If the furniture retail industry is facing an apocalypse, then Wayfair is the lead horse. That is the belief held by more than 350 independent furniture retailers and suppliers that sell through independents, recently surveyed by Unity Marketing. Nearly two-thirds of the brick-and-mortar furniture retailers surveyed said online retailers that specialize in furniture, most especially Wayfair, are their store’s number one competitive threat, as opposed to online retailers that sell furniture along with other products, like Amazon. Only 40% of independents named Amazon as a primary competitive threat, which was tied with high-end national furniture retail chains, like RH and Ethan Allen. And from a product/price standpoint, Wayfair and Amazon go head-to-head on price, as compared with the other specialty furniture retailers.

Source: Forbes May 19, 2018 16:52 UTC