How do you become a Rooms To Go supplier? Selling furniture to a U.S. retailer, product compliance, FOB vs. DDP, tariffs and taxes

No. Rooms To Go is a retailer that sells its own merchandise: it buys from factories and brands, sets retail prices and sells to consumers, and roomstogo.com sells its own goods too. As of November 2026, we found no public information about a third-party seller program and no public vendor application page. Doing business with Rooms To Go means becoming a vendor, not a seller.

Description: The left column is the item, the middle column is what public sources say and the right column gives the source and caveats. Where nothing is public, it says so.

Item	Public information	Source and caveats
Company	Founded in 1990 by Jeffrey and Morty Seaman, first showroom in 1991; privately held, headquartered in Seffner, Florida	Rooms To Go About Us page
Stores	150+ main showrooms (200+ including Kids, Patio, mattress and Outlet stores) in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia	Company site and 2025–2026 press releases; counts differ by source
Size	$3,278.1 million in 2025 U.S. furniture and bedding sales, No. 7, 148 stores	Home News Now 125 (June 2026), an industry estimate
Assortment	Pre-designed room packages and house collections; partner brands include Cindy Crawford Home, Drew & Jonathan, Sound Tech by Shaq, La-Z-Boy and Disney kids' furniture; Helix mattresses in stores since August 2025	About Us; Helix press release (August 19, 2025)
Sourcing	The company says its buying teams source materials and designs worldwide and domestically; customs import records show suppliers in China, Vietnam, Malaysia and elsewhere	Company site; Panjiva and similar import data
Online	The site sells the company's own goods; some decorative items ship directly from the vendor by UPS, and some items ship directly from the manufacturer	Common Questions page
Third-party marketplace	No public third-party seller program. Furniture.com, a multi-brand shopping site launched in February 2026, lists Rooms To Go among its first retailers, and each retailer stays merchant of record for its own items	Furniture.com press release (February 23, 2026)
Vendor portal or manual	Not public. An EDI provider lists the Rooms To Go documents as the 850 purchase order, 855 PO acknowledgment, 856 ship notice, 810 invoice and 846 inventory	TrueCommerce trading partner page; follow what Rooms To Go sends its vendors

• Vendor and seller are different roles. On Amazon, Walmart Marketplace or TikTok Shop you're the seller: you set prices, answer to customers, and the platform collects sales tax and issues a 1099-K. Supplying Rooms To Go makes you a wholesaler; the retailer buys your goods and sells them to consumers.
• Wayfair also buys from suppliers. Wayfair likewise buys from suppliers and resells, but it has a public supplier application, drop shipping and its CastleGate warehouses. For the tax side of supplying a home goods retailer, see our guide at yclcpa.com/wayfair.
• How to read this guide. Rooms To Go doesn't publish its vendor terms. The commercial requirements below (insurance, EDI, packaging, chargebacks, freight terms) describe common practice among U.S. furniture retailers, not Rooms To Go's own terms. Its purchase agreements and vendor manual control.

There's no "join" button. Large U.S. furniture retailers usually have buyers and product development teams pick the factories: they walk trade shows, review samples and factory audits, adapt your designs or give you theirs, and place a small trial order. Rooms To Go's assortment leans on its own designs and partner brands, so most factories make product to its specifications as private label or ODM.

Common ways in:

• Trade shows. High Point Market (April and October), Las Vegas Market, the China International Furniture Fair (CIFF) in Guangzhou and VIFA EXPO in Ho Chi Minh City are regular stops for U.S. furniture buyers. Which retailer attends which show is for the show to announce.
• Sourcing agents and trading companies. Many retailers buy through sourcing offices, agents or importers. Rooms To Go's job postings show overseas sourcing and quality roles, but it doesn't publish a list of sourcing offices by country.
• Existing brands and importers. Making product for a U.S. brand or importer that already supplies the retailer, then working toward a direct relationship, is a common path.
• U.S. production. Recent Rooms To Go job postings include quality inspectors who visit U.S. furniture plants, which indicates it also buys from domestic factories.

