For all its uncertainties and recent disruptions, the U.S. remains one of the most stable and robust markets for furniture sales in the world. Even a small portion of this market represents a substantial slice of business when compared with many other countries around the globe. And while sales may be “soft,” compared with pandemic-era highs there remains plenty of furniture business to be done.

While a recession has been predicted in the U.S. for most of the past 12 months, the Eurozone, which encompasses the 19 member countries of the European Union, officially entered a recession at the close of this year’s first quarter. Individual members of the EU had already met the criteria, including Greece and Ireland with the latter showing a nearly 5% contraction of its economy in the first quarter this year.

The EU’s largest member economy, Germany was declared to be in a recession earlier this month, and several other large European players including France and the U.K. have shown signs of flattening and even contraction. These challenges have been accelerated by the war in the Ukraine and its economic ripples, which have made Russia, for example, a much more challenging place to sell for European furniture companies.

It should be no surprise then that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of countries, particularly in Europe, that are looking to capture a slice of the pie here. While the pandemic choked off international participation at U.S. markets throughout 2020, 2021 and in some instances 2022, there has been a rapid and dramatic resurgence of European companies expanding their U.S. presence.

The number of companies showing in High Point Exhibitions’ Global Sourcing Pavilion, for example, has more than doubled in the past five years. At the most recent High Point Market, approximately 70 companies from around the globe took space in an effort to introduce themselves to American buyers. That was up from 63 last fall and almost triple the 20 to 30 on average that exhibited before the pandemic.

It would be easy to discount this competition and write it off as stylistically out of step with U.S. tastes or perhaps priced too high or to think that these companies lack the scale to meet the needs of large American furniture retailers.

nd all of those things are true … of some companies. There are, however, those whose ability to compete in the U.S. is already established, either because they’ve been serving Ikea’s needs or because they’ve been a quite OEM supplier to U.S. distributors or retailers.

It’s also worth noting that the ability to capture a share of the pie is no longer dependent solely on attracting retail gatekeepers. The modern digital marketplace has democratized access to the consumer, much the way the Internet has democratized the ability to create content.

It’s a whole new, more fragmented, more digital and more direct world we live in. That’s a great opportunity for new comers and yet another headache for those with share to guard.

Stay tuned. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Source: https://www.furnituretoday.com/