Under the wave of globalization, "quality going global" in the home furnishing industry has become an important development trend. On July 23rd, Li Zhiming, the President of Wayfair Asia Pacific, visited the eastern base of Shenzhen Furniture Association. He met with Hou Kepeng, the chairman of Shenzhen Furniture Industry Association, Hong Xiaohui, the vice chairman of the association, Yang Lina, the vice president of Shenzhen Furniture Research and Development Institute, Yang Hong, the deputy secretary-general of the association, and Huang Hexiang, the deputy director of the association's New Media Center, to discuss new paths for the development of "quality going global" in furniture. Both sides put forward a series of practical and feasible cooperation ideas, hoping to work together to promote the quality improvement of the home furnishing industry and enhance its international competitiveness.
Europe and America, as important consumer markets, have attracted much attention
In recent years, the global furniture market has shown a positive development trend. As important consumer markets, Europe and America have attracted much attention. According to the latest data from Wayfair and the forecast from Statista, the total size of the home furnishing market in North America and Europe will exceed 800 billion US dollars in 2024 and is expected to break through 1 trillion US dollars by 2030. The online penetration rate of B2C has exceeded 20%. Meanwhile, the home furnishing market in Canada is approximately 30 billion US dollars, while that in Europe has reached 350 billion US dollars. The United States still holds a leading position in the furniture market, occupying a large share. Germany, France and the United Kingdom follow closely behind. From the perspective of subcategories, living room furniture accounts for the largest proportion, followed by bedroom furniture and home decorations. These three types of products rank among the top in both total volume and growth rate.
Wayfair has expanded its presence in Houhai, Shenzhen, adding a new foothold to its push into the Asia-Pacific market
In the current context where global home furnishing e-commerce competition is becoming increasingly fierce, every move made by the giants is closely watched. According to President Li Zhiming, Wayfair has established a new base in Houhai, Shenzhen. This move is regarded as an important strategic measure for the company to deepen its presence in the Asia-Pacific market, especially to strengthen cooperation with Chinese suppliers.
From the perspective of Wayfair's own development strategy, setting up a presence in Houhai, Shenzhen, is a crucial step for it to expand its global business territory and deepen cooperation with Chinese suppliers. In recent years, Chinese suppliers have performed exceptionally well on the Wayfair platform. Many Chinese brands have successfully entered the European and American markets by leveraging the platform's advantages, achieving rapid growth in performance. For instance, during the three years since Lin's Wood Industry entered Wayfair, its performance has grown at a high rate for three consecutive years, with an increase of over 12 times. Last year, the revenue growth rate during Black Friday and Cyber Monday reached 292%. These successful cases fully demonstrate the strong capabilities of Chinese suppliers and the huge potential for cooperation with Wayfair. By setting up a base in Shenzhen, Wayfair can communicate and collaborate more closely with Chinese suppliers, gain a deeper understanding of their needs, provide more precise services and support, and help the cooperation between both sides reach a new height.
Jointly build standards for cross-border furniture export: Consolidate the foundation of quality and smooth the global chain
Hou Kepeng, the chairman of the Shenzhen Furniture Industry Association, believes that Shenzhen, as an innovation capital and a major cross-border e-commerce hub in China and even globally, enjoys unique industrial advantages and a complete supply chain system. Here gathers a vast number of high-quality home product suppliers, ranging from traditional furniture to smart home appliances, from creative home decorations to high-end home textile products. The product range is rich and diverse, with superior quality, which can meet the diversified product selection needs of the Wayfair platform. Meanwhile, Shenzhen's well-developed logistics network, advanced technological research and development capabilities, as well as its strong innovative atmosphere, all provide a solid guarantee for Wayfair to conduct business.
Furniture quality, as the core support for "quality going global", plays a decisive role in the process of going global. Overseas purchasers and platforms often take the stability of quality as the primary consideration when choosing suppliers. Enterprises that continuously provide high-quality products can establish long-term and stable cooperative relationships with overseas partners, obtain more orders and resource preferences. International platforms like Wayfair attach great importance to cooperating with high-quality Chinese suppliers precisely because these enterprises have strong quality assurance capabilities and can meet the platforms' strict requirements for product quality, thus forming a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation pattern.