Description: Steps run top to bottom; the right column is what the factory prepares at each step. This is the general industry process, not one published by Rooms To Go.

Step	What happens	What the factory prepares
1. First contact	Trade show, agent or introduction; buyers look at designs and prices	Catalog, FOB price quotes, capacity, key customers
2. Factory audit	Social compliance, quality system and capacity review	Audit reports, business license, export registration, raw material sourcing (including Xinjiang screening)
3. Samples and development	Build to the retailer's specs or adapt your design	Samples, bill of materials, packaging plan
4. Testing and certification	Mandatory standards by product category	Reports from a CPSC-accepted lab, certificate (GCC or CPC), TSCA panel certification, flammability label
5. Vendor setup	Sign the vendor agreement, submit tax form, bank and insurance details	W-8BEN-E (foreign company) or W-9 (U.S. company), certificate of product liability insurance, EDI testing
6. Trial order	Small order to test quality, on-time rate and returns	Inspection report, packing list, bill of lading, shipping under the agreed terms
7. Reorders and scorecards	Replenishment based on sales; chargebacks or rewards based on vendor scorecards	On-time and document accuracy, quality data; reconciliation and chargeback disputes

The U.S. has no single "furniture certification." Mandatory rules depend on the product: tip-over for clothing storage, flammability for upholstery and mattresses, formaldehyde for composite wood, and lead, small parts and third-party testing for children's furniture. Since July 8, 2026, importers also eFile certificate data at entry. Testing and legal conclusions belong to an accredited lab and an attorney; this is the framework.

• CPSC eFiling. Under the rule CPSC published on January 8, 2025, importers must file certificate data with Customs through ACE at entry starting July 8, 2026 (January 8, 2027 for goods entering a foreign trade zone). Under FOB terms the retailer, as importer, files, but the factory supplies the certificate and test data; under DDP, you're the importer.
• Booking compliance costs. Testing, certification and audit fees are generally current expenses; product-specific tooling follows the fixed asset or inventory cost rules.
• These aren't tax questions. Product safety, labeling and contract terms are legal and technical matters for labs and attorneys. YCL handles how these costs are booked and the tax consequences of who the importer is.

Typically: a vendor agreement with indemnity and recall terms, product liability insurance naming the retailer as additional insured, EDI, packaging and labels to the retailer's standards, and shipping on agreed terms and dates, with chargebacks when you miss. Rooms To Go doesn't publish its terms; this is general industry practice, and your contract controls.

• Vendor agreement. Product liability, recall costs, IP warranties, payment terms, returns and defective goods. Have an attorney review it before signing.
• Product liability insurance. U.S. retailers commonly require it, with the retailer named as additional insured, at limits set in the contract. Factories in China or Vietnam need an insurer whose policy the retailer will accept.
• EDI. Purchase orders (850), acknowledgments (855), ship notices (856), invoices (810) and inventory (846) move by EDI. Many factories connect through providers such as SPS Commerce or TrueCommerce for a monthly fee.
• Packaging. Furniture is bulky and fragile, so retailers usually specify drop testing, carton strength, assembly instructions, barcodes and carton markings. Damage traced to packaging can lead to chargebacks or returns.
• Freight terms (Incoterms). The usual choices are FOB port of origin (the retailer books freight and acts as importer) and DDP (the supplier delivers to the U.S. with duties paid). More in the next section.
• Chargebacks and allowances. Late or early shipment, ASN errors, label errors and short shipments are often charged back per order. There are also defective allowances, markdown allowances, co-op advertising and early-payment discounts. All of them reduce your revenue, so reconcile and dispute them and make them visible in the books (see the bookkeeping section below).

Your freight terms decide who is the importer of record with U.S. Customs. Under FOB port of origin, the retailer is usually the importer and pays duties, clears the goods and eFiles with CPSC. Under DDP, the factory or its U.S. company is the importer and owns the duties, clearance, compliance filings and any tariff refunds. Who the importer is also drives the factory's U.S. income and state tax exposure.

