Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The housewares category is a growing opportunity for many independent retailers. Whether you stock housewares items to serve wholesale customers or your DIY customers keep asking for the latest kitchen gadgets and small appliances, the category is broad and can easily be tailored to your customer base.
A significant percentage of big-box store sales surround the housewares category. While these businesses tend to define housewares more broadly—many include flooring, paint and fixtures in their annual reports—it’s still important to see these sales numbers so you can adjust your inventory accordingly to compete with the stores in your market.
Check out the category sales for the last two years available for these stores below.
Amazon
Amazon doesn’t publish its category-specific sales, so these numbers regarding its sales in Home & Kitchen are drawn from estimates from third-party sources.
$5.5 billion, up 20 percent year-over-year
10.5 percent of total sales; fourth-largest category
Home Depot
Home Depot combines its housewares category into a major product line it calls Decor. This category includes appliances, decor, flooring, kitchen & bath and paint. See Page 44 of the 2018 Annual Report here for the 2017 and 2018 numbers outlined below.
2017
33.3 percent of total sales
2018
33.5 percent of total sales
Lowe’s
Lowe’s combines its housewares category similarly to Home Depot. It includes appliances, fashion fixtures, flooring, kitchens and paint. Click here and go to page 53 on the 2018 Annual Report for the 2017 and 2018 numbers below.
2017
39 percent of total sales
2018
39 percent of total sales (Although category sales were static, the company saw total sales growth of 3.9 percent.)
Target
As far as competition in the housewares category is concerned, Target is a formidable opponent. The big-box department store separates components of the category into beauty & household essentials (which includes paper good and cleaning products) and home furnishings and decor (which includes kitchenware and small appliances).
42 percent of total sales; $30.2 billion
43 percent of total sales; $32 billion
