When the pandemic raged in February 2020, the home furnishing industry experienced the downtime, and many enterprises switched to online and benefited from traffic. As the pandemic eased, both the cities and the economy are recovering. Though the pandemic disrupted the operating rhythm of the businesses, it has also accelerated the development of the industry at a certain level. In the post-pandemic era, each practitioner in the industry can deeply feel that the industry is facing a situation that crisis is coexistent with opportunity.

On April 22, the “Home Minority Trend” online salon of jiaju.sina.com.cn cooperated with CBD Fair (Guangzhou) to focus on the selection of the home furnishing enterprises in the new scenario. In this edition of the salon, Ye Lingju, Chief Editor of jiaju.sina.com.cn South China, connected with seven guests including Liu Xiaomin, General Manager of China Foreign Trade Guangzhou Exhibition General Corporation, Ji Jing, Vice General Manager of Leju Home Furnishings and General Manager of jiaju.sina.com.cn, Li Jiacong, General Manager of Shangpinzhaipei, Wang Biao, President of Kefan Home Furnishings, Xin Fumin, Chairman of Snimay, Zeng Qingwei, Chairman of Hennessy Doors & Windows, and Doron (Yang Dong), Executive President of Paterson Home Furnishings to jointly discuss the new development trend of the home furnishing industry during the pandemic.

The market restarts, and the industry is recovering

President Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection in Zhejiang that crisis always coexists with opportunity, and overcoming crisis is opportunity. In the same way, finding the opportunity can survive the crisis. The sudden outbreak of the pandemic has brought a tremendous impact to the whole society and industry, and economic development is facing new challenges. Meanwhile, it has also brought new opportunities to accelerate the development of various industries and promote the industrial optimization and upgrade.

“The?small?streams rise when the main stream is high, and industrial development must be rooted in the national platform,” Liu Xiaomin, General Manager of China Foreign Trade Guangzhou Exhibition General Corporation, said in his speech. Under the impact of the pandemic, CBD Fair (Guangzhou), as an indispensable part of the building decoration industry, continues to maximize its value of the platform and actively promotes the development of the industry. Liu Xiaomin said that the positioning of CBD Fair (Guangzhou) has always focused on two aspects: one is to reflect the present truly and objectively and aim at the industry's demands to boost the current development. The other is to actively reflect and strive to promote and even lead the industry's future development trend.

Exhibition is the arena for business investment, and media is the industry’s promoter and witness. Ji Jing, Vice General Manager of Leju Home Furnishings and General Manager of jiaju.sina.com.cn, believes that new business ideas and new operating models are coming out in the post-pandemic era, opportunities coexist with challenges, and difficulties coexist with hopes. “As the number one portal of China's home furnishing industry, jiaju.sina.com.cn always focuses on and witnesses the development of the industry. Since the beginning of the year, it has made use of the attributes and advantages of the media platform and worked together with the industry associations and enterprises to face the difficulties and overcome the difficulties.”

Online Marketing Enters Normalization

With the work resumption of enterprises, the industry has entered a critical stage of development. How to quickly resume production and operation under the “harsh times” has presently become the most urgent issue. Each enterprise is struggling to move forward and become strong and big.

For the home furnishing industry, the demand for decoration is temporarily suppressed, and the industry insiders generally believe that the second half of the year will usher in an upsurge of decoration. Li Jiacong believes that the pandemic has allowed consumers to spend more time with their families. In the future, the demands for improved decoration will be released. “Shangpinzhaipei will focus on online design and whole house design to enhance the online service and design capabilities, creating the most suitable products for consumers.”

Today when “everything can be livestreamed”, the home furnishing enterprises have also started the upsurge of all staff livestreaming. Shangpinzhaipei shows its design strength by livestream, but livestream is only the semblance of Shangpinzhaipei. “Creating value for users” is the essence. “Making design as easy and fast as ordering delivery with APP” is the ambition of Shangpinzhaipei. As a technical expert in customized home furnishings, Shangpinzhaipei delivers process digitalization and online services that are its new models. Li Jiacong, General Manager of Shangpinzhaipei, admitted frankly: “In the future, online services will become the new normal in the home furnishing industry.”

