The tide is slowly starting to turn in favor of the American furniture industry in terms of sales, but manufacturers and retailers continue to face numerous wide-ranging challenges.
The American furniture industry is at a turning point. Never known for its ability to respond quickly to change, the industry finds itself emerging from the Great Recession to face some significant challenges: slower-than-expected economic recovery, shifting consumer buying preferences, skilled worker shortages, rising labor costs, technology integration, new distribution channels and global competition.
As they move into the future, furniture companies that thrive and grow will be the ones that find the right responses to a sluggish economic recovery, shifting consumer buying preferences, skilled worker shortages, rising labor costs, and new distribution channels. These are some of the findings just released by Anderson Bauman Tourtellot Vos, a corporate transformation consulting firm, in its 2014 Furniture Industry Watch Report, an annual update that details the current state of the furniture industry.
Economists and furniture insiders are expressing cautions optimism for a slow industry turnaround as the housing market starts to rebound and much-desired innovation is seen slowly seeping into design and manufacturing strategies.
Now the most important thing is how the furniture industry responds to the multiple economic forces at work will set the industry’s course for the foreseeable future.
