As 2026 draws to a close, furniture manufacturers can look back on a year in which packaging stopped being the last step on the line and became a management topic. Regulation, trade policy and online retail all pushed in the same direction: protect the product better, use less material, and do it with fewer people. Here are the four shifts that shaped the year, and what they mean for 2027.
1. EU packaging rules became reality
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has applied since 12 August 2026. Most of its heavy obligations still lie ahead, but the direction is clear. From 2030, transport, grouped and e-commerce packaging may contain no more than 50% empty space, and fillers such as air cushions, bubble wrap and foam count as empty space.
For furniture, where oversized cartons and loose void fill have long been normal, this means packaging sized to the product, not the product squeezed into a standard box. Producers that started measuring their pack-to-product ratio this year are in a far better position than those waiting for the details.
2. Tariffs put cost per unit under the microscope
In the United States, Section 232 tariffs of 25% on upholstered wood furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities stayed in place throughout 2026. The planned increases, to 30% for upholstered furniture and 50% for cabinets and vanities, were postponed to 1 January 2027.
Exporters selling into the US spent the year looking for savings elsewhere in the chain, and packaging was an obvious place to look: less material, fewer damaged shipments and less labour per unit.
3. E-commerce kept adding handling touches
Online furniture sales kept growing. US Census Bureau figures cited by Future Market Insights put e-commerce at 17.1% of US retail sales in Q2 2026, up 12.2% year on year. The same report values the furniture flat-pack protection market at about USD 313 million in 2026, rising to roughly USD 510 million by 2036.
A sofa or flat-pack wardrobe sold online passes through far more hands than one delivered on a pallet to a showroom. Every extra touch is a chance for corner damage, and visible damage often triggers a return even when the furniture itself is fine.
4. Automation became the default answer
Labour shortages and the need for consistent packs pushed more manufacturers toward automated end-of-line systems. Three approaches stood out this year:
- Orbital stretch wrapping for long and flat parts such as panels, doors and profiles. Combined units like the Spinner 1000 S BN apply bubble wrap and stretch film in a single pass. We looked at the latest generation in our article on the new direct-drive Spinner series.
- Dedicated upholstery lines that wrap sofas and armchairs automatically, such as the Artemis modular sofa packaging line.
- Box-on-demand systems that cut a carton to the exact size of each item and reduce void fill, for example C-Suite. Fully automated flat-pack lines go one step further, as covered in our piece on operatorless flat-pack packaging.
What to watch in 2027
- 1 January 2027: the delayed US tariff increases on upholstered furniture, cabinets and vanities are due to take effect, unless trade agreements change them.
- PPWR details: the method for calculating empty space (due by February 2028) and harmonised labelling (from August 2028) will turn general principles into measurable rules.
- Material choices: paper-based protection is gaining share, but stretch film remains hard to beat against moisture and dust over long transit. Expect more down-gauged, mono-material PE films that are easier to recycle. Our overview of why orbital wrappers matter explains where film still wins.
The common thread is simple: the packaging line is now part of the product’s cost, its footprint and its customer experience. Manufacturers who treated it that way in 2026 start the new year with an advantage.