Although a core category in the soft home department, sheets experienced another year of barely any growth - with sales at retail essentially flat in 2018. As was the case with several other home textiles categories, the roughly $3 billion in sheet sales made gains at discounters - off-pricers in particular - as well as e-commerce and lost ground at department stores and specialty. In the department store channel, a great deal of the slump in 2018 can be attributed to the fact that JCPenney, Kohl's and Sears collectively shuttered hundreds of stores last year. In the specialty store channel, Bed Bath & Beyond far outweighs peers like Ikea, HomeGoods, RH and Crate & Barrel in sheet sales. And BBB's 2018 was largely about rebuilding for future growth. While e-commerce continues to gain share, consumers are still making most of their sheet purchases in-store. "E-comm is being used by omni-channel merchants to supplement their in-store assortments. It's a way to offer a broad breadth of product, and test new programs," said Jeff Kambak, CEO of US operations for Trident, although he noted that Amazon is "obviously a market disruptor."
展开▼