Description: Read top to bottom in time order; the right column is the impact on furniture. Actual rates depend on the tariff classification and country of origin, so check the latest CBP and USTR notices. The full import timeline is in our guide at yclcpa.com/fba.

Date	What happened	Impact on furniture
2005 to date	Antidumping order on wooden bedroom furniture from China, continued after several reviews	China-wide rate of 216.01% (administrative review results, August 2026); only exporters with separate rates differ
From 2018–2019	Section 301 tariffs on China: most Chapter 94 furniture on List 3 at 25%	Still owed on most China-origin furniture; check USTR for any remaining exclusions
October 14, 2025	Section 232 tariffs on timber, lumber and derivatives: 25% on upholstered wooden-frame seating, kitchen cabinets and vanities	Applies regardless of origin; increases to 30% and 50% planned for January 1, 2026 were pushed to January 1, 2027 by a December 31, 2025 proclamation
February 20, 2026	Supreme Court held IEEPA doesn't authorize tariffs; the "fentanyl" and "reciprocal" tariffs ended	IEEPA duties already paid can be refunded through CBP's CAPE function, filed only by the importer of record or its broker
February 24 to July 24, 2026	10% Section 122 surcharge, expired after 150 days	Goods imported in that window carry that cost
From July 24, 2026	Section 301 "forced labor" tariffs: 12.5% on China, Vietnam and others; 10% on Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Mexico and others (USMCA-qualifying Mexican goods exempt)	Goods already subject to Section 232 are excluded; whether it stacks on the existing China Section 301 tariffs is per CBP guidance; importers have sued in the Court of International Trade

• Price the duties into DDP quotes. Duties are charged on customs value, so a rate change moves your DDP margin. In a long-term DDP contract, agree on how prices adjust when duties change.
• Transshipment is a red line. Shipping Chinese-made furniture through a third country and repacking it doesn't change its origin, and CBP actively pursues origin and antidumping evasion in furniture.
• Duties in the books. Duties belong in the importer's inventory cost and become cost of goods sold when the goods sell. An IEEPA refund is booked according to whether the related goods have been sold (see yclcpa.com/fba).

It generally comes down to where the goods are made, where title passes and whether you have a U.S. office, employees or an agent who can sign contracts. A factory that manufactures abroad, delivers FOB at the origin port and has no U.S. place of business generally isn't engaged in a U.S. trade or business, and that income isn't taxed in the U.S. Once you add a U.S. warehouse, U.S. sales staff or shipments from U.S. stock, you need to test for effectively connected income (ECI).

• Inventory you produce is sourced where you produce it. Since 2018, §863(b) sources income from selling inventory the taxpayer produces solely by where the production activity happens. Furniture made in a factory in China or Vietnam generally produces foreign-source income.
• A U.S. office changes the rules. If a foreign company has a U.S. office or other fixed place of business and the sale is attributable to it, the income can become U.S.-source under §865(e)(2) and ECI under §864(c). The foreign company then files Form 1120-F, pays the 21% federal corporate tax and may owe branch profits tax.
• Chinese factories get treaty protection for storage and delivery. Article 5 of the U.S.–China tax treaty says facilities used solely to store, display or deliver the company's goods aren't a permanent establishment. A person in the U.S. who habitually concludes contracts on your behalf can be one. A qualifying company may owe no U.S. tax on business profits but may need to disclose its treaty position on Form 1120-F (Form 8833).
• Vietnamese factories have no treaty. The U.S. and Vietnam signed a tax treaty in 2015, but it still isn't in force as of November 2026. A Vietnamese company with a U.S. place of business is tested under U.S. domestic law only, without the storage-and-delivery exception.
• The retailer doesn't withhold or issue a 1099. Payments for goods aren't the kind of income, like interest or royalties, that calls for withholding. A foreign factory gives the retailer a W-8BEN-E, and the retailer generally doesn't withhold 30% or file a 1099.
• When in doubt, consider a protective filing. A foreign company with some U.S. activity that believes it has no ECI can file a timely protective Form 1120-F to preserve its deductions if ECI is later found. Whether it's worth it depends on the case.

