Here’s a number to start with: 780. That’s three articles a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. A rough estimate of the items. Home business will be released during 2022. That’s a lot of words, but sometimes it helps to cut the numbers.
To capture the moment, we’ve collected stats, dollar signs and numbers from the design world. Together, they paint a picture of an industry moving from three chaotic but lucrative years into an uncertain (but hopeful) future.
The percentage that Ikea has raised prices for key parts.
In October, Retail week found that the Swedish giant had raised prices by up to 80% on key goods in the UK market, driving up the cost of items like the Jokkmokk dining table (which has risen from £99 to £179 over the past year ). Although the increases have been UK-specific, Ikea’s UK operation is not alone – after two years of supply chain issues, freight rate hikes and material shortages , brands from all walks of life raised their prices.
The number of high-profile IPOs in the home industry.
In 2021, 1stDibs, Arhaus and Compass have all gone public. In 2020, Airbnb went public. This year, no well-known brands chose to raise funds with an IPO (there were a few B2B exceptions, such as logistics platform GigaCloud Technology). The paucity of major domestic industry stock market debuts reflects a broader market downturn and the lackluster performance of recent debutants, most of whom have underperformed. Choppy market conditions leave long-running IPOs like Serena & Lily and Houzz waiting in the wings on calmer waters.
Valuation of Material Bank, after a fundraising of 175 million dollars.
Adam Sandow’s Material Sampling Platform has crashed over the past few years, recruiting tens of thousands of designers, hundreds of participating brands, and raising absolute mountains of money. This spring, after a $175 million fundraising Led by Canadian investment fund Brookfield, the company was valued at $1.9 billion, making it the rare “unicorn” start-up in the domestic industry. Several challenges lie ahead, including exporting Material Bank to Europe and Japan, and implementing its economy for luxury brands on the residential side of the industry.
The number of HR pages devoted to its new collection.
In 2015, RH launched RH Modern, a collection designed to take the brand to its next chapter. Initially plagued by production issues, it has since grown into a billion-dollar business for the California-based retailer. President and CEO Gary Friedman promised that RH Contemporary, the brand’s next massive rollout, “will have a bigger impact on this business than Modern.” The new line arrived this summer, accompanied by a 320-page “source book” (HR jargon for catalog) showcasing the designs of Jonathan Browning, Neeru Kumar and John Birch. The influx of new products comes at a pivotal time for the brand, which has postponed its long-awaited UK debut until 2023.
Kips Bay has been decorating shop windows since the last New York edition.
For obvious reasons, the New York Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2020 has been cancelled. Since then, the flagship interior design event has been on hiatus. However, the showhouse organizers did good business in other markets, turning the showhouse into a national brand with annual editions in dallas and Palm Beach. Fortunately, according to Kips Bay websitethe New York edition will return in the spring of 2023.
Money set aside for clean energy updates in the Inflation Reduction Act.
One of President Joe Biden’s signature legislative achievements was the passage this year of a bill that will set aside important funds to subsidize climate-friendly improvements. The law provides about $8 billion to provide rebates ranging from $840 to $8,000 to taxpayers who buy things like electric stoves and new heat pumps.
The percentage drop in luxury home sales this summer.
At the height of the pandemic, the wealthy got richer and were forced to stay at home – you couldn’t imagine a more favorable set of conditions for high-end real estate sales. This year, the other shoe finally fell and luxury real estate took a nose dive, especially in hot markets like California. First, the pace of sales slowed, and now prices are also taking a hit. Bess Freedman, CEO of luxury brokerage firm Brown Harris Stevens, recently said The Wall Street Journal that a year ago, high-end real estate was “this big party with champagne and caviar and everyone thought it was never going to end. … Now it’s like the lights have been turned on.
The number of United Furniture and Lane employees left unemployed by the implosion of the company.
The dramatic collapse of the US manufacturing powerhouse has made headlines for thenearly 3,000 employees out of work overnight at the end of November. However, United/Lane were not the only company to make cuts this year. Wayfair cut 5% of its workforcei.e. nearly 900 employees. Licensed article more than 200. By and large, house brands that became prominent during the peak of the pandemic are pulling back.
The number of views on TikTok for the hashtag #cloudcouch.
In fashion, beauty and music, TikTok’s rise as the go-to social platform is old news. This year, the house began to catch up, as creators and brands flocked to take advantage of TikTok’s young audience and virality engine. The app also powers real commerce: according to the resale site Kaiyofrom RH’s Cloud Sofa went viral on TikToksearches for the product on its site increased by 2,000%.
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