logo
logo
Sign in

With Increasing Globalization, Office Space Increases Leads to Increase in Office Furniture Market In United States

avatar
Steve Blade

Although it is not often the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of an office, no office is complete without desks, chairs, and a water cooler. Though office furniture seems to have remained more or less unchanged in the last twenty years, there has been a great deal of innovation and growth in the office furniture market. Standing desks, for instance, are a relatively new fixture in offices and are perfect for those who prefer not to sit for extended periods of time for health or comfort reasons. In addition, ergonomic chairs and desks are perfect for combating back and wrist pain which plague so many office workers.

The United States is home to the largest office furniture market in the world, generating over 15.4 billion dollars in revenue in 2018. The U.S. office furniture market is expected to reach a value of 14.3 billion dollars by 2025. Some of the leading office furniture companies in the world are from the United States in Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Haworth. Steelcase generates the majority of its revenue from systems and storage products such as file cabinets and desks, while Herman Miller’s sales are driven by seating products.

The value of furniture imports to the United States amounted to over 54 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, making the United States the leading importer of furniture in the world. In terms of office furniture, the majority of the import value comes from wooden furniture rather than metal furniture. The United States exported about 168.6 million U.S. dollars of wooden furniture and 215 million U.S. dollars of metal furniture in 2018.

How could United States Office Furniture Market address the COVID-19 concern?

Due to this global pandemic, people are advised to stay home and work from home if needed, this increases the sudden demand for the office furniture during this pandemic. While most of the industries are closed it is difficult to manufacture furniture, this impacts the sale of the furniture in United States. “One area where we are selling pretty well compared to others is office furniture, People are working from home and they have identified needs in their homes for it.” said Henrik Elm, global supply manager at brand owner Inter IKEA Group. Similarly, Best Buy is experiencing an increased demand in office furniture for people working remotely.

Further to enhance the market most of the furniture manufacturers are investing more on the advertisements to increase the sale during this COVID-19 pandemic when people are sitting at home and working from home. Overall furniture ad spend has dropped since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US, but companies seem to be taking it in stride by switching up their ad creatives. The first three weeks of March saw a 52% reduction in overall ad spend. Some of this may be seasonal.  In March 2019, overall furniture ad spend was down 25% compared to the first three weeks of February 2019. 

However, some furniture companies are advertising these products more, just with a subtle messaging adjustment and a nod to people’s new realities.  For example, Raymour & Flannigan released new creative in the last couple of weeks, promoting “The Comfort of Home.” They put additional dollars behind the creative and boosted TV investment. In March they spent USD 1.4million on TV promoting the spot, compared to USD 658,000 spent in February.

collect
0
avatar
Steve Blade
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more