Custom furniture: selling creative online stores

Today, custom products are no stranger to consumers. With the development of the times, the individualized needs of consumers have gradually increased. Selling more personalized customized products has become a way for many businesses to make money. In this issue of “Small and Medium-sized Project Investment Survey”, we will turn our attention to an online store that manages custom furniture. Through dialogue with the boss, Xin Peiyu, I understand how he made money through the custom furniture project.

Transform from buyer to seller

When talking about why the custom furniture project will be locked in to open an online store, Xin Peiyu told reporters that in 2008, due to the renovation of his own house, when he bought furniture, he found it difficult to find furniture that met his own aesthetic standards. He was disappointed to find that there were few merchants offering custom furniture on the market. At the same time, he was also quite surprised because he felt that custom furniture would be a promising venture. With a belief that “want to do the work that others are not willing to do”, Xin Peiyu began to prepare for entrepreneurship while working in state-owned enterprises. I bought a lot of books and software, and I learned about CAD, furniture design and other related software, and started to try to design furniture.

From 2008 to 2009, Xin Peiyu began to work as a part-time online shop seller. She first searched for the supply of semi-finished furniture on the Alibaba website and tried to provide customers with design solutions and sales related components. In 2009, with the gradual improvement of his design level, he began to provide customers with a total design service, that is, custom furniture for the entire house. In 2010, he became a full-time seller and began to develop new ideas. Today, Xin Peiyu can earn more than 200,000 yuan in profits with less than 100,000 yuan a year.

Let customers feel "extraordinary"

The reporter learned that Xin Peiyu's service concept is meant to be "extraordinary." “Customers experience 360-degree service in the customization process.” For her own business, Xin Peiyu told reporters with confidence. For example, if a customer wants to customize a computer desk, Xin Peiyu will first ask the customer to take a photo of the room where the computer desk is located, then tell the customer where to measure the size of the place, ask the customer's special needs, and then design, and then render the effect. After giving the customer a look, after further communication, make the production drawings to the customer and then put them into production. After the product is released, Xin Peiyu will be accompanied by a detailed assembly tutorial and sent out, so that the customer can assemble it after receiving it.

Failure to stimulate business potential

However, doing business is not that easy. For a custom merchant, it is not as easy to sell a single custom product. Once, for the customer to make a steel-wood bookcase, in the design process, he missed the size of the column on the side of the beam, causing the customer to fail after the receipt of the goods, had to return, this single let Xin Peiyu lose More than 2,000 yuan.

After many failures, Xin Peiyu also summed up a lot of experience in business. Nowadays, Xin Peiyu has made small achievements in design and has two utility model patents. One of the “variable wall frames” was inspired by a concept map on the Internet. Xin Peiyu improved it and made it into a computer desk with a shape that can be changed according to different spaces. It can be applied to different rooms and walls. .

Let customers become designers

“When customers come to customize furniture, they usually propose various requirements such as color, size, function, and environmental protection. They pursue functionality and creativity. Because each customer has different requirements for customization, the merchant cannot mass-produce. For this, I envision the solution. The method is to modularize all products in the future, and make the website more intelligent and intimate. The customer can be the designer, click on the module, input the size, and you can see the renderings and prices. After the order is placed, the production drawings will be exported." In the face of diversified consumer demand, Xin Peiyu is always able to make many feasible ideas.

In addition, Xin Peiyu expects to open a physical chain experience store in multiple cities in the future, using the combination of e-commerce and physical stores, making full use of the facade display products, as well as the terminal of after-sales service, and plans to find more partners, will deliver Installation services are implemented together to provide more choices for customers' customized experiences.

risk warning:

Put good quality off

Liu Xinming, an entrepreneurial guidance expert for small and medium-sized enterprises in Liaoning, suggested that due to the personalization of customized furniture, many businesses are temporarily producing. Therefore, merchants must strictly examine the purchase, inspection, quality, etc., to avoid customer complaints and product disputes due to product quality and reputation issues. To win the reputation of customers with the excellent quality of products, so as to ensure the long-term operation of the business.