Pandemic Induced Changes in Demand & Supply of Furniture

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Faheem Khan, Founder & CEO - Vezza Interiors & Space Saving Solutions shares with Realty+ his thoughts and vision about the current and the future scenario of furniture sector in India Long ago a Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote that “Change is the Only Constant in Life”. While all of us witness regular but small changes constantly happening within & around us at all times, the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic dramatically altered the pace at which changes were happening. Majority of globe (almost 58% of world population) came to a sudden halt, a situation one could hardly find precedence in recorded human history. Words & terms like Lockdown, Pandemic, Covid, Social Distancing, Work from Home, Online Classes became part of our everyday vocabulary. This unprecedented disruption impacted almost every person and every sector, most negatively but some positively. In India, brick & mortar businesses were forced to redraw their plans in order to survive as changed behavior & social distancing led to huge shift in purchasing needs & behavior. Biggest implied change due to pandemic was shift from offline to online meetings & online purchasing. Furniture industry is amongst the few industries that witnessed a high growth post pandemic. This was mainly due to the exponential rise in number of people working from home and number of students attending online classes. Most urban homes became make shift offices or classrooms with dining table coming to the rescue of most. This unending ‘stay at home’ scenario led people to pay attention to their furniture & interior needs. Study tables, chairs, kid’s furniture, laptop tables, book shelves started selling like hot cakes wherever they were easily available online. While brick & mortar stores struggled to even make their ends meet, this changed scenario was a windfall for most of the online players, specially the established one’s as most saw an unexpected growth in their topline revenue post the 1st lockdown in India. According to Redseer, the $17 billion Indian furniture industry is growing at a CAGR of 15-17% with online furniture segment clocking a whopping growth at a CAGR of 80-85%. On supply side, pandemic resulted in initial disruption in workforce availability & logistics coupled with next to nil foot-fall in physical stores. This made sellers rethink about their business models and the agile players shifted focus to their online presence by improving customer’s overall online shopping experience. Furniture manufacturers are now realizing the changed scenario where they need to spruce up their designs to suit the current need of consumers which is slowly but surely shifting towards multi-utility furniture. Since most urban homes now have to double up as workspace too, manufacturers catering to metropolitan & tier-1 cities in India need to come up with smart pull down furniture range which occupies wall space instead of expensive floor space. The decade of 2020-30 is expected to witness a high growth in demand of ergonomic chairs, kid’s furniture & smart space saving furniture products like wall beds, expandable beds, study cum beds, sofa cum beds, folding, expandable &/or wall mounted study and dining tables. In short, suppliers who adapt to multichannel sales strategies, come up with good quality smart furniture and offer easy payment options will see their fortunes rise.