November sales for furniture and home furnishings retailers jumped 4.1% from the same month last year and were up 0.7% from the month before, slightly outperforming overall retail sales.

Sales at furniture and home furnishings stores totaled an estimated $9.26 billion, up from a revised $8.9 billion in November 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported. Home furnishings sector sales for three months — September through November — were up 3.9% over the same period last year.

Total U.S. retail and food services sales increased 3.8% from November a year ago to $465.5 billion, and were nearly flat, up 0.1%, from a preliminary October sales estimate, the report said. The results came in below economist’s estimates, according to a Reuters report.

Retail trade sales increased 3.6% from a year ago.

Non-store retailers — primarily e-commerce and catalog businesses — continued to outperform all sectors on a year-over-year basis, posting an 11.9% sales increase over November last year and a 0.1% gain from the month before. Health and personal care stores saw the next best sales gain, up 6.2% from a year ago.

For the third consecutive month, department stores, a sub-category of general merchandise stores, were the biggest decliners with estimated sales decreasing 6.4% from November a year ago. Electronics and appliance stores had the next largest decrease with sales down 3.8%.

(Source: furnituretoday.com  Author: Clint Engel)