We take a look at how furniture, lighting and flooring retail sales have performed over recent months.
The most recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that furniture and lighting retail sales fell 20.2% to £1.18bn in April 2025 from £1.48bn in March. Compared to the previous year, sales were up 7.2% from £1.10bn.
April’s data outlined the lowest furniture retail sales in the year to date, which was also the same when comparing the four months of 2024. However, going back a little further, April 2023’s figure stood at £1.31bn, the second highest month in the first four months of that year, while April 2022 also showed the same trend of being the second best.
The month of May tends to be close to the performance of April with last year showing a monthly increase of 3.6%, although in 2023, there was a month-on-month decline of 3%. June then follows with a strong month. In 2023, furniture and lighting sales stood at £1.59bn, an uptick of 25.1% from May, while in 2024, sales jumped 17.5% to £1.34bn.
It is hoped that June will follow this trend of month-on-month growth as July and August tend to slow down. Last year, July and August sales were just over £1bn each month, while in 2023, the two months recorded £1.2bn each.
Over the last couple of years, the best performing months has been mixed. 2024 saw December record £1.49bn retail sales, while 2023’s top month was March with £1.6bn sales. Interestingly, January this year was the second highest month of sales at £1.46bn (behind March’s £1.48bn figure), but has been the best performing start to a year ever, with only January 2020 coming close at £1.42bn.
Moving to flooring, floorcovering retail sales also decreased month-on-month, down by 23.8% to £256.1m in April 2025 from £336.4m in March. Compared to the same time last year, sales rose by 23.4% from £207.5m.
April’s data outlined the second lowest flooring retail sales in the year to date, which was also the same when comparing the four months of 2024. However, going back a little further, April 2023’s figure stood at £214.5, the second highest month in the first four months of that year, while April 2022 reverted to the same trend of being the second worst.
Over the last two years, the month of May has seen flooring sales rise by 1% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024 to respective figures of £216.7m and £213.2m. June then follows with a strong month, with the previous two years resulting at £241.8m (2023) and £263.7m (2024) in sales. In fact, the last two years has seen June sales record the third (2023) and fourth (2024) highest performance in the year, with only March and September months (and November in 2024) outperforming June.
July then tends to drop off with sales declining month-on-month over the last few years, with only July 2020 the most recent time where sales increased.
As for this year, January marked the first time flooring sales surpassed £300m, with sales at £311m, while March recorded £336.4m, the highest performing month to date. With June, September and November typically high performing months in recent years, it could potentially see sales reach further heights.
On weekly average data, furniture and lighting retail sales averaged £296.4m during April over four weeks, unchanged from March despite the previous month having one more week. Compared to last year, sales per week averaged £275.7m. As for floorcoverings, weekly sales averaged £64m in April, down from £67.2m in March, but up from £51.8m in April 2024.
