A COVID-19 Furniture Industry Update: How to survive now and thrive later

This article is not about how you should prepare your supply chain and operations staff for the COVID-19 disruption.  It’s way too late for that – you are now in the middle of the disruption and trying to figure out how to cope with it.  More importantly, you are also probably wondering how to restart or ramp up your logistics, distribution, delivery, and customer operations once the pandemic is over and life begins to return to normal. While there is no way to predict the future, it may be wise to avoid some of the gloomier prognosis and focus on the potential for you as a furniture retailer to emerge stronger and in a more competitive position.  

Let’s take a moment to look back at history.  Remember the gloomy predictions after 9-11? As it turned out, the year after 9-11 was an outstanding year for furniture sales – there was even a term for it: the “cocooning effect.”  People were too afraid to travel, so they spent their discretionary income on their homes – including buying furniture. We take the view that history tends to repeat itself. At no other time have so many Americans been forced to avoid discretionary spending on travel, dining,  entertainment, and consumer products. It is not illogical to assume that this will create pent up demand. In addition, as the fear of traveling may not dissipate as quickly - consumers may redirect discretionary funds towards “cocooning” - spending money to make their home more comfortable.  Again, there are no guarantees that this will happen - but what if history repeats itself? Regardless, things will get better at some point.  

Instead of “waiting it out” - you have an opportunity to take full advantage of current circumstances to optimize your organization and operations as well as preparing for the inevitable improvement in business conditions.  As Jim Schleckser states in his article “Never Waste a Good Crisis”: “The best leaders never waste a good crisis because it affords them the chance to make the kind of large wholesale changes their organization needs. They let the fire do some of the work for them to make the organization receptive to change.”

We have created a two-part checklist with the “Never Waste a Good Crisis” concept in mind.  The first section is designed to help you get through the current crisis, while the second is designed to help you plan and organize your business for the economic recovery.