TRIAD — The furniture industry appears to have seen an uptick in business on Black Friday, a spot of good news after several months in which new orders lagged behind the levels of last fall, according to the latest report by an industry observer.
The latest “Furniture Insights” report from the Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm in High Point said that early reporting on Black Friday indicated that business was up overall, mainly because of the strength of online purchases.
That follows several national economic indicators trending in the right direction, particularly Consumer Confidence and existing-home sales, the report said.
“These gains will need to be sustained to meaningfully filter down to the furniture industry, as we continue to see a decline in current orders and shipments for participants in our survey compared to a year ago. However, a review of recent public company results does provide some hope in that the year over year declines have narrowed in their last quarterly filings on average,” it said.
Both this week’s “Furniture Insights” and the previous one in late October, following the fall High Point Market, sounded cautious optimism for 2025.
“The mood of market seemed to be largely positive,” the October report said, “though the U.S. elections and potential for tariffs were also on many people’s minds.”
This week’s report, written by assurance partner Mark Laferriere, also mentioned President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs, particularly on imports from China.
“While we have seen most of our clients significantly reduce their reliance on China produced goods over the last 10 to 15 years, there is still little doubt that tariffs will be disruptive to the overall industry, providing both challenges and opportunities,” Laferriere wrote. “I suppose no one can say we don’t live in interesting times.”