Many factories set up a U.S. company to sell DDP, take U.S. orders and run a U.S. warehouse. It buys from the parent and sells to retailers, and the U.S. profit is taxed there. The sticking point is the intercompany price: too low and duties drop but U.S. profit rises and CBP may question undervaluation; too high and duties rise, the U.S. company runs at a loss, and the IRS may adjust under §482. Both sides need the same story.

• Arm's length (§482). As a distributor, the U.S. subsidiary should earn about what an unrelated distributor would. A U.S. distributor that loses money year after year draws IRS attention. Keep a written intercompany agreement and pricing support.
• Customs value and tax cost (§1059A). For goods imported from a related party, the importer's tax basis in inventory generally can't exceed the customs value declared at entry (plus allowed adjustments). You can't declare a low value to Customs and use a higher cost on the tax return.
• Form 5472. A U.S. corporation that is 25% or more foreign-owned attaches Form 5472 to its Form 1120 each year, reporting purchases, payments and loans with the parent; each missed form carries a $25,000 penalty. A foreign-owned single-member LLC files a pro forma 1120 with Form 5472 (see yclcpa.com/5472).
• Transfer pricing penalties. Large adjustments can bring a 20% or 40% accuracy penalty under §6662(e), unless qualifying contemporaneous documentation existed when the return was filed. The full filing list for a foreign-owned subsidiary is at yclcpa.com/subsidiary.
• Getting profit home. Dividends to a Chinese parent are subject to 10% withholding under the treaty (30% without a treaty), reported on Form 1042-S.

No sales tax. The retailer buys your goods to resell them, so it's a sale for resale: collect a completed resale certificate and the sale is exempt, while Rooms To Go charges sales tax when it sells to consumers. Wholesale payments don't run through a payment platform, so there's no 1099-K, and payments for merchandise aren't reported on Form 1099-NEC either.

• Collect resale certificates. Common ones are the Florida Annual Resale Certificate (DR-13), Georgia Form ST-5, Texas Form 01-339 and North Carolina Form E-595E, along with multistate forms. Without a valid certificate, a state auditor can treat the sale as taxable.
• FOB exports don't involve U.S. sales tax. When the factory delivers abroad and the retailer imports, sales and use tax is the retailer's matter.
• A U.S. warehouse creates state nexus. A U.S. company with a warehouse or employees in a state has physical presence there and generally needs to register for sales tax (even if most sales are exempt resales), and may owe state income or franchise tax. The Texas franchise tax no-tax-due threshold is $2,650,000 for 2026 and 2027 reports, and P.L. 86-272 protects only solicitation, not inventory (see yclcpa.com/fba).
• If you also sell retail on platforms. If your U.S. company also sells on Amazon, Wayfair or its own website, sales tax differs by channel: the marketplace collects, the retailer doesn't charge you, and your own site is yours to collect. North Carolina rules are at yclcpa.com/salestax.
• Tax forms. At vendor setup the retailer asks for a W-9 (U.S. company) or W-8BEN-E (foreign company) to document who you are, not because it will issue a 1099 (see yclcpa.com/w8ben). No 1099 doesn't mean no income to report.

Retailer chargebacks and allowances are reductions of your revenue, not ordinary expenses. Tie each one to a purchase order and invoice: quality allowances, compliance chargebacks, co-op advertising, and those still under dispute. For tax, fixed chargebacks are deductible; reserves based only on estimates generally wait until the liability is fixed.

• Keep a chargeback log. Break each deduction out of the retailer's remittance advice and tie it to the PO number, reason code, amount, dispute status and outcome.
• Presenting revenue. Recognize revenue at the invoice amount and show chargebacks and allowances as reductions of revenue or in their own accounts, so net sales are visible.
• Reserves for tax. Financial statements may accrue reserves for returns and chargebacks, but for tax a deduction generally has to meet the all-events test and economic performance, so expect a book-tax adjustment at year-end.
• Defects and returns. Goods returned or destroyed in the field reduce revenue, with the related inventory cost handled based on what actually happened; defective allowances reduce revenue.
• Currency. A factory in China or Vietnam that invoices in dollars but keeps its books in local currency records exchange gains and losses separately; the U.S. subsidiary keeps its books in dollars.

