Furniture & Home Furnishings Wholesalers NAICS 4232

Jul 29, 2025 - Tariff Impacts Include Rising Costs, Shipping Delays

• Nearly two-thirds of furniture and home furnishings retailers fear that tariffs will disrupt business operations and are taking action to find ways to share tariff costs, according to new statistics revealed at a panel during the Las Vegas Market reported in Furniture Today. The panel also revealed that half of retailers don’t know what to tell customers about the tariff effects. Panelist Doug Cofiell, CEO of Ivystone Group, said vendors are raising prices or adding surcharges due to tariffs, which means new prices on already purchased merchandise that range from 5% to 15% higher. He added that seasonal vendors of Halloween and holiday merchandise are the hardest hit, estimating that only 70% of holiday orders will arrive on time. City Furniture owner Keith Koenig said he was able to negotiate with many factories overseas to share the financial burden of tariffs, with some partners absorbing nearly half of the costs.
• Furniture and home furnishings wholesalers may benefit from an expected 5% increase in dorm/apartment furnishings spending in 2025, reaching $12.8 billion, according to an annual back-to-college spending survey by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics in Home Furnishings News. In addition to dorm or apartment furnishings, the other top back-to-campus spending categories were electronics, clothing and accessories, food, and personal care items. Total back-to-college spending is expected to reach $88.8 billion in 2025, up from $86.6 billion a year ago. While overall spending is on the rise, the per-person spending for back-to-college fell to an average of $1,325 from $1,364 in 2024, which can be attributed to higher-income households continuing to spend while lower-income households cut back across categories due to economic uncertainty. College-bound families are making budget-minded choices, such as buying used or refurbished items and using buy now or pay later services.

• The US furniture and home furnishings wholesaler industry is projected to grow at a 2.85% CAGR from 2025 to 2029, slower than the overall economy's projected growth, according to a forecast from Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. The retail and wholesale sectors are driven by consumer spending, along with expenditure by businesses and government. The forecast said retail spending could soften with the growth of spending on consumer services. A factor that may limit consumer spending is higher tariffs on consumer goods. On a positive note, lower inflation supports a moderate increase of real disposable income by about 2% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026. Real income could suffer to an extent if average prices rise due to tariff implementation.
• According to a new survey from the National Association of Wholesale-Distributors (NAW), tariffs are driving cost increases and creating operational challenges across the wholesale distribution industry. The survey was done in collaboration with Modern Distribution Management (MDM) Research. About a third of distributors say they face price increases of 25% or higher. According to Eric Hoplin, NAW’s CEO, “Though these increases haven’t hit store shelves yet, it’s an indication of where prices are headed.” About 62% of distributors expect their cost of goods will rise by 10% or more in 2025, while 67% of respondents report a negative impact on their business. Nearly 40% of respondents said more than 20% of their inventory originates in China, and only 17% can shift to domestic or non-impacted suppliers. Operational actions being taken by distributors include slowing inventory replacement (48%), delaying new hiring (44%), cutting capital investments (37%), and reducing discretionary spending (60%).