New Home Construction Trend Reflected in Windows Sourcing

1/27/2019 | 5 min read

Hello again.

In this week’s Thomas Index we’re going to take a look at four product and service categories that have seen an upward trend in sourcing activity on the Thomasnet.com platform for the past four weeks running.

First up is the category of windows. Increased sourcing activity in this category could be driven in part by new home construction, which according to government data grew more than forecast in March, with most of the rise attributed to construction of multifamily homes such as apartment buildings. In fact, the number of homes under construction at the end of March was 1.125 million, which is the highest level since July 2007. New home construction may not be the only factor driving this upward trend, however, as one look at the top windows suppliers at Thomasnet.com shows manufacturers of all types of windows, from cashier and transactional type windows to vehicle windows, to stained glass windows and more.

The next category on a four-week upward trend in sourcing activity is contract manufacturing, packaging and private labeling for Herbal Formulas. This is a booming category, as consumers continue their trend toward natural remedies and preventive care over chemical solutions. In fact, according to a report by Global Industry Analysts, the global market for herbal supplements is expected to exceed $140 billion by 2024.

Next up on our list of four upward trending categories is consumer direct dropshipping services. Dropshipping is a service where a manufacturer or supplier will ship directly to the home of a buyer that purchased the product from a retailer. While this has typically been done for online retailers, brick and mortar retailers are getting in on the game, hoping to better compete against e-commerce rivals without having to spend more on inventory. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Macy’s and Home Depot have adopted a dropshipping strategy, and smaller retailers such as Pier One Imports and Shoe Carnival have announced plans to get on the dropshipping bandwagon.

Rounding out our list is the category of pressure gages. There are nearly 1,300 suppliers of pressure gages on the Thomasnet.com platform, and a look at just the top four show the tremendous range of products in this category.

Moving on from these four categories, here’s a quick look at the top ten products and services being sourced over the past four weeks at Thomasnet.com:

These are just ten out of more than 60,000 industrial, commercial, and MRO product and service categories on our platform, so to make this top ten list, there’s a huge amount of buying activity going on in these categories. If you’re a supplier in any of the categories we’ve looked at today, now is the time to get your marketing in line to take advantage of these opportunities.

Well, that’s what our data shows this week. The best way to get this weekly Thomas Index report — and other useful industry news — is to sign up for our daily Thomas Industry Update. You can do so by visiting Thomasnet.com.

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.