The association has a profound understanding of the crucial role of quality in going global. From the strategic perspective of "quality going global", both sides have put forward a series of practical and feasible cooperation ideas:
Firstly, jointly promote the quality upgrade of suppliers through standard co-construction and training support. As an important link in the industrial chain, the quality level of suppliers directly affects the quality of terminal products. President Li Zhiming proposed that both sides could jointly formulate a "Furniture Cross-border Export Standard", combining platform resources and the testing and certification of industry institutions (such as Sede Testing) to enhance the compliance of enterprises and the trust of the platform. Relying on its accumulated training expertise over the years and rich industry resources, the association can provide suppliers with comprehensive and in-depth training services. The training content not only includes precise interpretation of relevant domestic and international regulations, helping suppliers accurately grasp the regulatory requirements and avoid trade barriers caused by unclear regulations; It also covers a detailed explanation of the domestic application system, enabling suppliers to have a thorough understanding of the domestic market's standards and requirements for product quality, and thus be more targeted in the production process. Through systematic training, we assist suppliers in achieving a comprehensive upgrade from raw material procurement to production process control, thereby promoting the quality improvement of the entire supply chain and laying a solid quality foundation for the export of home products.
Secondly, refer to the successful model of Sededun and refine the quality elements of the enterprise. The quality elements of an enterprise are an important manifestation of its core competitiveness, but many enterprises are confused about how to sort out and present their own quality elements. Yang Lina, the vice president of Shenzhen Furniture Research and Development Institute and the general manager of Sede Testing, said: "Both sides can refer to the successful model of Sede Dun and integrate and trace key contents such as the product testing process, testing standards, and testing results onto a dedicated platform." Enterprises can conveniently query various quality-related information through this platform and clearly understand the advantages and disadvantages of their own products in terms of quality. Although no ready-made documentation has been formed yet, this concept has strong practical significance and executability. The establishment of the platform will provide enterprises with a transparent and efficient channel for querying quality information, helping them better distill and showcase their quality elements and stand out in market competition.
Thirdly, optimize quality based on big data and create differentiated competitiveness. Consumer feedback and the performance of products during actual use are important bases for measuring product quality. Both parties can rely on big data from consumer feedback and various types of information collected during the product usage process to conduct in-depth analysis and optimization of product quality. On this basis, in combination with the strength and development needs of different enterprises, personalized quality improvement projects are formulated. For enterprises that perform exceptionally well in certain quality items and have never experienced any non-conformities, the association will assist them in conducting further certification work to highlight their quality advantages. At the same time, based on the risk level of different quality projects, they are classified into three grades: high, medium and low. Enterprises can make targeted improvements and enhancements according to their own situations, thereby creating unique differentiated competitiveness and occupying a favorable position in the fierce international market competition.
Fourth, the New Media Center of the Home Association is building an efficient information bridge and promotion platform for enterprises to "go global with quality". Huang Hexiang, deputy director of the New Media Center of the Association, introduced that in terms of industry information dissemination and promotion, the New Media Center of the Home Association and its affiliated commercial operation team, Jinxi MCN, play a significant role. This center is responsible for sharing industry development intelligence, covering various aspects such as national subsidies, new national standards, and brand globalization. In the process of promoting the "quality going global" of the home furnishing industry, Jinxi MCN, a subsidiary of the Home Furnishing Association New Media Center, plays an irreplaceable role in communication and empowerment. As an officially certified media organization of Tencent Home Furnishing, Jinxi MCN, with its professional media operation capabilities and profound industry resources, is building an efficient information bridge and promotion platform for enterprises to "go global with quality".
Through the 40th Shenzhen Furniture Fair, Jinxi MCN has accumulated a large number of precise high-net-worth private domain resources, including dealer groups, designer groups, enterprise groups, and member groups. After digitizing these resources, precise reach to the target group can be achieved, ensuring that policy interpretations, standard updates, successful cases and other contents related to "quality going global" are efficiently delivered to enterprises in need. Whether it is the update of international market access standards or the supplier quality upgrade training launched by the association, Jinxi MCN can keep enterprises informed in a timely manner through precise communication, helping them respond quickly to market changes.
Its comprehensive content system provides a solid support for customized communication of enterprises. From professional interpretation of the product inspection process to in-depth analysis of industry trends, from comprehensive coverage of exhibition activities to highlighting the quality advantages of enterprises, Jinxi MCN can create an all-round online and offline interactive communication plan around the strategic layout of enterprises' "quality going global".
The current achieved exposure of over 100,000 per post and the coverage scale of 6 million followers across the entire matrix mean that the company's quality story and high-quality products can reach a wider range of potential customers and partners in the international market, effectively enhancing the brand's international popularity and influence.
In the future, the Shenzhen Furniture Industry Association hopes to assist international platforms such as Wayfair in cooperating with high-quality Chinese suppliers, meet the strict requirements of the platforms for product quality, establish long-term and stable cooperative relationships with overseas partners, and form a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation pattern.
