On the changes and development of the furniture industry

 

The rapid development of China's furniture industry for more than 20 years has ended after the 2008 global financial crisis. As export companies shift to the domestic furniture market and the inflow of high-tech talent and capital, the industry has entered a painful reshuffle phase. At the same time, with stable quality, excellent design and high environmental performance, a brand team in the furniture industry has formed.

On the situation <br> <br> industry slowdown

In the words of industry insiders, the days before 2009 were the time of "making a lot of money". Zhao Ruihai, chairman of Qumei Furniture Group, said that in the past 20 years, the furniture market was an explosive growth, "in line with China's economic development cycle." But after the global financial crisis, the industry environment has changed, and companies generally started in 2010 Feeling bad.

According to Zhu Changling, chairman of the China Furniture Association, China ’s furniture exports fell by 6% for the first time in 2009. “This has a great impact on the industry.” In Zhu Changling ’s view, in the following four years, “the industry has experienced rapid development and steady growth. Process. "" Affected by the international financial crisis, the economic situation in Europe and the United States is not good, and the export volume is far less than before; the domestic demand has not been pulled much; and China ’s infrastructure investment has been in place, and even some areas have overcapacity. " Zhu Changling said that from these factors, the furniture industry is bound to grow steadily.

Multiple rationality of consumption environment

Corresponding to the general environment, consumers facing the furniture industry are also growing. In addition to increasing attention to hard indicators such as environmental protection and quality, consumers' spending power and personalized requirements for design and products are increasing. "Consumers have broadened their horizons, and their recognition of design is getting higher and higher." Wang Ningning, deputy manager of the operation and management department of the home, said that now decoration has its own style preferences, and then choose the corresponding products outside the style. The diversity of styles has also led to the diversification of consumption, "Korean, American, rural, Mediterranean, Chinese, all types of consumers."

Consumers are becoming more and more rational after going through wave after wave of promotional bombing. Yin Yuxin, general manager of Beijing Yiwang Home Plaza, believes that today's consumers have formed their own consumption habits, either subscribing to the store, or comparing the style and quality.

The direct changes of consumers have also prompted furniture companies to work hard on quality and environmental protection, and strive to form a unique style in design.

Talk about change

The economy, industry and consumer environment have undergone many changes, and the furniture industry is also undergoing upgrading and transformation. Summarizing the views of industry insiders, we have sorted out the following changes in the furniture industry in the past seven years.

Quality and environmental protection become corporate life

Among several industry insiders interviewed by reporters, they generally stated that the continuous improvement of standards in the furniture industry and the gradual improvement of product quality, especially environmental protection performance, are a relatively significant change.

The promulgation of industry standards directly promoted the market norms: some supplemented the lack of industry standards, such as the "Limited Substances for Upholstered Furniture" will limit the content of harmful substances in upholstered furniture; some have made more practical improvements in response to changes in the situation, For example, "General Technical Conditions of Mahogany Furniture" puts forward requirements for furniture wearing "identity cards" for furniture sales in the industry, and some standards have stricter requirements than those in developed countries. The safety requirements of the "General Technical Conditions for Children's Furniture" have made some foreign companies feel very strict.

In addition to this, consumers are increasingly demanding, and their environmental performance has reached an unprecedented level. Under heavy pressure, Zhu Changling believes: "Standards and environmental protection have been valued by the majority of enterprises, and the quality and environmental performance have been greatly improved." The most intuitive feeling is that when buying furniture, major brand furniture companies The basic configurations are all "E1" and "E0" grade plates.

Another important reason why companies have to improve environmental performance and quality levels is the fierce market competition environment. The survival rule of "retreating or even dying" allows entrepreneurs to not dare to slack off.

However, Zhu Changling believes that compared with the foreign furniture industry, China's furniture products still have a lot of unsatisfactory places, the industrialization process has a large gap, and there is still much room for improvement.

Service standardization deepens

Another major manifestation of market competition is that it directly promotes the improvement of industry service levels. Since the market situation turned cold, consumers can generally feel that the service level of the furniture industry has improved. "The level of service is not only reflected in the professionalism and specifications of the salesperson's knowledge, the meticulousness of the room measurement, but also in the timely delivery, and the improvement of the quality of the installation team and the gentle attitude." Wen Shiquan, chairman of Yifeng Furniture, said, and Yifeng Furniture, which has practiced solidly for three or four years, can be regarded as a model of service in the industry.

