The High-end Furniture Market
The world market for high-end furniture is worth approximately US$ 50 billion, including high end – design furniture and contract furniture for high-end projects, such as five stars hotels, yachts, luxury private villas, etc. that represent around 30% of the market. The world market for high-end furniture is a concentrated one: the top 10 countries in the market absorb over 80% of the total high-end furniture; North America and Asia and Pacific, including China, being the main markets.
UNITED STATES FIRST MARKET
The over 17 million millionaires living in the United States boost the high-end furniture market, making it the first market. The United States is, in fact, the richest country in the world with a total wealth of over US$ 98,000 billion, and is home to the largest number of world’s millionaires with a share of 41% of the total. Furthermore, compared to the wealth distribution in the rest of the world, the US distribution has a high proportion of the population with wealth above US$ 100,000, and by far the greatest number of members of the top 1% global wealth group.
CHINA FOLLOWS
China is the largest market in the Asian and Pacific area and ranks second worldwide. China’s high-end furniture market accounts for only for a limited share of the total Chinese furniture market, but due to the huge size of the market, this means a total value of US$ 11 billion accounting for about 22% of the world high-end furniture market. Germany and the United Kingdom follow at a distance, while Japan is the fifth market.
THE RELEVANT ROLE OF EUROPE
The world high-end design furniture market is mainly dominated by players originating from Europe, the United States, and Japan. Europe, in particular, continues to play a relevant role in the global market of luxury goods, reflecting its leadership in almost all market segments, including the furniture segment, thanks to a high number of companies with strong and worldwide recognized brands.
Historically, the European high-end design furniture industry is, in fact, a large and important industry. Production of high-end furniture in Europe is highly concentrated. Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and France hold a combined share of 75% of Europe’s production. Italy and Germany, in particular, are the leading manufacturing countries in the segment. The European high-end furniture industry is characterized by the presence of companies with strong brands, which are recognized worldwide for their quality, their creative capacity for innovative designs and responsiveness to changing demand. The distinctive characteristics of European high-end firms (excellence in quality, brand exclusivity, rarity and craftsmanship of products) combined with their global vocation, allowed the European furniture high-end industry to achieve worldwide leadership in all market segments, being the result of their century-long tradition in handcrafted luxury products.
LUXURY FASHION AND CARMAKERS BRANDS ENTERED THE HOME MARKET
Furthermore, over the past decades, it has been possible to observe an expansion of luxury fashion brands and of luxury carmakers into the design and manufacture of luxury homewares. For these brands, the idea is to offer a complete universe, an appropriate lifestyle experience and also help retain customer loyalty to the brand. Hence, recent years have seen countless collaborations between prominent fashion designers and established furniture manufacturers, creating furniture and homeware collections.
The companies operating in the segment show a healthy sector where the majority of the firms in the segment are recording growth, outperforming the total home furniture segment. If we consider the competitive system of the European high-end interior design industry, it’s possible to observe the high fragmentation of the industry: despite its global appeal, the sector is made by a plethora of SMEs companies. However, recently, it’s worth noting an increase in the level of concentration and a trend towards becoming more global, due to big acquisitions, mergers with international players, interested in entering the luxury segment and due to the foundation of interior design hubs/groups.
CITIES
Mature markets remain at the forefront of market expansion. If we consider the cities’ furniture market size, largest cities such as New York, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo are the top furniture markets with a value of nearly US$ 6 billion, but new locations are also emerging and are targeted by high-end furniture manufacturers.
When it comes to furniture demand forecasts over the 2018- 2023 period, the remarkable growth rates of Chinese and Indian cities becomes evident. In the Chinese cities, e.g., increasing numbers of international high-end furniture brands have adopted multichannel strategies by establishing standalone showrooms, speciality stores in high-end furniture retailers, working with multiple regional distributors covering key markets, developing online or online-to-offline channels through reputable retailers or online platforms.
Despite being mature markets, also the North American and the European cities are still very attractive for international high-end furniture brands which continue to pursue expansion strategies of retailer store networks, as these cities still display credentials, which are likely to boost the demand for the furniture sector in the coming years, although at slower growth rates compared to the Chinese and Indian cities.
CSIL Market Research Report ‘The high-end design furniture market’ (May 2019), provides an overview of the world market for high-end home furniture, with a particular focus on Europe. The Report analyses the geographical areas with the highest potential in terms of high-end home furniture consumption, demand drivers at a global level. potential furniture market in a selection of 30 cities, focus on the high-end home furniture industry in Europe.
The Report can be purchased and downloaded at: https://worldfurnitureonline.com/research-market/high-end-design-furniture-market-0058649.html
