By Frank Verna
The shifts in consumer spending and the explosion in housing wealth created by the pandemic have put the growth of the outdoor furniture industry at “ludicrous” speed.
Material suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers have been forced to make changes to their product offerings, processes, and personnel structures over the past two years that will affect our industry in the years to come. If the situation were different, these decisions would have happened over a long period of time, and some may not have been made at all.
Through this challenging and exciting time, it’s important to seek opportunities for growth through greater understanding.
We have learned what our retailers value in their partnerships as they were forced to look at their vendors and decide whether to increase the number of brands they carry or cut back only to those they were confident would ship consistently.
We also learned the value “omni-channel” retailing in the outdoor furniture industry as many retailers were forced to accelerate their migration from pure brick-and-mortar to brick-and-click.
Some material suppliers were faced with the task of prioritizing their backlog and customer base in order to meet as much demand as possible. This taught us how broad the supply base for raw materials is as many manufacturers were able to find new suppliers, particularly in fabrics.
Of course, we all now have a new appreciation for shipping containers as well as the boats and truck chassis required to move them. I think we have learned how complex logistics actually are.
The model has certainly changed as domestics and imports are shipping in similar lead times right now. It will be interesting to see if the supply chain will “normalize” at greater efficiencies than before or if new models emerge that will change the complexion of the industry.
In either scenario, it’s safe to say the outdoor furniture industry will emerge from this stronger and smarter.
Frank Verna is senior vice president of consumer sales at Tropitone.