This service standard not only stems from fierce market competition and consumer dissatisfaction, but also contributes to the standardized management of stores. In recent years, the stores such as Actual House and Red Star Macalline (Weibo) have made a series of promotion and specifications in terms of services, and have successively launched "advance payment", "extended three-guarantee period to three years", "installation Services such as "zero delay in delivery" and "free testing" have spurred and promoted the improvement of the service level of the furniture industry to a certain extent. "The store has brought advanced business concepts and standardized management to the furniture industry. Policies such as compensation first have promoted the improvement of the service level of the furniture industry." In Zhu Changling's view, the store not only provides a good display place for furniture, but also allows the furniture industry to The face has been updated.

Increased brand concentration

The expansion of branded home stores has reached its peak in recent years. It is good to form a chain expansion cooperation relationship with the store, and the "bundle" relationship of the high-quality partners of the store. In recent years, with the expansion of the store, the local furniture companies have gradually moved to the country along with the store. Furniture brands with rich regional characteristics have also begun to be known to the Chinese, and the most representative is the rise of "Beijing style furniture".

"High-quality home stores bring well-known brands to the whole country." Zhu Changling said. With the expansion of furniture brands, correspondingly, the brand concentration is also increasing.

Zhao Ruihai believes that after the competition in previous years, the furniture industry has formed an obvious first army and second army. "5% of the national enterprises are leading, 30% -40% are following, and some will struggle to enter the first legion. The remaining 30% -40% will be more painful to follow up, and the remaining part has retired. The industry also believes that with the intensification of industry competition, the process of brand centralization will become more obvious.

Appearance patents are more valued

The development of Chinese furniture is, in the words of industry insiders, an early stage of "learning and learning", "previously branded companies have also copied", and where can we talk about the protection of appearance patent rights. However, in the past two or three years, the phenomenon of "kick-out" due to patent disputes occurred during the exhibition. Old well-known enterprises have brought other well-known enterprises to court, and other incidents have occurred. Ronglin Shijia is "national anti-counterfeiting". According to industry insiders, complaints to the store due to appearance patent disputes have also occurred frequently in the past two years.

Industry insiders attributed this phenomenon to the growth of the brand and increased competition. "In the past, the competition was not so fierce. Everyone did their own thing, even if there was plagiarism, it was not too direct and basically safe." Gao Fei, executive director of Futaba Furniture Group, believes that with the adherence to the original and self-developed corporate brand awareness With the increase, the market share is gradually expanding, and it is inevitable that there will be positive contact with the infringing company, and "it will be directly injured". Qi Lin, president of Beijing Ronglin Shijia Furniture Co., believes that it is even more impermissible to plagiarize some brand enterprises with R & D capabilities. "This is very unfavorable for the development of the entire industry."

Wang Ningning attributed part of the reason to consumers' increasing demands for design and personalization in recent years. "Consumers are demanding individuality and unique design, which will have an impact on furniture companies." With the increase in awareness of rights protection, many furniture companies will take the initiative to apply for appearance patents, and then rights protection.

The rise of personalized brands

The diversification and personalized demands of the consumer market have brought great changes to the furniture industry. In addition to some popular mass brands, various types of furniture in the market have begun to subdivide, and well-known brands have also emerged in the subdivided areas. At the same time, it has also led to the rise of some personalized niche brands, such as focusing on new Chinese styles. Ronglin Shijia and Fuyi Furniture, which are good at European and American furniture, are very popular.

Wang Ningning, who has been engaged in store investment and management for a long time, is deeply touched: with the subdivision of the decoration style and the individualization of demand, the style of the furniture industry is becoming more and more prominent. "Small units may require freshness, simplicity and high practicality, and large units may require beautiful comfort." "Mediterranean, romantic pastoral, Korean, European and American ... The more personalized the demand, the more the style subdivision."

In the style subdivision, some more subdivided niche brands "the brand is not large, the output is not high, the personalization is particularly obvious, the store area requirements are not large, but there is a fixed group of customers to buy, and the life is very moist." . Zhu Changling also believes that with the diversification and personalization of the consumer market, such changes in the furniture industry are inevitable, "all kinds of emerging models will appear."

Consumer hot spots are gradually shifting

A few years ago, panel furniture was a well-deserved sales force. However, with the increasing awareness of consumers' environmental protection and the pursuit of the "natural" department, solid wood furniture is more popular in the mid-to-high-end market.