A factory that only sells FOB usually doesn't need a U.S. entity. Selling DDP, running a U.S. warehouse, hiring U.S. staff or also selling retail on platforms generally calls for one, and a single-member LLC owned by one foreign person is the structure most likely to cause trouble. The table covers the common cases; the right answer depends on profit, owners and state taxes.

• The trouble with a foreign-owned single-member LLC. It isn't a separate taxpayer, so U.S. warehouse and staff activity is attributed straight to the foreign owner; a foreign individual owner files Form 1040-NR, with complicated rates and filings. Electing C corporation status means 21% tax and 10% withholding on dividends to a Chinese owner.
• Which state. The state of formation and the states where you operate are different questions, and the warehouse state usually requires foreign qualification (see yclcpa.com/llc). A general entity comparison is at yclcpa.com/entity, and C corporation details at yclcpa.com/ccorp.

The benefits are volume, stable programs and repeat orders, with no advertising and no consumer returns or reviews to manage. The costs are a high bar to entry, tight pricing, strict compliance and chargebacks, and customer concentration. For furniture factories in China, Vietnam and Malaysia, the 2026 tariff picture makes country of origin and freight terms central to every quote.

• Benefits. Full-container orders and predictable planning; the retailer runs stores, online sales, delivery and service; the factory focuses on product and lead times; a long-term private label program brings steadier cash flow than platform retail.
• Costs. Buyers push prices down; chargebacks and allowances eat margin; payment comes on terms; one large customer can become too much of your sales; and Rooms To Go's stores are concentrated in the Southeast and Texas, which limits a single customer's reach.
• Vietnam and Malaysia. As of November 2026, most China-origin furniture pays the original 25% Section 301 tariff, with whether the new 12.5% stacks on top per CBP guidance, and wooden bedroom furniture also faces antidumping duties; Vietnam-origin goods are at 12.5% and Malaysian goods at 10% under the forced-labor Section 301 action. Upholstered wooden-frame furniture pays 25% under Section 232 regardless of origin. Check the actual tariff line and origin rules.
• Options for Chinese factories. Keep selling FOB and let the retailer import; build capacity in Vietnam or Malaysia (origin rules require substantial transformation); or set up a U.S. company and warehouse to sell DDP or do final assembly in the U.S. Each choice has different tax results, so run the numbers first.
• U.S. manufacturing. Section 232 makes U.S. upholstery capacity more competitive. A foreign-owned U.S. plant brings a U.S. company, employees, payroll tax and state taxes; see yclcpa.com/subsidiary for planning.

As of November 2026 the models differ a lot. Rooms To Go, Wayfair and the vendor programs at Target and Costco buy your goods: you don't face consumers, don't collect sales tax and generally don't get a 1099-K. Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, Etsy and TikTok Shop let you sell on the platform: the platform collects sales tax and issues 1099-Ks. Check each platform's current fees.

• Target and Costco. Target has the invitation-only Target Plus marketplace and a traditional vendor program; Costco's buyers select products and buy outright. Both are closer to the Rooms To Go vendor model (see yclcpa.com/target).
• Other platforms. Amazon onboarding is at yclcpa.com/amazon, Walmart at yclcpa.com/walmart, Etsy at yclcpa.com/etsy, TikTok Shop at yclcpa.com/tiktok, Temu at yclcpa.com/temu and Shopify at yclcpa.com/shopify. For reconciling 1099-Ks, see yclcpa.com/1099k.

Example (hypothetical numbers, to show the method): a Chinese factory making upholstered sofas with wooden frames supplies 10,000 sofas a year to a furniture retailer in the Southeast. Assume total duties of 25% of customs value; the U.S. subsidiary is a Delaware C corporation with a warehouse in Georgia.

