Author: Nick Arias, Research & Insights Assistant, RAB
“Home is where the heart is.” There is no better feeling than the comfort of your own home, and some of that comfort can be attributed to the furnishings in your home.
Furniture is personal and consumers view the furniture in their homes as a reflection of their personality and lifestyle.
While everyone wants to buy the best furniture available, or what appeals to them, many consumers prefer the in-store shopping experience for various reasons. According to the 2025 Furniture Shopping Trends Study, 84% of shoppers believe that they can see, feel and test out the furniture when shopping in person. Forty-seven percent of furniture shoppers have said that they shop in person for inspiration and design ideas while others consider it a habit. Forty-one percent said they are used to shopping in person.
There are also consumers who prefer to shop from the comfort of their home, however. Results from the 2025 Furniture Shopping Trends Study show that 25% of shoppers prefer to buy their furniture online while 45% like to shop both in person and online.
Just as furniture styles can vary, so can consumer purchase preferences. The Consumer Insights Now (CIN) “Consumer Buying Survey” found that 61% of furniture shoppers plan to purchase a fabric sofa while 23% of shoppers plan to buy a leather sofa. There are also some generational differences. Forty percent of high-end sofa shoppers are Gen X, 25% are older millennials and 14% are younger millennials.
When targeting potential furniture shoppers, retailers may want to consider different messaging and promotions based on homeowner status. Adults who are renters are 40% more likely to have purchased a sofa-bed convertible and 39% more likely to have purchased dining room furniture – all in the past year. Homeowners, on the other hand, are 11% more likely to have purchased a recliner and 15% more like to have purchased wall-to-wall carpeting in the past year, based on MRI-Simmons data. Big-ticket items such as these require special call outs to reach these diverse shoppers, and the best medium to use is broadcast radio.
Radio is high-reach medium, connecting with listeners every week. Radio reaches 85% of adults who shopped for furniture or at a mattress store in the past year. That reach is even higher among diverse listeners – touching 86% of Hispanics 18+ and 89% of Blacks 18+ weekly, per Scarborough USA+ data.
Why and how radio listeners make their furniture purchases is as diverse and varied as the formats that reach them. According to the Provoke Insights Furniture Trends & Radio Listeners 2025 study, 49% percent of radio listeners who purchased furniture in the last month bought furniture because of the quality and 29% purchased the furniture because they have experience with the brand/product.
Radio listeners will shop for furniture in both brick-and-mortar locations as well as online, but their reason for online purchases are specific. Thirty-one percent of radio listeners purchase furniture online because of better prices, while 21% do so due to free delivery services, per Provoke Insights. Furniture retailers who are promoting their online site may want to highlight cost advantages or discounts as well as no delivery fees as part of their campaign.
Connecting with potential shoppers is important to furniture retailers. Using a medium that not only reaches them but has the power to influence behavior is what every business wants. Radio delivers this and has a place at the marketing table for furniture retailers. Radio can help local furniture retailers drive traffic both online and onsite to help increase sales revenue.