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Augmented Reality apps and ecommerce weren’t the only noteworthy topics in the furniture industry in 2017. We count down our picks for the top 5 most fascinating facts from the furniture industry in 2017.

#1: Expanding ecommerce

Furniture and home furnishings ecommerce in the US increased 13% from 2016 to 2017. More than 1 in 4 consumers bought furniture or home décor online and over 3 in 10 plan to do so within the next 12 months,  according to KPMG 2017 The Truth About Online Consumers study.

Furniture is also one of the fastest-growing categories on Amazon, according to One Click Retail. Amazon has experienced a 50% year-over-year growth in furniture sales. Here are Amazon’s top 5 furniture categories of 2017 (as reported by One Click Retail):

• Mattress/frames $640M sales; 90% growth

• Bedroom $350M sales; 50% growth

• Living Room $260M sales; 45% growth

• Home Office $230M sales; 35% growth

• Kitchen $155M sales; 35% growth

#2: Loyalty lull

Just 1 in 10 consumers are loyal to a specific furniture store or furniture brand, according to 2017 research from Furniture Today.  Here’s how that loyalty breaks down by generation:

• Millennials: 15% loyal to specific furniture stores; 13% loyal to specific furniture brands

• Gen X: 5% loyal to specific furniture stores; 7% loyal to specific furniture brands

• Boomers: 10% loyal to specific furniture stores; 11% loyal to specific furniture brands

#3: AR apps

Three major companies added Augmented Reality (AR) functionality to their apps so users could place virtual furniture in a real room to preview what it looks like in the space. Despite the buzz it generated, AR and VR (virtual reality) features ranked at the bottom of retailer’s priorities, according to the 2017 Omnichannel Furniture Benchmarking report from Blueport. Just 9% of furniture retailers have AR on their furniture apps.

The 3 major companies that added AR features to their apps are:

• Houzz, a social platform that unites homeowners and home professionals, launched the AR feature to its app in May.

• Online furniture ecommerce giant Wayfair debuted its AR functionality on its app in September.

• IKEA also premiered its AR app feature in September.

#4: Smartphone shopping

Furniture shoppers are increasingly using their smartphones in these 2 key ways, according to Think with Google’s 2017 “How home furnishings brands can turn browsers into buyers” post:

• 47% of home furnishings shoppers make more purchases on mobile

• Smartphone searches related to “furniture near me” has grown 85% year-over-year

#5: ‘Rooming reality

Webrooming, or researching products online before visiting a store, is more popular among US furniture consumers than showrooming (visiting a store to look at a product before buying it online), according to bookingbug’s 2017 “The Modern Consumer” study. Key findings from this study include:

• 72% of US furniture shoppers webroom

• 50% of US furniture shoppers showroom

• 2 in 10 of  US consumers use click and collect services for buying furniture

Furniture retailers who lack a strong website presence will likely lose customers. 46% of consumers visit multiple websites before selecting 2 to 3 stores to visit, according to Home Furnishings Business “The State of Advertising” 2017 feature.