Digital Product Passport for furniture brands – your lifetime value playbook

Under EU policy, furniture has been identified as a priority product category because its materials, durability, and end-of-life routes drive a large share of environmental impact, especially across long service lives and multiple ownership cycles. 

If you manage furniture portfolios, that reality is familiar. Products remain in use for years or decades, combine complex materials like wood, metals, foams, and coatings, and often re-enter the market through repair, refurbishment, resale, or recycling.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation will make Digital Product Passports mandatory for furniture through upcoming product-specific requirements, with pilots expected mid-decade and enforcement to follow. A Digital Product Passport for furniture requires verifiable, machine-readable product data that supports material traceability, durability claims, and end-of-life guidance long after the first sale.

Compared with fast-moving categories, DPPs for furniture center on asset longevity and retained value. Preparing now means treating product information as a long-life asset, supported by systems that carry accurate data across design, sourcing, compliance, and downstream lifecycle use.

How is ESPR reshaping Digital Product Passport requirements for furniture brands?

Digital Product Passport requirements for furniture are being reshaped from high-level transparency expectations into defined product information obligations. Under the ESPR framework, DPPs move beyond voluntary disclosure and become a structured mechanism for creating, maintaining, and accessing product data over time.

For furniture brands, this reshaping shows up in several concrete ways:

• Product information becomes product-specific
  
  DPP requirements are no longer generic. Furniture will be governed through product-specific rules that define which product characteristics and lifecycle information must be made available.
  
  
• Information remains accessible after placement on the market
  
  Product data must persist beyond the point of sale to support use cases related to durability, repair, reuse, and end-of-life handling.
  
  
• Data must be machine-readable and reusable
  
  Digital product passports rely on structured data that can be accessed and reused by authorities and downstream parties, rather than static documents or PDFs.
  
  
• Responsibility shifts from teams to systems
  
  Meeting DPP requirements depends less on one-off compliance work and more on governed product data that stays consistent across sourcing, design, compliance, and commercial functions.

What data must a Digital Product Passport for furniture include?

Digital Product Passports are designed to carry product information that supports sustainability, circularity, and market oversight over time. For furniture, the EC signals the scope of this information through the ESPR Working Plan, with detailed requirements to be defined later through furniture-specific product rules.

At a minimum, DPPs for furniture are expected to support the following categories of information:

1. Material composition

Information on materials used in furniture products, supporting traceability, resource efficiency, and downstream reuse.

2. Substances of concern

Data on chemicals relevant to safe use, repair, recycling, and environmental protection across the product lifecycle.

3. Durability and reparability

Product characteristics related to expected lifespan, reliability, and the ability to repair or maintain products over time.

4. Recyclability and recycled content

Information that supports reuse, material recovery, and waste reduction objectives at the end of life.

5. Lifecycle information availability

Product data must remain accessible after the product is placed on the market, allowing use across repair, reuse, and end-of-life scenarios.

What are the risks and upsides for furniture brands adopting DPPs?

DPPs introduce new expectations around how furniture products are assessed, selected, and monitored across the EU market. The implications for furniture brands show up less in day-to-day operations and more in how products qualify for procurement, withstand scrutiny, and retain value over time.

The balance between risk and upside shows up in four areas:

• Market access and green procurement
  
  EU analysis of the furniture sector links fragmented product information to barriers in cross-border trade and participation in regulated purchasing channels. Harmonized product information, supported by DPPs, reduces these barriers and helps products remain eligible where sustainability and material transparency influence purchasing decisions.
  
  
• Product lifetime and durability signalling
  
  Furniture is identified as a category where durability, maintenance, and disposal information materially influence product lifetime and waste outcomes. Clear, accessible product information supports longer use phases, aligning with EU objectives to extend product lifetimes and reduce environmental impact.
  
  
• Credible sustainability and quality claims
  
  Commissioned research highlights widespread dissatisfaction with the clarity and reliability of sustainability information for furniture products, alongside broader evidence of vague environmental claims across categories. Digital Product Passports support more credible claims by making structured product information available for assessment by authorities and buyers.
  
  
• Compliance exposure over long product lifecycles
  
  Furniture products often remain on the market for many years, increasing exposure to market surveillance and evolving requirements. Centralized, consistent product information reduces the risk created by fragmented data as enforcement activity continues after products are placed on the market.
  

