As a reliable manufacturer & exporter ZZ Exporter team share our knowledge to home textile importers and entrepreneurs who want to learn about home textile industry and start business in this category.
This guide will answer to most important questions and lead the reader through all the stages of household textiles import business cycle.
Last updated: October 2025
Is Home Textile Import and Distribution Business Worth Starting ?
Yes. The home textile is easy to enter and compete with small budget, offers some profit margins and does not require complex licenses.
What You Get
A interior textile business typically yields profit margins of 5% – 10% for beginners and up to 35% for established businesses.
What You Invest
- Approximate minimum budget required to start home furnishing business on profitable scale per region:
- Africa ~15,000 USD
- CIS ~15,000 USD
- Europe ~20,000 USD
- Middle East ~25,000 USD
- USA ~33,000 USD
2. Know Your Customer: #1 sale point in house linens products is visual appeal and perceived quality. This business turns around guessing audience’s preferences for their budget.
3. Get patience: Product lead time is 50 days on average and batch turnover takes around 30-40 days. In total, roughly 3 months to make your first full business cycle.
The Risks
- Unreliable suppliers may cause delivery errors, quality issues or even financial losses.
- Poor product quality or weak design choices will result in slow sales and lower profit margins.
- Mismatch of sizes that are standard in your market will often make it impossible to sell the goods.
House Linen Products Industry Snapshot
Scope of Evaluation. We consider following items to represent house linens category: Bedroom linens, Kitchen Textiles, Towels, Blankets, Duvet, Quilts, Tablecloth.
Home textile is an old-school and well-established industry with a global value of $136.25 B in 2025. We answer the most important questions before investing in this category.
This article is frequently updated considering changes in industry.
Home Textile Industry is Beginner Friendly and Here is Why
Home textile category is growing industry with untapped potential. The category products are not complex, meaning even newer manufacturers and companies can succeed on the market.
Home fabrics are primary about taste, design and quality – and those are evolving with time depending on global situation and trends.
Home textile category typically offers between 5% to 35% profit margins.
Global Home Textile Market Overview in 2025
Textile Goods for House Linens Use Grows Faster Than Expected: 6.1% Yearly
The global house linen market is expanding faster than projected, growing at an annual rate of 6.1%.
- 2018: $94.73 billion
- 2025: $136.25 billion (previous forecast: $133.4 billion [1])
With 43.83% growth in 7 years home fabrics industry exceeded growth estimation for 2025 by 2.1%.
The world population increased by 6.5% and world GDP has risen by 30.52% since 2018 this illustrates that the industry is alive and thriving.
According to Mordor Intelligence, the global market size is expected to further rise to $188.61 B in 2030.
Where to Source From: Major Import & Export Countries of Household Textiles
Top 5 Exporter Countries by market share:
- China – 43.8%
- India – 7.7%
- Pakistan – 7.0%
- Turkey – 2.8%
- Vietnam – 2.6%
Top 5 Importer countries by market share:
- USA – 26.1%
- Germany – 6.6%
- Japan – 5.3%
- France – 4.6%
- UK – 3.8%
Top 5 home fabric products exporter countries by USD value and share in world exports by product categories:
| Country | USD Export | Annual USD Growth 20-24 | Share in World export |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | $9.77 B | 5% | 41.0% |
| Pakistan | $4.31 B | 5% | 18.1% |
| India | $2.03 B | 5% | 8.6% |
| Türkiye | $1.08 B | -4% | 4.5% |
| Portugal | $0.61 B | 0% | 2.5% |
| Country | USD Export | Annual USD Growth 20-24 | Share in World export |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | $3.04 B | 1% | 51.9% |
| Mexico | $0.57 B | 10% | 9.7% |
| Germany | $0.3 B | -1% | 5.1% |
| Poland | $0.25 B | 1% | 4.3% |
| Czech Republic | $0.17 B | 8% | 2.9% |
| Country | USD Export | Annual USD Growth 20-24 | Share in World export |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | $2.39 B | 3% | 40.8% |
| India | $1.98 B | 0% | 33.8% |
| Türkiye | $0.2 B | 10% | 3.4% |
| Viet Nam | $0.12 B | 2% | 2.0% |
| Kyrgyzstan | $0.1 B | 100% | 1.6% |
Source: Export and import data by Trade Map.
Prices and Profit Margins: 2019–2024 Trend
Outline: Linen category exports worth $23.83 B in 2024 with increasing prices.
The total export value for bed linen subcategory of home textile went from $20.14 B in 2019 to $23.83 in 2024, +18.32% while the average world prices increase by 4% during same period.
| Country | Value in 2019 | Value in 2020 vs 2019 | Value in 2024 vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | $27.89 B | $75.58 B (+171%) | $34.47 B (+24%) |
| India | $5.16 B | $4.77 B (-8%) | $6.04 B (+17%) |
| Pakistan | $4.07 B | $4.22 B (+4%) | $5.52 B (+36%) |
| Türkiye | $2.11 B | $2.51 B (+19%) | $2.22 B (+5%) |
| Viet Nam | $1.85 B | $3.19 B (+72%) | $2.03 B (+10%) |
| Country | USD/ton 2019 | USD/ ton 2024 (vs 2019) |
|---|---|---|
| China | 7.841 | 7.242 (-8%) |
| India | 6.587 | 6.980 (+6%) |
| Pakistan | 4.843 | 5.570 (+15%) |
| Türkiye | 7.946 | 9.154 (+15%) |
| Viet Nam | 9.440 | 9.849 (+4%) |
Major Events for Home Textile Industry Past 10 years
Outline: There are no big technological changes in industry but 2 main geopolitical:
1) COVID-19 resulted in unprecedented increase of capital growth.
