Furniture store - projected sales

[Gofer65]

Hi,

I'm looking at starting up a furniture business where I import furniture from Europe and sell via a showroom as well as online.

I've got my ducks in a row (import duty, VAT, logistics, premises rent, insurance delivery etc) but the question I cannot get the answer to is on average, how many pieces of furniture does a retailer sell per day, week and month in the UK?

Could anyone give me the answer or worse way a rough indication? I understand it depends on many factors but I still need the answer to seenif its truly a viable business.

TIA

 

[Mark T Jones]

You've answered your own question - it's a meaningless question, and any answer will be meaningless without a whole load more detail

Market segment
Geographical area
Size of store
Marketing support and many, many others.

 

[Gofer65]

You've answered your own question - it's a meaningless question, and any answer will be meaningless without a whole load more detail

Market segment
Geographical area
Size of store
Marketing support and many, many others.

So it's impossible for someone with a business to say they sell so many units per day, week or month?

 

[Mark T Jones]

So it's impossible for someone with a business to say they sell so many units per day, week or month?

It's irrelevant and meaningless

 

[IanSuth]

think of it this way

How many items of cheap chipboard and veneer furniture would you sell in a showroom in Kensington London

How many items of hand made hardwood furniture would you sell in Clacton


Both of the answers to those are "as near zero as zero"

But you really want to know is where you can sell enough of whatever you are bringing in - that means you need to identify where your target customers are and whether a large enough number of them live within the catchment of anywhere you can get a store to enable you to sell enough each month to make a profit.

 

[Gofer65]

It's irrelevant and meaningless

Thanks for your help

How on earth is it meaningless to find someone with similar products, with a similar business model and in a similar area and see how much they sell on a daily basis?

 

[Gofer65]

think of it this way

How many items of cheap chipboard and veneer furniture would you sell in a showroom in Kensington London

How many items of hand made hardwood furniture would you sell in Clacton


Both of the answers to those are "as near zero as zero"

But you really want to know is where you can sell enough of whatever you are bringing in - that means you need to identify where your target customers are and whether a large enough number of them live within the catchment of anywhere you can get a store to enable you to sell enough each month to make a profit.

I understand that. Yes I am in a catchment area with large enough numbers to theoretically sell enough each month. So should I walk into competitors showrooms and ask outright how many they sell as then again theoretically, if I sell a superior product at a lower price I should sell more than them.

Again theoretical projections are meaningless without knowledge of actual sales. Maybe I should speak to people in the industry instead of general sales

 

[japancool]

Thanks for your help

Mark is saying it's irrelevant and meaningless because it depends on so many different variables that no answer that you get will be directly applicable to your business. If I told you I sold 100 pieces of furniture a week, and that was cheap plastic garden chairs in Guildford, that would be no use to you unless you were also selling cheap plastic garden chairs in Guildford.

 

[japancool]

then again theoretically, if I sell a superior product at a lower price I should sell more than them.

Not necessarily. It might be that your cheaper price means people view your product as inferior, whether it is or not.

In many ways, a workhorse Honda is a better car than a Lamborghini (they're a lot more reliable, for a start), but people don't see it that way.

 

[Gofer65]

Mark is saying it's irrelevant and meaningless because it depends on so many different variables that no answer that you get will be directly applicable to your business. If I told you I sold 100 pieces of furniture a week, and that was cheap plastic garden chairs in Guildford, that would be no use to you unless you were also selling cheap plastic garden chairs in Guildford.

Yes I understand that. However you're telling me that with the hundreds of furniture shops that sell similar products across the country that offer local and also nationwide delivery (which are all similar products) that's there is no way to get a number of what they sell on a weekly, monthly or daily basis?

Not necessarily. It might be that your cheaper price means people view your product as inferior, whether it is or not.

In many ways, a workhorse Honda is a better car than a Lamborghini (they're a lot more reliable, for a start), but people don't see it that way.

So you can't predict sales for your product at all until you open a shop and run ad either a profit or a loss?

 

[japancool]

So you can't predict sales for your product at all until you open a shop and run ad either a profit or a loss?

Not really. You can do some work on the potential market size, but so much depends on your marketing that it's pretty much plucking a number out of thin air.

It's not just what you sell, but how you sell it. You could have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. And your marketing spend affects how viable your business is. If you have to spend £101 to get £100 in sales - it's not viable.

You can do some research into marketing strategies, ROI and cost of acquisition to give you some idea.

 

[GraemeL]

I am really suprised that you are not listening to the advice offered.

To get an overall view of the UK retail furniture market, you can buy the Mintel report. It costs about £2,500.

To narrow down the research so that it focuses on the actual products you are going to sell, in the way you are going to sell them at the prices you are going to sell them at would cost you a large fortune and would still at best be someones judgement - not reality. Ask Mintel to quote for you.

Why not get a job at a large retailer such as Wayfair and do your research?

I worked in the office furniture market for years. You will need a lot of resources (Time and money) to successfully distribute and return large furniture items, particularly if your suppliers are not in the UK. How you will have worked out the costs of that per unit is a mystery to me. Have a look at how much white glove delivery costs.

 

[Gofer65]

Not really. You can do some work on the potential market size, but so much depends on your marketing that it's pretty much plucking a number out of thin air.

It's not just what you sell, but how you sell it. You could have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. And your marketing spend affects how viable your business is. If you have to spend £101 to get £100 in sales - it's not viable.

You can do some research into marketing strategies, ROI and cost of acquisition to give you some idea.

Thank you, really thank you for a straight answer.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

You are right in that yes, somebody somewhere with a similar size store to yours in a similar size town and selling similar furniture will be able to give you an average figure. The first problem is that the chances of finding the owner of those few similar size businesses in similar size towns are pretty slim. The second problem is that since you haven't told us where you are or actually what you are selling then the chances become absolutely zero.

You might be better working backwards and work up from your overheads - how many products do you NEED to sell? Once you've worked out that figure, do you think it's realistic? If you're selling hand made italian marble benches and work out that you need to sell 5 a day - well no, it's probably not realistic. If you're selling wardrobes, chests of drawers, coffee tables, desks and kitchen tables at a mid price point and work out you need to sell 1 a day...well yeah, that seems a lot more realistic.

 

[fisicx]

A friend sells furniture in Surrey. He is happy if he makes 1 sale per month.

He charges around £5000 for a sofa.

 

[Socio South West]

I think you need to turn your question round and work out how many pieces you need to sell per month to make the business viable.

You need to bear in mind that the market for furniture will be very prone to economic upturns and downturns and you need to factor enough margin into your pricing to allow for offers discounts and deals when times are not so good and you may need to step your marketing up.

Once you have these sales targets established, monitor your sales figures to give you a guide on where your pricing should be going in the next few months.

Sometimes you will get fat... sometimes you won't - such is the nature of the market in that sector of the disposable spend spectrum.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

How on earth is it meaningless to find someone with similar products, with a similar business model and in a similar area and see how much they sell on a daily basis?

Have you found them yet?

there is no way to get a number of what they sell on a weekly, monthly or daily basis?

Yes there is, but do you expect them to just give you, a potential competitor, that info?

It might be that your cheaper price means people view your product as inferior, whether it is or not.

I used to work at one of the UKs largest furniture retailers and they repositioned in the market, moving to higher quality (price products. Their issue was that their core customers then could not afford their products and their new target audience would never shop there because of their historic market position. They went bust withing 18 months!