In the boom of cross-border e-commerce going overseas, the category of large furniture has quietly become a "dark horse". Since the epidemic, working from home and staying at home have become the new normal. In addition, overseas consumers' acceptance of cost-effective products has continued to increase. Large furniture continues to advance in major markets such as Europe, the United States, and Japan.
According to data from overseas research institutions, the global furniture market has reached US$766.2 billion in 2024, and it is expected to continue to expand at an annual compound growth rate of 5.02% from 2024 to 2028. Among them, the US market is far ahead, with a market size of US$253 billion, followed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, etc., which constitute the core target area for cross-border sellers.
Living room furniture: Sofa demand is rising, and product selection needs to be more accurate
Living room furniture has always been the "leader" of the furniture market. In 2024, its global market size has reached US$227.7 billion. On mainstream platforms such as Amazon, sofas are one of the most popular categories, and consumers in different countries have different preferences in style, structure, and price:
American consumers prefer multifunctional, large and comfortable sofas, and pay attention to seat depth, armrests, and convenient assembly;
German consumers pay more attention to the unity of sofa color and home decoration style, as well as armrest and fabric design;
Japanese consumers prefer functional sofas with small-sized designs, easy storage, and adjustable seating.
Platform data shows that in April 2025, Amazon sold nearly 170,000 sofas on the US site, a year-on-year increase of more than 30%. The sales of sofas on the German and Japanese sites also increased by more than 2,000 and more than 1,400 pieces, respectively, and the market potential continues to expand.
The rise of mattress categories, differentiated demand brings new challenges
As another major cross-border hot-selling category, mattresses have also seen a surge in sales in recent years. Especially on the US site, mattress sales in March 2025 increased by more than 200,000 pieces compared with the same period last year, with a significant increase. Sites such as the UK, Germany, and Japan also saw considerable growth.
However, cross-border sales of mattresses are not easy. They are large in size, high in value, and have strong personalized demands from consumers. They are also prone to problems such as returns after trial and transportation damage, which puts higher demands on the stability of the seller's service chain.
American consumers prefer memory foam mattresses with support and a sense of technology, and also require compressed packaging and fast delivery; German consumers pay attention to environmental certification and spine protection design; while the Japanese market prefers mattress products that are double-sided, easy to store, antibacterial and breathable. Diversification of demand also means frequent returns, and quality inspection and reprocessing have become a major rigid demand.
Frequent problems with returns of large furniture? U-Speed global return warehouse provides a one-stop solution
Cross-border furniture seems to be booming, but from the feedback of the industry, "difficulty in returns" is still a common pain point for most sellers. Whether it is due to size discrepancies, transportation damage, or buyers' return requests due to aesthetic deviations, cross-border furniture is daunting due to its large size and high return costs.
At this time, service providers with a complete overseas return network are particularly critical.
U-Speed has currently deployed return warehouses in the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries, forming an efficient and stable global return processing network. For example:
In the United States, U-Speed has three return warehouses on the East Coast (New Jersey), the West Coast (Los Angeles) and Miami, with a total area of more than 300,000 square feet, with professional quality inspection capabilities for bedding and large items, and an average daily processing capacity of more than 30,000 pieces.
In key European markets such as Germany/France/UK, U-Speed's return warehouse is equipped with a professional quality inspection operation team to support local pickup, door-to-door delivery, unpacking inspection, refurbishment or return to China for furniture categories.
The Japanese return warehouse can efficiently handle local consumers' returns of large items such as sofas and mattresses, and supports seamless docking with platforms such as Amazon Japan, meeting the high requirements of Japanese consumers for quality inspection standards.
At the same time, U-Speed provides a variety of return solutions, supporting secondary listing, defective sales, return to China or environmentally friendly destruction, helping sellers save inventory costs and improve operational efficiency. For the bedding category, U-Speed has established a mature quality inspection process, from material integrity inspection to compression and packaging integrity confirmation, to ensure that every returned product can be properly handled.
Large furniture categories such as sofas and mattresses are becoming a new blue ocean for cross-border sellers. However, high sales are also accompanied by high return rates and high processing difficulties. How to maintain service quality during growth, return processing capabilities are the key.
U-Speed provides cross-border sellers with a truly reliable large-scale return backing with a return warehouse network covering Europe, the United States and Japan, a professional quality inspection team and flexible operation plans. In the future, as the overseas market continues to expand, whoever can properly handle after-sales problems will be able to go further in this cross-border furniture war.