How PIM enables Digital Product Passport furniture compliance

DPPs require furniture brands to manage structured product information across materials, components, and variants at scale. Meeting those requirements becomes difficult when product data lives in spreadsheets, supplier documents, and disconnected systems.

Managing shared product data across portfolios

Furniture product portfolios rely on shared materials, finishes, and components across multiple products. PIM allows attributes to be defined once and reused consistently, keeping material composition, durability information, and end-of-life data aligned across collections while supporting governed product sustainability data.

Structuring component-level product data

Furniture DPPs cover how products are built, not just how they are sold. PIM supports component-based product structures, making it possible to manage information required for durability, repair, and end-of-life handling in a way that supports a circular product lifecycle.

Validating supplier-provided information

Material composition and substances of concern often originate with suppliers. PIM enables governed supplier collaboration, allowing external partners to validate information directly against defined fields, strengthening traceability and sustainability data governance without relying on static documents.

Distributing DPP-ready information consistently

Once product data is structured and validated, PIM acts as the distribution layer. The same information can support Digital Product Passports, QR codes, and downstream systems that enable repair, reuse, and other circular-economy initiatives, without creating duplicate or conflicting records.

How Inriver supports DPP for furniture 

If you’re a furniture brand preparing for DPP requirements, you need product data that stays accurate, connected, and reusable over long lifecycles. Inriver supports DPP readiness by addressing the specific data challenges posed by long product lifecycles, shared components, and evolving regulatory expectations.

• Model furniture product data correctly
  • Structure product data around components, materials, and finishes rather than flat SKUs
  • Reuse shared attributes across product portfolios without duplication
  • Keep material composition, durability, and end-of-life information consistent across product generations
• Manage bundles, sets, and configurations
  • Maintain accurate DPP information when products are sold as sets or room solutions
  • Avoid duplicating product data across bundled and individual items
  • Ensure changes to a component or material update all related configurations
• Support retrofit and vintage products
  • Keep Digital Product Passport information available for discontinued or legacy products
  • Track updates, retrofits, or changes applied to products already on the market
  • Maintain visibility into long-lived products that remain in use across ownership cycles
• Connect with traceability systems
  • Integrate supplier and material data into a single product record
  • Link upstream traceability information to finished furniture products
  • Support verification of material composition and substances of concern over time
• Build a data foundation that lasts
  • Adapt to new DPP requirements without rebuilding product models
  • Reuse governed product data across compliance, sustainability, and lifecycle use cases
  • Maintain consistency as regulatory expectations and product portfolios evolve

Furniture brands using Inriver to manage product data at scale

Furniture brands already dealing with large product portfolios and extended product lifecycles use inriver to bring structure and control to their product information. Their focus is not limited to publishing content. It centres on keeping product data accurate, reusable, and governed across systems, teams, and time.

Jordan’s Furniture

Jordan’s Furniture uses Inriver to centralize product information across an extensive furniture portfolio, improving data consistency, internal collaboration, and e-commerce performance as product content scales across channels.

“It’s our one source of truth. It is where we streamline all of our product information, and it’s where our team can access all the information in one centralized location to help improve efficiencies amongst all of our teams in the organization.”

– Jenne Maes

Global PIM ManagMelissa GoldenDigital Product Content Specialist, Jordan’s Furniture

Read the full case study

Living Spaces

Living Spaces relies on Inriver to manage complex product structures and automate product data workflows, reducing manual effort and keeping product information accurate across online and in-store touchpoints as portfolios expand.

“It simply took a long time and was too big of an effort from a lot of people in the company. In general, we needed to be more self-sufficient on the marketing and e-commerce side. To achieve that, we needed a system providing a single source of truth and offering value for anyone in marketing, merchandising, and IT.”

– Jenne Maes

GlobaKevin HunzkerE-Commerce Quality Assurance Analyst, Living Spaces

Read the full case study

Are your product data foundations ready to support what comes next?

Digital Product Passports raise expectations around regulatory readiness, customer trust, and long-term circular value. Preparing early gives you space to structure product data for long lifecycles and ongoing scrutiny.

Inriver helps you manage and distribute DPP-ready product information at scale. See how Inriver supports furniture brands preparing for DPPs.