This April, when Cathy Roberson wanted to lie on her sofa comfortably, she found it collapsed; she knew that the sofa should be changed. However, when she went to La-Z-Boy, her favorite place, and wanted to order a sofa, she learned that she would have to wait at least half a year to receive the goods.

As a supply and demand chain analyst, Roberson knows that the Covid-19 epidemic has hit importers very hard. This experience also tells Roberson that even if it has been one year since the Covid-19 epidemic, vaccines have gradually become popular, but the US home furnishing industry still has a long way to go back to the level before the epidemic.

Even though Lazboy is assembled and produced in the United States, the raw materials come from all over the world. A series of problems can be said to have brought down the supply chain of the home furnishing industry, and it is difficult for retailers to stand up.

The problems that stand in front of Lazboy today are the disconnection of the supply chain, the inability to obtain raw materials from overseas, absence of workers, and delays in logistics. These problems led to a 1.2% drop in sales and a 15% drop in net profit in the last quarter of 2020. You know, the end of the year is when retail companies launch a variety of discounts and promotions, and people's desire to consume is strong.

The CEO of Lazboy stated on the April conference call that consumers will have to wait 5 to 9 months for the next order unprecedentedly.

If home furnishing companies want to solve this problem, they must re-examine their supply chain. Only under such difficult circumstances, brands that can deliver products to consumers on time can they have the last laugh in the fierce market competition.

Some analysts said that at this time last year, everyone was canceling furniture orders, and a large number of factories in China, Vietnam, and India, which are major exporters of household goods, closed down. After a while, when home work became mainstream, the demand for home furnishing skyrocketed. Although orders have started to increase again, it will take some time for manufacturers to restore production capacity.

As shown in the chart, RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) and Wayfair, which were affected by the epidemic and were able to come up with countermeasures faster, rebounded faster than Lazboy.

In response to the crisis, Gary Friedman, the CEO of American high-end household goods company RH, set up a response team with 10 supplier executives and adjusted the prices of the products. This effect was excellent. In a recent conference call, he also raised questions: "Should we produce household products in the United States for the American market? Should we produce and supply the Asian market in Asia? Is this a good business model?" It indicates that RH may be localized production to save international shipping  in the future.

In this crisis, Wayfair, a home network platform with a large amount of logistics infrastructure, has more choices of inter-regional transportation routes and is relatively closer to suppliers; on the other hand, suppliers can also easily obtain them more information about consumers' shopping habits. Therefore, suppliers will give priority to cooperation with Wayfair. This advantage also makes Wayfair's inventory turnover rate soared from -1.37% in the previous quarter to 102.72% in the second quarter of fiscal 2020, and revenue has gradually increased.

This year, perhaps those home furnishing companies that can deliver goods to consumers on time will have a better chance of occupying a larger market share.