They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but one can also argue that the inverse is true. We're spending a lot more time at home these days, and that can lead us to be more critical about everything in them, from our couches to our bedrooms. Don't you want a new place to sit when it's time to binge your favorite show? Now, ponder your home environment -- and your desire to make some upgrades to it -- from the perspective of an investor. There's opportunity in your discomfort.
Lovesac (LOVE -2.59%), Sleep Number (SNBR 4.86%), and Wayfair (W -3.72%) are thriving in this stay-at-home world, and they're smoking the market in 2020.
Image source: Lovesac.
Lovesac
A new beanbag chair may not impress your interior decorator friend, but it's not as if Hattie had your best interest at heart when she set you up with that Victorian chandelier that's just too big for your dining room. Lovesac makes premium beanbag chairs and modular couch furniture, and right now, comfort reigns supreme in our home goods purchases. We're generally a lot less interested in impressing house guests who will have no business being in our houses for a while. (That means you, Hattie.)
Lovesac's products aren't cheap. The largest of its beanbag chairs -- which is roomy enough for an entire young family -- will run you four figures. Its "sactional" modular sets cost even more. However, a laser-focused online advertising strategy helped propel big sales of Lovesac merchandise even after it had to close its showrooms earlier this year.
Sales rose 33% for the fiscal first quarter, which ended in early May, fueled by a 255% surge in e-commerce. It had to shutter its 91 physical storefronts halfway through the quarter, but the internet never closes. The stock has nearly doubled in 2020, up 98% through the end of trading Friday.
Sleep Number
No mattress lasts forever. After all of those extra afternoon naps, last month's summer staycation, and the many work calls you've been taking horizontally, it may be time to give some attention to your bed situation.
Sleep Number is a maker of air-chambered mattresses with adjustable firmness settings. A couple of years ago, it introduced the Sleep Number 360, which it billed as the industry's first smart bed. Did you even know that there was such a thing as a smart bed? The Sleep Number 360 monitors your sleep patterns and can adjust its firmness -- and in some high-end models, its segments' elevation -- to lull you back into a peaceful state of slumber. Sleep Number comes to the table armed with scientific evidence that links quality sleep to overall wellness, making its luxury offerings an easier sell.
Sleep Number's sales declined by 20% to $285 million in its fiscal second quarter, but that was with an average of only 53% of its stores open. However, by the end of the period, which ended June 27, it had 95% of those locations open again, and demand was improving. Analysts predict it will return to top-line growth in the current quarter. Sleep Number stock hasn't clocked year-to-date gains that are quite as stunning as those of Lovesac or Wayfair, but its shares have tripled since bottoming out four months ago.
Wayfair
This last play on a cozier home life doesn't specialize in a single product category. Wayfair is an online marketplace that aims to fill essentially any furniture or decor need you might have. It bucked the market's malaise when it reported a 20% increase in revenue in the first quarter, and its upcoming financial update should be even better.
Wayfair reports second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and analysts have spent the last few weeks revising their revenue and price targets higher. Wall Street's now anticipating a 71% year-over-year increase in revenue, and investors are paying attention. Wayfair stock has nearly tripled in 2020.
Consumers may not be spending as much money in this dicey economy as they used to, but when they do make big-ticket purchases, they are often shelling out for something that they can enjoy around the home. That's making Lovesac, Sleep Number, and Wayfair clear winners in the new normal.
