After the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, everything changed. A few months back it became officially a global pandemic. People stayed at home, and the supply chain drastically changed.
At the beginning of the pandemic, people went on panic buying and grappled for necessities, especially sanitation items that would protect them from the coronavirus. This resulted in a shortage of supply.

The COVID-19 pandemic put every business at risk when many of them have faced bankruptcy. Commercial establishments and offices had no choice but to find options to keep the business going. And the furniture industry is no exemption to this phenomenon.

What now? Is there a future for industries, including the furniture industry? What will happen to them in these challenging times?

In a basic sense, one would consider that getting furniture these times is their least priority. But looking at a wider lens, the industry of furniture is influential in sustaining the economy directly and indirectly.

Adapting to the Current Pandemic

The workforce has been downgraded to a limited number to help flatten the curve of the COVID-19 transmission. Thus, the corporate world would find ways to adapt when it comes to redesigning the workplace to fit the current needs, as long as this will make companies survive the impact of the pandemic.

Flattening of the curve will take some time. Hence, the new normal was born, and people had to practice physical distancing through limited movement in the office. The spread of COVID can be slowed through social distancing, but all the more it can be prevented when half of the workforce works remotely and avoids public places. This, obviously, will have an impact on furniture industries now that offices are redesigning their work environment, retrofitting them to accommodate the returning employees post COVID.

Building the adaptive ‘new normal’ office environment and work-from-home setups make a lot more sense and provide positive returns for facilities and furniture companies.

The COVID-19 Furniture

Globally, the health sector aims to ensure that the pandemic will soon end so that everybody can go back to normal. However, the old normal has long been gone, and we have to wear a new norm that’s going to stay for good while the battle to eradicate the virus isn’t done yet. If there is a solution, it will take a while, and we’ll be leaning on what’s available.

Every piece of furniture is essential to every aspect of one’s life. All movements of people within the office and home depend on the presence and functionality of furniture.

Those who opt to work at home for the first time have never seen their home as vague as they have realized it when they go to work and leave the house every day. Setting up their work in any corner of the house would mean adding ‘any’ piece of furniture that will complete their workstation.

Although showrooms and galleries are closed for the moment, this does not mean the end of the furniture industry’s fate. True that COVID-19 prevents us from going out, there are other means to get our merchandise. For one, technology plays a significant role in the way people shop. During the early months of the pandemic, people are focused on buying personal essentials online. Now that the online marketplace is teeming with everything they need and that working from home makes them realize what is lacking in their home environment, furniture shops join the bandwagon.

The demand in furniture pieces like dining tables, long desks, modern workstations, ergonomic chairs, pedestals or casegoods, and shelves rises significantly. The rapid surge in demand is shown in the online buying behavior of the consumers who mostly work from home.

And for the corporate setup, brands are getting aware of the increasing demand for customized office furniture. The continued innovation is mere proof that the furniture market is going to expand in the coming years.

Serving in Times of Uncertainty

The global pandemic threatened our source and way of living, making this a time of uncertainty. However, here at Office Interiors Atlanta, we continue to adapt and bring novel solutions to all our collaborators and customers around the world in order to win the battle. Still, the work-from-home setup and modified office environment are blessings in disguise because they honed us to become better providers no matter what the situation. Even if we took long strides in developing ways to adopt the new normal, it helped our industry work in full capacity.

Since we are dependent on the supply chain, our crisis lies on whether big-name suppliers and manufacturers can survive the same challenges brought by the virus. These obstacles may appear inevitable, a risk that every business must handle. But being ahead of the game, we trust our partners for their smart solutions and good decision making that pay well in the end.