2) USA trade policy updated will create opportunities for new markets.
Together these events created a perfect storm for new players to hop-on and secure their place on this market.
1. COVID-19 Earned Extra $86 Billion to Textile Industry
While heavily damaging other sectors pandemic had a positive effect on textile industry in general and home furnishing particularly. First time in many years people took a good look at their environment around in the house due to being locked.
This along with mask demand urge added additional revenue of $86 B to global textile industry during pandemic in 2020 and 2021 combined.
| Global Sales | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projected Exports | $67 B | $69 B | $71 B | $73 B | $280 B |
| Real Exports | $67 B | $123 B | $91 B | $85 B | $367 B |
| Extra Exports | 0 | $54 B | $20 B | $12 B | $86 B |
In 2024 after the pandemic the textile sector stabilized to normal with $78.9 B (+17.7% compared to 2019).
The 2020-2022 season can be considered as “once-in-a-generation” positive black swan event for home textile industry.
2. The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Reshuffle in Textile Industry
USA is the largest importer of home textile products in the world. With recent shifts in geopolitics and proactive position of USA administration all industries got reshuffled. While this is bad for stability this event also creates new opportunities, and newer players have a window of opportunity to enter.
Türkiye has one of the lowest textile import tariffs with only 2.8% of total bed linen exports. Take a look at what products Turkish textile industry can offer to American importers.
| Country | Regular Tariff | Trade remedies | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 6% | 7.50% + 20% + 10% | 43.50% |
| India | 6% | 25% + 25% | 56% |
| Pakistan | 6% | 19% | 25% |
| Türkiye | 6% | 15% | 24% |
| Viet Nam | 6% | 20% | 26% |
| Bangladesh | 6% | 20% | 26% |
| Mexico | 0% | 25% | 25% |
Source
Industry Competition Level Among Manufacturers & Retailers
Outline:
High competition between manufacturers allows better prices and offers.
High competition between retail forces to specialize deeper on products and greater attention to ongoing trends.
Home Fabrics are considered one of the less complex products which require more human labor than technology. Due to this fact the sector is dominated by emerging economies where labor is cheaper and sufficient.
As a result home fabrics are quite price competitive for both manufacturers and retailers.
However, the price is not top 1 selling point for home furnishings, instead the appeal and quality are the most important factors. The main reason is that industry is focused on B2C, not B2B.
This allows smaller companies to compete with giants. If the company finds best suitable product design for given season, they can easily win customers over huge brands.
There is no clear information about how many home fabrics manufacturers are in the world. However, it is known that there are at least 2,017 manufacturers of bed linen who do export.
It is also known that in 2024 about $1.62 B worth of bed linen were exported.
Totaling $807k per company, which is 5 times less than Carpets & Rugs industry.
Interior Textile Products Categories and Distribution Channels
Main home textile products categories are:
- Towels, bathrobes.
- Bed linens, bed sheets, bedspreads, pillows case & covers.
- Curtains.
- Blankets, quilts.
- Cushions, table linens.
Complete list of home textile product subcategories.
The distribution channels are,
64.56% of all interior textile demand comes from consumers while the 35.44% portion is generated by businesses like hotels, SPA, and others.
Offline distribution channels are still leading the total sales while online sales are expected to grow at 9.91% CAGR up to 2030.
- Offline – 66%
- Specialty Stores 45%
- Supermarkets 20%
- Others 1%
- Online – 33%
Profit Calculation: Landing Cost Example for LA Retailer
Let’s calculate the average landing cost for bed linen made of cotton:
| Parameter | China | Türkiye |
|---|---|---|
| Vessel: | 40ft container | 40ft container |
| Export Country Port: | CN SHG | TR AMR |
| Import Country Port: | USA (USA LAX) | USA (USA LAX) |
| FOB USD/set: | 13.00 USD/set | 13.00 USD/set |
| CFR USD/set: | 0.60 USD/set | 1.16 USD/set |
| Import Taxes & Duties: | 43.50% | 24.00% |
| Inland Transportation: | 0.55 USD/set | 0.55 USD/set |
| Landing Cost: | 20.31 USD/set | 18.24 USD/set |
| Estimated Amazon Sale Cost: | 86% | 86% |
| Total Cost: | 37.78 USD/set | 33.92 USD/set |
| Average Price on Amazon: | 45.00 USD/set | 45.00 USD/set |
| Approx. Profit Margin | 19% | 33% |
Depending on sourcing country, amount purchased at once, cost optimization and retail channel there is at least 19% profit margin.
If you optimize the source country and selling channel you can easily double or triple profit margin for bed sheet set like in the example above.
Getting Started
- Decide which niche you want to start with (bed linens, towels, curtains etc.)
- Analyze for opportunities
- Source the goods
- Sell the goods
- Analyze the process, improve and repeat
If you are considering starting a home textile import business or looking for new supplier in Türkiye feel free to contact us for offer: