from $8.4 billion.

Holding on to their year-earlier share of market were warehouse clubs, with one percent of the Top 50, and Sears, Lowe's and the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (ranked as other) with five percent — although the latter channel saw dollar sales decline 4.2 percent to $962 million from $1.0 billion in '01.

Warehouse club sales increased 8.2 percent within the Top 50 to $290 million, up from $268 million.

Direct to consumer, which includes both catalog and Internet sales, slipped one percentage point, to nine percent of the Top 50 share in '02, compared with 10 percent in '01.

In dollar terms, direct to consumer dropped to $1.8 billion, down from $2.0 billion, in large measure because of the steep drop in JCPenney's catalog sales and Spiegel's catalog woes.

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