Wang Ningning said that from the data of the actual home for the past two years, the current mainstream consumption in the high-end market is solid wood furniture, followed by panel furniture. European and American furniture is not limited by the base area of ​​the house, but the single value is large. Relatively high, mahogany furniture has also been a hot spot for consumption in recent years. Yin Yuxin also believes that in the past, panel furniture dominated the world, but at present, "Europe, Europe, solid wood, and niche brands are emerging, showing a state of diversified consumption."

Under this influence, Yifeng, Qiangli and other old-fashioned panel furniture have also launched solid wood series. Industry insiders analyzed that this is not only related to consumers' consumption habits, but also to the dilution of the profit of panel furniture and the higher profit margin of other categories of furniture.

Independent store or trend

All along, except for a few furniture brands such as Qumei, which have been independent of stores, most furniture brands still focus on setting up stores in stores. But since 2011, some independent furniture stores have gradually appeared on the Beijing market. For example, Red Apple, Yihua Wood, Top 100, etc. have opened independent big stores in Beijing one after another, displaying a more comprehensive product series in a large area.

Zhao Ruihai believes that independent stores can better display corporate products, design and culture, "more vitality and prospects, is the future development trend." In Yin Yuxin's view, the future development of the store to home square, furniture to independent stores, specialty stores is an irreversible trend.

Although it is unclear whether independent stores will be the future development trend, Zhu Changling believes: "Independent stores are the product of the development of the industry to a stage." He said that with the enhancement of corporate strength and product quality, in order to increase brand influence , Will open the store independently of the store. "This is a process of brand growth." He believes that this form of independent store will be good for the brand's quality, reputation, and brand marketing. It is foreseeable that with the continuous improvement of brand awareness and enhancement of strength, there will be brands building independent stores outside the store in the future, which will not only display products more systematically and comprehensively, but also get rid of a certain degree of shackles.

E-commerce has pioneers

Since 2010, some companies have started to explore e-commerce in the furniture industry. Among them, Gu Jia Home, Quanyou Home, Qumei Furniture, etc. are all pioneers, and have accumulated a certain number of online customer groups. The black horse started by e-commerce, Melaleuca Home Furnishing, has made furniture e-commerce an object of concern in the industry.

E-commerce is a development trend in the future is the consensus of the industry, but when and how to do it is still a big problem that puzzles the industry. Wen Shiquan, chairman of Yifeng Furniture, said that Yifeng is still in the groping stage: "We are still carefully studying and demonstrating issues such as service, distribution, and conflicts with distributors brought by e-commerce." In his view , Transparency, standardization and distribution profit distribution are all issues that should be considered. Zhao Ruihai, who has explored for some time, reflected that e-commerce is more about breaking through the bottleneck of thinking and providing the required products from the user's perspective. "If e-commerce is separated from traditional channels and made into a completely independent model, I think the market does not have such conditions now." It is foreseeable that with the establishment of e-commerce platforms such as the actual home and Red Star Macalline, etc. The impact of Melaleuca, the dark horse of furniture e-commerce sales, how to break the puzzle of e-commerce in the furniture industry is still a major issue in the future.

Fierce market competition

The large environment is the financial crisis in Europe and the United States, and the domestic economic growth has slowed down. The small environment is the government's policy control of the real estate market. The transaction volume of the real estate market has fallen again and again. The "money" furniture company was shocked that "this kind of day is not always there."

With the weakening of the export situation, many furniture manufacturers that originally only focused on the European and American markets began to turn their attention to the domestic market. Cultivated in foreign markets, although these domestic furniture companies are somewhat poor in domestic marketing and brand awareness, they have high production capacity and high requirements for quality and environmental protection. "The service is unique and the design is also good." After such opponents turned to the domestic market in large quantities, although the market was enriched, the domestic market was under great pressure. The original "seeking development" evolved into "seeking survival", and competition in the furniture industry can be imagined.

At the same time, the entry of a large number of outsiders and capital makes the furniture industry present a new competitive landscape. In Zhao Ruihai's view, most of the first entrepreneurs in the Beijing furniture industry were people who were “relatively interested in free days” who were reluctant to enter the system. In the previous development, on the one hand, the life is okay, on the other hand, due to the character, the circle is relatively "harmonious." However, as people from other industries joined the furniture industry, and the market competition intensified, the original "closed small world" became a "relatively open state", and various methods of sales promotion, such as promotion and alliances, emerged, making market competition appear. An unprecedented state.

(Source: NetEase Home Editor: Peter)

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