This year, "cross-border overseas expansion" has become one of the hot words in the home furnishing industry. Markets such as India and Southeast Asia are seen as new directions for companies to expand their overseas business, and their market potential and development space are highly anticipated.

 

According to a reporter from China Business News, around the Spring Festival in 2024, many well-known domestic home furnishing companies have actively deployed overseas markets. For example, Shangpin Home Furnishing has opened new showrooms in the Philippines and Myanmar, and plans to expand showrooms in Vietnam, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, companies such as Zuoyou Home Furnishing and Sofia announced the opening of their own brand stores overseas, entering the Indian and Southeast Asian markets with mid-to-high-end positioning.

 

The "going overseas" of home furnishing companies not only brings opportunities for themselves, but also has a positive impact on the entire industry. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, from January to April 2024, domestic furniture exports increased by 20.4% year-on-year, reaching 168.5 billion yuan, a record high for the same period in history. Exports in April increased by 12.6% month-on-month, which was particularly impressive.

 

Zhan Junhao, a well-known strategic positioning expert and founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consulting, said in an interview with reporters that the overseas expansion of home furnishing companies will have a multi-faceted positive impact on the entire industry.

 

"First, going overseas encourages companies to focus on R&D, design and brand building, promotes industrial upgrading and the overall transformation of the industry to high-quality development; second, interaction with overseas markets increases international exchanges and cooperation opportunities, which is conducive to technology introduction and market experience sharing; third, companies that successfully go overseas will bring back more international market experience, feed back to the domestic market, and enhance the competitiveness of the entire industry; finally, home furnishing companies going overseas will drive the internationalization of upstream and downstream industrial chains such as raw material supply, logistics and design, and promote the development of related industries." Zhan Junhao said.

 

"If you don't go overseas, you'll be out"

 

The argument of "If you don't go overseas, you'll be out" has become a consensus among many manufacturing companies.

 

Over the past 30 years, the furniture and home furnishing industry has been enjoying the dividends of real estate development. However, in recent years, the domestic construction industry has recovered slowly, and the performance of furniture and home furnishing companies has been under pressure. Going overseas has become one of the ways for most furniture companies to find new growth points.

 

Shangpin Home Delivery is one of the representatives. Its person in charge told reporters that Shangpin Home Delivery's current overseas model is the output of the industrial model.

 

"The traditional export model is just selling products overseas, while the industrial model export is exporting the entire industrial chain overseas, including design, production, sales, services and other links." The person in charge of Shangpin Home Delivery explained, "We will promote overseas business through various cooperation models, including franchising, engineering cooperation and technology export."

 

It is reported that Shangpin Home Delivery's technology export cooperation model has been implemented in many countries. By cooperating with local leading companies, it has brought whole-house customization services to countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, India, the United States, Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. In addition, Shangpin Home Delivery's overseas franchise stores have been operating in Brunei and Sydney for many years. From January to May this year, Shangpin Home Delivery has opened new showrooms in Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar, and plans to expand further in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. The showrooms are expected to open in June and August this year respectively.

 

Sophia is also continuing to layout overseas markets through high-end retail, engineering projects and dealers. On January 12, Sophia opened a high-end customization experience hall in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The hall will become an important window for Sophia to showcase its brand charm and product strength, and further promote the expansion of its global brand. So far, Sofia has 27 overseas dealers, covering more than 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, and cooperates with top developers and contractors to provide one-stop whole-house customization solutions for customers in more than 30 countries and regions around the world.

 

The head of Sofia said: "In recent years, we have actively laid out our overseas business and established close cooperative relationships with overseas dealers, top developers and contractors. Through these collaborations, we have successfully introduced high-quality products to the international market. In the future, we will continue to deepen cooperation and explore a broader overseas market."

 

While leveraging its soft advantages, Zuoyou Home Furnishing is also firmly promoting digital transformation, vigorously developing whole-house customization and WE for home furnishing brands to go overseas. So far, Zuoyou Home Furnishing has opened brand stores in Asia, Europe and North America, fully upgraded its hardware supporting facilities, put the soft sofa production line into use, and vigorously promoted the intelligent production line to develop towards high-end, green and intelligent development.

 

Since last year, Holic has also been accelerating its globalization strategy and continuously expanding its overseas territory. As of now, Holic has stores in 9 cities in 7 countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Oman, Dubai, Canada, Panama and Australia, providing global consumers with a more diversified and personalized lifestyle.