At last, wholesale prices may be coming down.
For about the past 18 months, manufacturers have been steadily raising prices across the board for their home décor goods, fueled by record-high supply chain and raw material costs. Retailers, in turn, raised their prices for end-users.
According to Home Accents Today’s recently published Home Accessory Report, the majority of retailers (59%) raised prices in 2022. The survey found 44% boosted tags by 6% to 10%, and one-quarter hiked them between 11% and 15%.
For 2023, 26% of respondents have already raised prices or plan to do so, while the same percentage are putting off an increase, leaving about half (48%) as undecided. Among those who did opt for higher pricing, all of them said they did so to pass along increases that came from their vendors. Nearly three-quarters (71%) also cited inflation as a leading cause, while factors such as warehouse costs and supply chain played a much smaller role.
But at least two home décor vendors announced price reductions this summer.
Napa Home & Garden permanently reduced prices on 600 of its SKUs, partly to woo back its garden center customers according to Kerry Chope, who oversees marketing for the company. Chope told Home Accents Today during the Atlanta Market in July about the price cuts. Some of those customers that typically attend that market twice a year did not in January, and Napa wanted to lure them back.
We are wooing them again,” Chope said. “We are permanently reducing prices. We want people in the industry to know they are going down.”
Among its “well-priced” items, Chope said, are sets of three ceramic bud vases for $66 retail.
Pacific Coast Lighting also instituted an average 7.5% price decrease on select items this summer, following earlier reductions in January. It lowered prices on a total of 52 SKUs at Las Vegas Market last month, marking them with an orange sticker. The company received relief money from COVID and wanted to pass it on to its customers according to Rick Spicer, vice president of sales and marketing. —Joanne Friedrick contributed to this story.
