Furniture retailers forge new supply chain practices as backlogs, risks prevail
India, Turkey and Mexico are among the new sourcing destinations emerging as companies seek to mitigate risks.
Last year — amid port backups, container shortages and other supply chain nightmares — retailers and brands turned to the skies, sending demand for air cargo in 2021 up nearly 7% compared to 2019 by one estimate.
Shipping shirts and shoes, or Beanie Babies, by airplane has been an expensive but plausible workaround for many facing shipping bottlenecks. Shipping couches or dining room sets by air — not so much.
Being larger, heavier, harder to move, more complex and crafted — and with manufacturing often geographically clustered — furniture and other home furnishings present a unique array of supply chain challenges even in normal times. The pandemic exacerbated all of them and created a host of new challenges.
Pressure and backups have moved through the supply chains along with the goods they were built for. “First, it was manufacturers, then it was inputs, getting the cloth and the springs and the leather,” Overstock.com CEO Jonathan Johnson told Retail Dive in an interview. “Then it was Asian ports, then it was U.S. ports.”
