It's a big Universe
Becky Boswell Smith -- Home Accents Today, 12/1/2004
The first time I heard a young woman describe her own decorating style as "I'm a Crate and Barrel kind of girl," I was surprised. No style of her own? How could that be? Well, how that could be for the young woman and the hundreds of thousands of other C&B customers is this: the stores have created a lifestyle concept that appeals. There is choice, but it's not overwhelming; the styles are contemporary, still classically influenced and comfortable. And with about 138 stores and more than $886 million in revenues, there apparently are a good many C&B kinds of girls — and guys.
As we approached the 2004 Universe Study, an exclusive presentation of information about where home accents are sold and how much of them are sold in the various channels, we decided one change that needed to be made in looking at channels of distribution is to isolate this kind of store. I named them Lifestyle. It's not the perfect name (send me your names for it, please), but it is a significant channel that no longer fits into other categories. The stores included range from C&B to Z Gallerie, from Pier 1 to Anthropologie to Bed, Bath & Beyond. It's a big and important channel generating an estimated $7.386 billion in home accent sales in 2004.
We also renamed our Direct-to-Consumer channel (catalogs, TV shopping networks and the Internet). Representing about 11% of the Universe, the Direct-to-Consumer channel is estimated to generate about $7.2 billion in sales in 2004. Internet vendors still are trying to figure out better ways to sell product on the Web and many are beginning to get it right. We think a lot of the growth of the industry will be there.
There's much more excellent information in our 2004 Universe Study to help you run your business more successfully. Senior Research Specialist Dana French did most of the work on the study. Her boss, Kay Anderson, and I helped, but Dana gets most of the credit. I hope the study is valuable to you.
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