2022 furniture international changement & 2023 China furniture fair

Under the shadow of inflationary pressure in Europe, the cost of living was forced to increase, which also led to a decline in consumption and imports of furniture and other supplies in 2023. Now, China opened its gate, it will be great expectations for the 133rd Canton fair.

Europe furniture market trend.

As a major furniture exporting country in Europe, Germany’s furniture export performance in 2022 does not seem to have achieved the expected performance.

According to the news released by Germany, in the first three quarters of 2022, Germany’s living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture manufacturing exports decreased by 3.2% compared with the same period in 2021; the value of all related products delivered to the international market reached 790 million euros.

Exports to European countries such as Austria, France, and the Netherlands declined. Among them, the export value to Austria fell by 13.4% to 130 million euros; the export to the Netherlands fell by 9.3% to 9.1 million euros; the export to France fell by 3.3% to 81.3 million euros.

At the same time, exports to Switzerland and the United Kingdom increased. Specifically: exports to Switzerland increased slightly by 1.5% to 160 million euros; exports to the UK increased by 3% to 5.2 million euros.

On the other hand, Germany will increase its furniture exports to the US in 2022 by 17.7 to 46.6 million euros.

In addition to the insignificant increase in exports as a whole, Germany’s imports of furniture have declined. Compared with the same period last year, Germany’s imports in the first three quarters fell by 2.9% to 1.4 billion euros.

Imports from Romania decreased significantly by 19.8% to 38.7 million euros; imports from Austria decreased by 12.5% to 38.3 million euros; as for Poland, Germany’s most important furniture supplier by far, its exports to Germany in 2022 are slightly lower than in 2021, the overall import volume is only 500 million euros.

Imports of furniture from China and Turkey increased. Among them, imports from China increased by 5% to 170 million euros. Supply from Turkey rose by more than a third to 55.8 million euros.

Overall, Germany’s furniture imports and exports in 2022 are on a downward trend compared to 2021. This has a great relationship with the impact of the Russia-Ukraine incident and the increase in production costs. It is expected that the furniture manufacturing industry in Germany and Europe will continue to be affected by this part of the cost increase in 2023.

Outlook for the furniture industry in 2023

Demand is sluggish or continues.

The difficulties in the furniture industry last year came to a certain extent from the control of the epidemic. Due to the strict epidemic control measures in various places, the market in some regions will be temporarily shocked, and the resulting uncertainty will have a serious impact on the development of enterprises. This year, the epidemic control factors have disappeared, but weak demand is still a big problem. The main reason for the decline in demand is the increasing aging of the population.

It is very likely that the total population will have negative growth in 2022, and the decline in the total population in 2023 is also the general trend and inevitable. At present, the state has increased financial support for the real estate industry, and some cities have even relaxed the purchase restriction policy. However, the decline in purchasing power caused by the epidemic and the cautiousness about the future economic prospects have weakened the positive effect of the stimulus policy.

It is difficult to expect a boom in the real estate industry. Even if the real estate industry really improves, it is difficult for the downstream furniture industry to benefit immediately. Of course, some custom-made furniture companies that can grab large engineering orders are excluded.

Personalized service is the main source of profit.

In recent years, the furniture industry is realizing the transformation from finished product sales to customized services. Consumers are more inclined to buy customized space services provided by furniture manufacturers instead of buying finished products, thus forming a new trend in furniture consumption.

In order to adapt to this new consumption trend, furniture manufacturers must carry out a comprehensive transformation of the production of personalized customized furniture. From the perspective of market practice, custom-made furniture looks beautiful, but because the essence of custom-made furniture is service, and service is difficult to achieve perfection.

There is a huge gap between ideal and reality. Consumers are often dissatisfied with the quality of services, and manufacturers are even more frustrated. It is such a furniture service style that both the supply and demand sides are unsatisfied, but it is sought after by many consumers.

While consumers are dissatisfied with the service quality of furniture manufacturers, they hope that the next one will be a better service provider. In the personalized customization service market, there are also really strong players. They are slightly superior in production equipment, software construction, experienced technical personnel reserves, product quality control, on-site measuring scale accuracy, on-site adjustment capabilities, etc., and have won market recognition and achieved relative market advantages. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that personalized service will become the main source of profit for the furniture industry in 2023.

The most important thing is to do a good job in furniture services first, mainly customized services, followed by the production of finished products, and making the design brilliant, in order to gain the approval of mid-to-high-end consumers and gain a foothold in the market.

Cheap furniture is expected to expand its market share.

The furniture industry is not dominated by customized furniture. Cheap furniture has its own market, and this market is still gradually expanding. Cheap furniture is mostly finished furniture. Like a wicker sectional sofa patio dining set, it’s popular in the market for years.

Finished furniture has the opportunity to meet with consumers through the Internet, realizes the docking of production and sales, and bypasses expensive store channels. This is also one of the main reasons why the domestic sales data of the furniture industry has not been good last year. Because the statistics of domestic furniture sales by the National Bureau of Statistics are units above the designated size, there are no statistics on online furniture sales.

Cheap panel furniture, metal furniture, and solid wood furniture are popular on the Internet. The network here refers to not only some major furniture sales websites but also WeChat Moments, video platforms, etc. Finished furniture has not completely lost the market.

On the contrary, the sales of finished furniture are quite impressive, and even triggered a wave of recruitment of furniture transportation and installation workers in 2022. Some websites offer a monthly salary of 40,000 yuan to recruit furniture transportation and installation workers.

China’s economy is gradually entering a period of steady development, the opportunity to get rich has been greatly reduced, and the equalization of income will make more and more consumers give up the psychology of showing off, and the gradual return of consumption rationality will provide more business opportunities for cheap furniture.

Comfortable furniture is still the main battlefield.

People’s pursuit of comfort is almost unlimited, and the total amount of comfortable furniture is still on the rise. The intensity of competition in this market is also increasing. From April to September this year, the sales of sofas of a well-known domestic brand also began to decline. Looking around the market, similar products have increased in large numbers, and their prices have also dropped sharply. More and more furniture manufacturers are turning their attention to comfortable furniture.

It is foreseeable that in 2023, the comfortable furniture market represented by sofas and soft beds will still be booming in supply and sales. Comfortable furniture is a market that can be continuously developed, and its product characteristics determine that its purchase cycle may be shortened after being induced, thereby greatly increasing market sales.

For example, if it becomes easier to dispose of old mattresses for mattresses, sales of new mattresses may increase significantly; when it becomes easier to dispose of old sofas, sales of new sofas may also increase.

Compared with complete sets of furniture, sofas and mattresses are small pieces of furniture, and consumers have much less pressure to buy. For more and more emotional consumers, interesting sofas and mattresses may become interesting new toys, adding color to the mediocre and boring life. If you are looking for outdoor furniture, rope-style rattan garden furniture would be a good choice cause rope stands out in recent years’ fashion trends.

There are business opportunities in the market of any period, and the China furniture fair in 2023 is no exception.