Today is January 23rd, 2026, and welcome to Furniture Industry News.

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me.

This update is all about where the industry seems to be heading as the year gets moving, from sustainability programs and resale strategies to trade policy noise and how construction and design pros are feeling right now.

Let's start with Ikea.

Because their buyback and resale program keeps getting bigger, Ikea has expanded the number of items it will accept through its buyback and resell program, adding roughly 700 more products.

That brings the total to more than 2,800 items that customers can return in exchange for store credit.

The newly added products include things like open storage units, sofa tables, wall decor and some glassware.

In short, a wider slice of the assortment is now part of the program.

This move builds on what Ikea has already seen over the last couple of years.

Returned items tend to sell quickly once they hit the clearance sections in stores, and the volume of buybacks has grown steadily.

Ikea has also been pushing hard on spare parts distribution, handing out hundreds of thousands of parts last year alone.

The goal there is keep products in use longer and reduce waste.

What started as a pilot program has now clearly settled in as a permanent part of IKEA's business model, and it shows how resale and circular strategies are becoming less experimental and more operational, even at massive scale.

From there, the conversation shifts overseas, where uncertainty is still very much part of the sourcing story.

At the Heim textile show in Frankfurt, there was no strong sense of where things are headed next.

Instead of trend forecasting or big picture optimism, most of the talk centered on tariffs, trade pressure and anxiety about what comes next.

Suppliers from regions like India were paying close attention to potential tariff exposure, especially as earlier threats tied to international policy created fresh concern.

Another theme that came through clearly was how much the retail landscape itself is changing.

Traditional mid market retailers continue to feel pressure while value focused players and online competitors take up more space.

Some US Brands were present at the show, but overall the mood leaned cautious.

Many suppliers are rethinking which markets they serve and how they get there, knowing that trade policy could shift quickly and with little warning.

The big takeaway from heimtech's deal, which not clarity but adjustment.

Companies are preparing to stay flexible because predictability just is not there right now.

That uncertainty ties directly into what we heard recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

President Trump used the event to talk up economic growth, pointing to tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation as core tools of his strategy.

At the same time, he walked back planned tariff increases on several European countries that had been scheduled to start in February.

That reversal followed progress in negotiations tied to Arctic and Greenland security cooperation.

Even with that pause, the message was tariffs remain firmly on the table as leverage in trade and foreign policy discussions.

For furniture manufacturers, importers and retailers, that means the risk has not gone away it has just been delayed or redirected.

The broader signal is that global supply chains will continue operating under the assumption that tariff policy can change quickly and often, with political considerations driving the timing.

Against that backdrop, it is worth looking at how construction and design professionals are feeling as they head into the year.

New data from Houzz shows a cautiously positive outlook among both construction firms and design firms entering 2026.

More than half of construction professionals expect a strong year ahead and and about half of design professionals share that view.

That optimism, however, is not without limits.

Labor shortages continue to be a concern for a large portion of firms, and rising material and product costs are widely expected.

Many respondents see local economic conditions improving slightly, while expectations for the national economy are more mixed.

Some firms expect modest growth others are preparing for a slowdown.

To manage these pressures, the businesses are adjusting pricing, investing in productivity tools and looking for ways to do more with limited resources.

When you put all of this together, a few themes stand out.

Sustainability and resale are no longer fringe ideas.

They are being baked into long term strategies, especially by large players who can support the logistics and operational complexity.

At the same time, global trade remains unsettled.

Tariffs may come and go, but but the underlying uncertainty affects sourcing decisions, pricing strategies and long range planning.

On the demand side, professionals closer to the customer, particularly in construction and design, are neither overly bullish nor overly pessimistic.

The mood is best described as measured.

There is confidence that work will be there, but also realism about the challenges that remain.

Labor costs and economic signals are all being watched closely.

For furniture retailers and manufacturers, this combination creates a familiar balancing act.

The industry is moving forward, but carefully.

Companies are investing where they see durable value, whether that is in resale programs, operational efficiency or new tools to manage costs.

At the same time, few are assuming smooth sailing.

As we move deeper into the year, these dynamics will continue shaping decisions across the industry.

Circular programs will likely expand further, trade policy will remain a wild card, and professionals will keep adjusting one quarter at a time based on what they are seeing in their own markets.

Before we wrap up today's update, I want to briefly share something new that many of you may find worthwhile.

A new podcast series called Furniture Industry Stories has just launched and it's focused on telling deeper narrative style stories about the companies that shaped our industry.

The first episode looks at Ashley Furniture walking through how the business grew, the the decisions that mattered, and the moments that helped define its place in the furniture world.

It's less about headlines and more about understanding the story behind the scale.

A second episode was just released and this one focuses on RH, formerly Restoration Hardware.

That episode explores RH's evolution into a high end lifestyle brand and how changes in strategy, presentation and positioning altered its trajectory.

If you enjoy understanding not just what's happening in the industry, but how we got here, we Furniture Industry Stories is worth checking out.

It's built for furniture professionals who appreciate context, perspective and lessons drawn from real industry history.

That's the update for today.

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