Welcome to Furniture Industry News for Friday, August 1, 2025.

I'm here to bring you the essential updates you need to know as a professional in the furniture industry.

Let's start with the big story that's affecting everyone in our industry right now.

Tariffs.

President Trump's latest tariff changes are taking effect this week on August 7th.

Specifically, the universal 10% tariff rate will remain with tariffs of 15% or more set on countries that run a significant trade deficit with the US this is a significant development because many of our furniture imports come from countries now facing higher rates.

South Africa is looking at 30% tariffs, India at 25% and Taiwan at 20%.

Japan, South Korea and Israel are all facing 15% rates.

What's particularly interesting for our industry is that Mexico was not included among the countries targeted for reciprocal tariffs initially placed on April 2 since it already had a 25% rate imposed on its goods, but will have a potential increase to 30% delayed for 90 days to allow further negotiations to take place.

Meanwhile, most China tariffs have been paused until mid August while trade negotiations continue.

The National Retail Federation is warning that tariffs are taxes paid by US Importers and are eventually passed along to US Consumers, and they expect higher prices, decreased hiring and fewer capital expenditures as a result.

For those of us in furniture, retail and manufacturing, this uncertainty makes planning incredibly difficult.

Speaking of challenges, let's talk about housing market trends that directly impact our industry.

Pending home sales dropped 2.8% compared to June 2024, and they're also down 0.8% from May.

Such declines have implications for furniture sales, which are largely tied to people moving into a new or existing home.

The west was hit hardest with a 7.3% year over year decline, while the Midwest, south and Northeast saw smaller drops or remained flat.

However, there's a silver lining here.

There was still a year over year increase of 4% for home buyer traffic and a 6% increase in year over year seller traffic in June, according to the Realtors Confidence Index.

Economists are pointing to rising mortgage applications as a positive sign that activity might pick up in the coming months.

Now let's shift to how customer service expectations are changing across generations, which is crucial for furniture retailers.

A recent survey found that only 20% of consumers think customer service has improved recently, while 42% believe it's gotten worse.

The generational divide is striking here.

Only 12% of Gen X and baby boomers say service has improved, but 29% of Gen Z and 31% of millennials are more positive about customer care.

Nearly a quarter of Gen Z consumers say they would not give a business a second chance after a mistake, compared to 18% of Gen X and baby boomers.

For furniture retailers, this means younger customers might be more forgiving initially, but they have higher standards and less patience for repeat problems.

The top complaints are rude treatment at 66%, lack of empathy at 55% and absence of customer service options at 47%.

Let's look at some specific company results that paint a picture of where our industry stands.

Haverty's had an interesting second quarter dealing with tariff uncertainty.

We're just waiting on a final answer.

There's nothing that's been posted on the registry that tells us how to move forward, said President and CEO Steve Burdett.

The company had to suspend part of its custom order business from China when tariffs hit 145%, but they're bringing it back as rates have come down.

Haverty's saw some bright spots though.

Their Memorial Day sale drove sales up more than 3% year over year for the two week period and during the four day holiday weekend specifically, sales jumped more than 14%, web sales grew 8.4% in the quarter and their email loyalty campaigns generated $17 million.

The company is already planning expansion with four finalized leases for 2026 openings.

Ethan Allen's fiscal 2025 results show the mixed picture many companies are facing.

For the year and fourth quarter ended June 30, the company saw a 4.9% decline in net sales year over year at 160.4 million quarter and 614.6 million for the year.

However, written orders increased 1.6% in the fourth quarter for their retail segment, which suggests some optimism for future sales.

CEO Farooq Kathwari noted that the growth in written orders came despite the industry facing lower consumer confidence, a challenging housing market and uncertainty surrounding trade tariffs.

The company has been focusing on efficiency, reducing headcount by 5.7% compared to last year and and by 32.2% since 2019.

They ended the fiscal year with $196.2 million in cash and no debt, which puts them in a strong position to weather uncertainty in the supply chain and logistics space.

Both Leggett and Platt and XPO reported results that show the challenges and opportunities in our industry.

Leggett and Platt swung to a net profit of $52.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30 on net sales for the period of $1.1 billion, a 6% slide from the same period last year That's a huge improvement from the $602 million loss they posted in the same quarter last year.

The company's bedding segment saw trade sales drop 11% due to soft demand in both US and European markets, plus some retail merchandising changes in adjustable beds.

Their furniture, flooring and textile products division was down 2% with softness in home furniture and flooring demand.

However, their restructuring plan is delivering results with $13 million in incremental earnings benefit this quarter.

XPO Logistics, which handles delivery for many furniture retailers, beat expectations despite the sluggish freight environment.

This was another quarter of outperforming the industry, said CEO Mario Herrick.

Even though they saw A revenue decline 2.5% in their north American less than truckload business, the company improved its profit margins and marked its 13th consecutive quarter of improved on time performance.

Looking at retail expansion, we Wayfair is pushing forward with physical stores.

They're opening a 140,000 square foot location in Denver scheduled for late 2026.

The store will mark the retailer's entry into the Mountain west region, following on its flagship store in the Chicago area and locations in the works for Atlanta and Yonkers, New York.

This continues Wayfair's strategy of combining their online presence with physical retail experiences.

Finally, Amazon's second quarter results show the continued strength of e commerce in our space.

Amazon saw net sales rise by double digits in the second quarter, jumping to $167.7 billion on a 13% gain.

Their North America segment was up 11% to $100.1 billion.

What's particularly relevant for furniture retailers is Amazon's continued push into AI tools that enhance the shopping experience, including turning product summaries and reviews into audio clips and creating enhanced listings.

CEO Andy Jassy emphasized that our AI progress across the board continues to improve our customer experiences, speed of innovation, operational efficiency and business growth.

For furniture retailers competing with Amazon, this shows the continued importance of investing in technology and customer experience improvements.

So where does this leave us as we head into August?

The tariff situation remains fluid, but changes are coming next week.

Housing market softness continues to impact our industry, but there are signs of potential improvement.

Companies are managing through efficiency improvements and cost controls, while also investing in expansion and technology.

Customer service expectations continue to evolve, especially among younger consumers who expect more digital options but still prefer human interaction.

The key takeaway is that successful furniture companies are staying flexible, maintaining financial strength and and continuing to invest in customer experience and operational efficiency even during uncertain times.

That wraps up today's furniture industry news if you found this helpful, please subscribe to Stay up to date with all the latest news affecting our industry.