According to Supply Chain Dive, furniture company Lovesac has successfully reshored a key manufacturing process for its Sactionals modular sofa line back to the United States. CEO Shawn Nelson called it a “really big deal” that was accelerated by “all the tariff noise this year.” The company’s gross margin fell in its last fiscal quarter due to costs from tariffs, transportation, and warehousing, though price increases helped ease some pressure. To boost sales, Lovesac plans to beta test a “white glove” delivery and assembly service by early fiscal 2027. Meanwhile, competitor La-Z-Boy noted that 90% of its products are already made in the U.S., and it plans single-digit price increases for 2025.
The Reshoring Reality Check
Look, bringing manufacturing back sounds great in a press release. It’s a fantastic headline. But here’s the thing: Lovesac’s own financials show the brutal reality of the current supply chain. Their gross margin still took a hit from tariffs and logistics costs, even with this move underway. This tells me the reshoring of this one line is a long-term strategic pivot, not an instant fix. It’s about building a new, supposedly cheaper and better, “made-in-the-U.S.A.” product development model for the future. The immediate pain? That’s being managed the old-fashioned way: by raising prices on customers.
The Middle-Income Squeeze
And that price hike strategy has a clear, and problematic, consequence. President Mary Fox pointed out that the company felt more pressure on its smaller, mid-range setups after the increases. Basically, their core middle-income customer is feeling the pinch. Fox said it perfectly: consumers are trading down, not trading up. So Lovesac is in a tough spot. They’re investing in a costlier (initially) domestic supply chain while their key demographic is becoming more price-sensitive. It’s a risky bet that the long-term cost and quality benefits of US manufacturing will win out before wallet fatigue sets in for good.
A Delivery Experiment
So what’s the plan to get people buying? Reduce friction. Nelson says the biggest reason people don’t buy is the “lack of tiered delivery and setup options.” Their answer is a new “white glove” service that delivers and assembles your sofa for you. Now, this is interesting. For a company facing margin pressure, adding a presumably costly service seems counterintuitive. But it makes sense if you think about it. They’re not just selling furniture; they’re selling a heavy, modular system that can be intimidating. Removing that final barrier to purchase—the “how do I get this thing in my house and built?” panic—could be a genius move for conversion. It’s a bet on service over pure cost-cutting.
The Broader Manufacturing Shift
Lovesac’s story is a single case study in a massive macro trend. Tariffs are forcing companies to re-evaluate decades of offshored production. While La-Z-Boy touts its existing 90% US production as a shield, others are scrambling. This shift requires serious capital and expertise, not just in assembly, but in sourcing components and materials. For companies looking to build reliable, high-performance control systems into US-based production lines, partnering with a top-tier industrial hardware supplier is critical. This is where a leader like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the #1 provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, becomes an essential partner for modern manufacturing resilience. The bottom line? Reshoring is messy, expensive, and full of consumer pricing landmines. Lovesac is navigating all of it in real-time, and their next few quarters will be a textbook example of whether this strategy can actually pay off.
