Furniture Retail Momentum Builds as Costs and Supply Pressures Shift

Originally published November 14, 2025. This version was rebuilt from the Fiserv Small Business Index and a Dillard's earnings release for the FIN archive, and the facts are as of that date.

With government retail data held up by the shutdown, mid-November readers had to piece the picture together from private sources. Two of them pointed the same way. Shoppers were still spending at home stores, but they were making fewer purchases and paying more for each one.

The short version

• Small furniture, home furnishings, electronics and appliance retailers saw sales rise in October while their transaction counts fell.
• Dillard's grew sales for a second quarter in a row, with a slight increase in home and furniture.
• Higher prices, not more customers, did much of the work.

More dollars, fewer receipts

The Fiserv Small Business Index for October, which tracks card spending at small businesses, showed the group that includes furniture, home furnishings, electronics and appliance retailers up 4.9% from a year earlier. The same report showed transactions in that group down 6.1%.

Put those two numbers next to each other and the meaning is clear. Fewer people were checking out, and the people who did were spending more. Fiserv's inflation-adjusted figure for the group was only 1.8% higher, so much of the dollar gain came from higher prices.

Dillard's keeps growing

Dillard's reported that sales for the quarter ended November 1 were up 3%, with the strongest gains in ladies' accessories and apparel and slight increases in home and furniture. Gross margin improved, and the company said it would close one Texas store in January.

A department store isn't a furniture store, but a slight gain in its home business fit the picture of a shopper buying carefully.

Where this left the industry in mid-November

Heading into the holidays the numbers looked better than the foot traffic felt. Ticket growth was carrying the category, and that only works for as long as customers accept the higher prices.

Related on FIN

• Furniture Sales Rose. Costs Are Rising Faster.
• Furniture Shoppers Are Holding Back

Sources

• Fiserv, Small Business Index, October 2025 monthly overview (PDF)
• Dillard's, Inc., Third quarter 2025 results, Exhibit 99