With no clear outcome of where tariffs will settle out, vendors are fine-tuning the forecasting and timing of shipments more than ever and just trying to manage whatever lies in their control.
A panel of shippers at the recent AHFA/SFA Logistics Conference had no firm answers for current challenges, but they did talk about mitigating them as best they can. How are they dealing with tariff-inspired chaos?
“It’s day-to-day,” said Michael Williams, operations and compliance manager at American Woodcrafters. “As a smaller case goods importer, it hits us hard.”
Hooker Furnishings has been working with Asian vendors on cost-sharing, according to Vice President of Domestic Operations Scott Prillaman, adding, “You need a really good partnership with your vendors, your customers and your attorneys as well.”
From a compliance perspective, the rapid shifts in amounts, targeted source countries and timelines make the current tariff situation particularly hard to understand, said Rowe Furniture Logistics Manager Patricia Leonard. Rowe manufacturers upholstery stateside, but Chinese fabrics made up a significant portion of its selection, and the company also imports case goods and occasional.
“You can’t change your supply chain overnight, and a lot of our fabrics come from China,” Leonard said. “When the tariff went to 145%, the factories stopped producing the fabrics; they started again when the tariff went back down.”
That sort of fluctuation is particularly difficult at a build-to-order house such as Rowe and makes communicating with customers even more critical.
To mitigate those moving targets from end to end, Rowe is marrying up with specialized carriers and prioritizing relationships with freight forwarders and brokers.
Rather than shopping around, Hooker Furnishings is concentrating on tried-and-true supply chain partners, and making sure it negotiates pricing that works for carriers.
“We try to sign partnerships with carriers who’ve been with us in hard times,” Prillaman said. “We try not to have the lowest rate, because if you do you’re going to get bumped.”
Getting bumped is a fact of life particularly at smaller companies such as American Woodcrafters.
“We don’t have the power, say Hooker has, to negotiate contracts,” Williams said. “We have to take our black eyes and hopefully be able to see through the other eye.”
Alternative channels
Vendors continue to expand beyond the traditional retail channel to include customers such as online sellers and designers. The panel talked about serving those alternative channels.
“You used to ship to retailers or receivers who had a dock,” said Rowe’s Leonard. “We’ve taken on a lot of e-commerce customers, and we ask them to bring on their own freight program. We do a lot of that through portals, and we have to do a lot of manual work entering packing slips into the portal, so we’re working on integration.”
Prillaman and Williams agreed that improved integration is needed at Hooker and American Woodcrafters, respectively.
The design trade has been a particular focus of late for many vendors, especially at upper-middle and above price points. A particular challenge there is that channel is as fragmented as traditional retail was 20 to 30 years ago.
“On the designer side, they don’t want to (deal with) the carrier,” said Leonard, so Rowe makes delivery arrangements and has designers pre-pay for delivery. “We have to trust that designers are giving us the truth of what we’ll see when we get to the customer’s home like an elevator or turns on stairs. We rely on white-glove partners there.”
The design trade is increasingly important at Hooker Furnishings.
“We’re developing an interactive software portal where (designers) can build their own order,” Prillaman said. “For delivery we work with the Metropolitans and Deliverights of the world.”
Getting selective
Panelists also discussed how they go about choosing transportation partners.
“Our product is very bulky, and we don’t palletize so that limits who we can use,” said Leonard at Rowe regarding truck delivery to retail customers and order fulfilment for designers and online customers. “We work with specialized furniture carriers and white glove providers.”
While a relatively small company, a presence overseas helps American Woodcrafters optimize its logistics.
“We are fortunate to have boots on the ground in Indonesia,” Williams said. “They’re able to develop good relationships with carriers where there’s some give and take.”
Hooker Furnishings also has what Prillaman called “a great team” in Asia and strong relationships all along the chain with steamship lines, NVOs and drayage providers stateside.
He emphasized the importance of “fair” pricing: “We aren’t the cheapest guy.”
A stated goal with tariffs is to return manufacturing jobs to the United States, but panelists believed the handwork and finishing involved in better furniture, labor availability and cost of production hinder that from happening.
Rowe has been importing case goods and occasional the past five or six years to complement its domestically produced upholstery. Leonard has doubts whether large-scale production of the wood furniture Rowe wants will return stateside.
“I’d like to see it shift back to the U.S., but I don’t know,” she said. “Everyone’s holding back on over-ordering, and we’re going to be reliant on international trade.”
Williams, noting that American Woodcrafters has no domestic sourcing, said, “You can’t bring back factory work if no one wants to work in a factory.”
Hooker Furnishings has significant stateside production through its three domestic upholstery divisions.
“From a case goods perspective we used to have very big (factories) but bringing them back here is almost a pipe dream,” Prillaman said. “It would take half a generation to build a work force, and then there’s the permitting and building involved. There are opportunities for smaller, more automated items.”
Furniture Today / Staff Editors / June 27, 2025
By Powell Slaughter, Contributing Editor