In addition to Shangpinzhaipei, many customized home furnishing enterprises have also started to sell goods by livestream. Snimay started to arrange livestream two to three years ago.” The previous livestream mainly targeted dealers. After the pandemic, our experience and anchors came in handy.” Xin Fumin, Chairman of Snimay, believes that the pandemic makes livestream more normalized and even becomes the main theme.

Systematic Operation Becomes the Fulcrum of Development

Under the catalysis of the pandemic, the previous engineering channels and AI fast kit stores have become Snimay's orientation. “We have found that the community plays a great role during the pandemic, and we will focus on the community after the outbreak."

The capital market's attention to the community has increased day by day over the past 2 years. During the pandemic this year, the major community group buying platforms have been highly sought-after, and the order volume has soared. The community may be a way for the home furnishing enterprises to pre-position channels. “Consumer decision-making is changing, and the results of products, designs and services are the three major factors driving consumer decision-making at the terminal.” Wang Biao, President of Kefan Home Furnishings believes that the integrated solutions for all categories of home furnishings for single brands will be challenged and pressured by the solutions jointly provided by multiple brands in the context of channel pre-positioning. “But for enterprises, a strong systematic operation capability is the support for all development.”

If the community is the pre-positioning of the corporate development channel, then solving the pain points of the last mile between dealers and consumers will put forward new requirements for the corporate operating capacity and production efficiency. For door and window enterprises, reducing time costs and improving efficiency during installation is the top priority, which is also a key issue for Hennessy Doors & Windows in the future. Zeng Qingwei, Chairman of Hennessy Doors & Windows, mentioned that on the basis of vigorously promoting informatization, the enterprises must comprehensively improve production and operating efficiency, strive for excellence in small categories and use intelligence to increase efficiency.

Transformation and Upgrade to Seize New Opportunity

“If you are sure that the pandemic will eventually pass, then response to the pandemic is definitely not the only priority for enterprises!” Wang Biao said confidently. Many insiders share the same feeling. Focus more on dealers and business operations instead of the pandemic.

The market environment is changing drastically, new thinking and new models are constantly emerging, and the corporate vision, development logic and strategic planning are being challenged. A way out can be found by change only. Doron (Yang Dong), Executive President of Paterson Home Furnishings, revealed that Paterson would consider the actions and orientation in the special period from four aspects, which can be summarized as cohesion, focus on the main business, fostering strengths and circumventing weaknesses. Besides, it will adjust its business focus and carry out upgrade centering on the new brand strategy, operational efficiency, customer experience and products.

The first priority of the exhibition is to provide enterprises with an excellent display platform. Some furniture fairs affected by the pandemic were postponed. According to Liu Xiaomin, General Manager of China Foreign Trade Guangzhou Exhibition General Corporation, “CBD Fair (Guangzhou) is currently in progress in an orderly manner as planned. This session has seven characteristics: Firstly, provide an excellent display platform to consolidate the industry position of the “Debut Platform for Champion Enterprises”. Secondly, help enterprises develop new channels to achieve “Two Optimizations” for audiences. Thirdly, continue to increase the momentum of design empowerment and create an industry design ecosystem. Fourthly, promote the exchange of innovative ideas and create the “Debut Platform for Innovative Ideas” for the industry. Fifthly, strengthen online promotion. Sixthly, strengthen the digital upgrade of the exhibition. Seventhly, comprehensively strengthen the pandemic prevention and control of the exhibition site."

Conclusion:?

Under the pandemic, the home furnishing enterprises are quickly seeking for their own tracks and accelerating growth through hard work. The industry has entered a new era of “good brands”. Enterprises are more clearly aware that good products, good services and good contents are the weapons in the new consumption scenario. As an excellent industry platform, CBD Fair is also fully prepared to empower the development of enterprises and embrace the spring of the industry. The home furnishing industry has a vast market, and short-term difficulties are not terrible. We have every reason to believe that the future will be better!

Reproduced from jiaju.sina.com.cn