Option A: FOB Ningbo. $200 a sofa, $2,000,000 a year. The retailer is the importer and pays $500,000 in duties ($2,000,000 × 25%) and the freight. With no U.S. place of business, the factory generally files no U.S. income tax return; there's no U.S. sales tax and no 1099. The profit is taxed in China.

Option B: the U.S. subsidiary imports and delivers DDP to the retailer's warehouse.

• A lower price. Duties drop by $50,000, and the U.S. company earns $100,000 and pays $21,000 of federal tax, plus Georgia tax. Whether a 4% margin is arm's length needs support from comparable distributors.
• A higher price. Duties go up and the U.S. company loses $150,000. A U.S. distributor that keeps losing money invites a transfer pricing challenge, and CBP and the IRS look at the same price, so you can't use one number for each.
• Still to do. The U.S. company files Form 1120 with Form 5472 each year, registers for Georgia sales tax (collecting resale certificates from the retailer) and pays Georgia income tax; the parent checks for a permanent establishment under the treaty; dividends home carry 10% withholding.

Settle product compliance and freight terms first, then decide whether you need a U.S. company. If you do, form it before the first DDP order, with importer setup, tax IDs, an intercompany agreement and books in place.

Description: The left column is the item, the middle column what to do and the right column who does it.

Item	What to do	Who
Product compliance	Identify the standards for each category (STURDY, TB 117-2013, TSCA, mattresses, children's products), test at a CPSC-accepted lab, prepare a GCC or CPC	Factory, testing lab, attorney
Supply chain tracing	Wood and fabric sources, UFLPA documentation, proof of origin	Factory, attorney
Packaging and labels	Drop tests, carton markings, barcodes, flammability and TSCA labels to the retailer's specs	Factory
Commercial	Product liability insurance, vendor agreement, EDI provider, reconciliation and chargeback dispute process	Factory, insurer, attorney
Freight terms	Choose FOB or DDP; for DDP, settle the importer entity, customs broker, bond and CPSC eFiling	Factory, customs broker
Tax forms	W-8BEN-E from a foreign company, W-9 from a U.S. company	Factory, CPA
U.S. company (if needed)	Choose the entity (C corporation or LLC, and whether to file Form 8832), get an EIN, qualify in other states, register for sales tax, sign an intercompany agreement with pricing support	CPA, registered agent
Annual filings	Form 1120 + 5472 (or pro forma 1120 + 5472), state taxes, Form 1042-S for dividends, 1099-K reconciliation for platform sales	CPA

Start with whether you're a factory or a U.S. brand, your freight terms, and whether you have staff or a warehouse in the U.S., then find your situation below.

• Situation A: a factory in China or Vietnam selling FOB only. No U.S. company needed. Give the retailer a W-8BEN-E, keep compliance documents complete so the retailer can file as importer, and assess permanent establishment before anyone negotiates or signs contracts for you in the U.S.
• Situation B: a factory that wants to sell DDP without a U.S. warehouse. Settle the importer (the foreign company as a nonresident importer, or a U.S. company), with a customs broker, bond and CPSC eFiling in place. Write duty-change price adjustments into the DDP contract.
• Situation C: a U.S. subsidiary and warehouse supplying several retailers. Choose a C corporation or LLC (and whether to file Form 8832), sign an intercompany agreement with pricing support, register for sales tax and state tax in the warehouse state, and file Form 1120 with Form 5472 every year.
• Situation D: a U.S. home brand importing from overseas factories and supplying retailers. You're the importer, so capitalize duties into inventory; collect resale certificates from retailers; consider an S election once profit is steady.
• Situation E: supplying retailers and selling retail on platforms. Reconcile wholesale and retail by channel, tie platform 1099-Ks to platform income (see yclcpa.com/1099k), and check income and franchise tax in each state where inventory sits.
• Situation F: Chinese owners of a Vietnamese factory. With no U.S.–Vietnam treaty in force, a U.S. place of business carries more risk for the Vietnamese company. Owners who are U.S. tax residents also need to look at Form 5471 and related filings.