Furniture retailers had reason to be cautiously optimistic about sales looking at ecommerce trends and macro factors heading into 2025. However, less than three months into the year, they face ongoing challenges.
In a Housewares & Home Furnishings category susceptible to high interest rates, housing market problems and tariffs, online merchants have already been through a lot on the heels of a sales boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, even the most successful companies in the space, which include Wayfair and Williams-Sonoma, face uncertainty after preparing for some of these challenges to subside.
Ultimately, online sales fell 0.4% year over year in 2024 for the 193 U.S.-based online retailers in Housewares & Home Furnishings from Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 Database. That database tracks the leading merchants in North America by web sales. Some of the latest end-of-year results and projections from its data were published in the new 2025 State of American Ecommerce Report.
What the top online retailers in furniture are saying about sales
Despite struggles in 2024, Wayfair still maintained its No. 1 spot atop Housewares & Home Furnishings, even as RH (formerly known as Restoration Hardware) fell out of the top five. Currently, Wayfair is No. 9 overall in the Top 2000. Digital Commerce 360 projects that its online sales in 2025 will reach $11.42 billion.
Nevertheless, its leadership has been clear about the macro factors it needs to navigate as it executes a turnaround.
Wayfair web sales by year
“I’ve talked in the past about how the overhang, a depressed housing cycle, has had on customers’ willingness to spend on their homes,” said Niraj Shah, the co-founder and CEO at Wayfair, during its February earnings call. “The forward outlook, especially in the core of our business, big and bulky furniture, is as unpredictable as any point in the past four years, with uncertainty over the state of inflation, global trade policy and interest rates, among other factors.”
Wayfair isn’t alone. Other online retailers have recently brought up the impact of tariffs on ecommerce as well. They include leaders from the Top 2000 such as as Target (No. 5) and Best Buy (No. 8), as well as Beyond, which is No. 68 overall and No. 4 in the Housewares & Home Furnishings category.
Marcus Lemonis, the executive chairman at Beyond, told investors in a Feb. 25 earnings that he did not expect tariffs to “disproportionately” impact Beyond negatively. That is because he believes “the entire marketplace, the entire space, is subjected to the same first-cost model,” he explained.
Still, Beyond is also in mid-turnaround, working — through a new deal with Kirkland’s — to bring its Bad Bath & Beyond brand back to physical stores in a limited capacity.
Tariff mitigation at Williams-Sonoma
Meanwhile, Williams-Sonoma, which ranks No. 20 overall and No. 2 in Housewares & Home Furnishings, was preparing for fallout from tariffs long before 2024’s U.S. presidential election results were in.
“We’ve mapped out a category-by-category plan to reduce China sourcing if conditions warrant, and we’re currently evaluating and quantifying the impact from additional tariffs,” said Jeff Howie, chief financial officer at Williams-Sonoma, during the company’s November 2024 earnings call. “We have a wide range of mitigation options.”
Williams-Sonoma web sales by year
Those options, Howie noted, include moving sourcing away from China to other countries if needed. In the meantime, he cited examples where Williams-Sonoma has already been souring from within the United States.
“Much of our upholstery is manufactured domestically in our facilities in North Carolina and Mississippi,” he explained. “Our lighting from Rejuvenation is manufactured in Oregon and a large portion of the Williams-Sonoma assortment is produced domestically.”
For now, these merchants are pushing ahead while also hoping for interest rates and geopolitical conditions to improve. Wayfair’s revenue growth has remained relatively flat since 2022. Williams-Sonoma raised its full-year guidance when it reported results for its fiscal third quarter in November. Even so, its net revenue fell 2.9% from the same period a year earlier.
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