In the nearly two decades of development of the home furnishing industry, the custom furniture that started with cabinets undoubtedly left a strong mark. It has grown and grown amidst doubts, and is moving towards whole-house customization under the leadership of the leading enterprise. After several years of fighting and differentiation, it has almost become a red sea.

In 2020, Kuka Home will invest 1 billion yuan in the construction of a new base for the whole house customization. It is reported that 2.5 billion/year capacity construction has been completed.

Real view of Kuka' s whole house custom store

With production capacity and delivery guarantee, Kuka Whole House Customization is planning to accelerate the expansion of stores, and plans to exceed 1,000 whole-house custom stores in 2022.

The transformation dilemma of furniture dealers

Today, home furnishing companies cut into custom business, custom brand extension children and soft furniture, finished furniture have entered custom and whole-house packages-different forces in the industry are mingled with each other and are in a mess. At this time, the most painful thing is actually the dealer who has fallen into confusion.

On the one hand, the market is forced, and most furniture dealers have to move from single products to whole houses, and provide owners with an integrated style-based bag accommodation solution.

But on the other hand, today's whole-house customization has fallen into the red sea of competition, and the top brand has basically completed its card slots. For dealers, falling into the homogeneous competition of whole-house customization, commonly known as involution, may be the most terrible result.

The dilemma of the whole house customization: the flaws that are difficult to match

With the rapid changes in the market, many excellent furniture dealers have begun to explore the business transformation from single product to multi-category of the whole house.

From the practical effect, the current whole-house custom dealers generally encounter two situations: 

one situation, the traditional custom furniture dealers are matched with the incidental sales of the finished products. As the main products are custom-made furniture, if you want to increase the unit value, you mainly sell more cabinets, and at the same time sell some finished furniture. However, these finished furniture are difficult to effectively match the cabinet, and the conversion rate is not high.

In the other case, it is also difficult to find the perfect matching products if customized products are added to the finished furniture. Because the two are completely different development systems, it is difficult to provide owners with an integrated package solution based on the overall style.

It can be said that traditional whole-house customization, whether it is based on customized finished products or finished products, has natural defects. The root cause of the defect lies in the asynchrony between the two sources of research and development.

Customization + upholstered furniture integration, the best track in the future?

The "customization + upholstered furniture integration" advocated by Kuka Home is to solve this fundamental contradiction from the source of design. That is to start with the integration of design, and finally realize the integration of products and lifestyles, and provide a unified style of bagging solutions.

Real view of Kuka' s whole house custom store

Based on Kuka Home' s nearly 40 years of accumulation in the field of upholstered furniture, coupled with the integration of customized furniture categories, the combination of two high-quality tracks will bring a win-win result for both the consumer and the supply side:

From the consumer perspective, custom cabinets mainly solve functional storage and space separation, while upholstered furniture can meet consumers' individual needs for home style. In fact, the rich choice of upholstered furniture is one of the key considerations in decision-making for end consumers.

For example, a Kuka Home' s dealer has achieved sales of more than 6 million in just one of its hardcover properties in Hangzhou. The reason is that Kuka Home' s whole-house customization solves the pain points of consumers with consistent styles of software + custom furniture and a controllable budget.

From the business perspective, customized furniture has become the entrance to the store to capture traffic, while soft furniture can increase the unit value around the two halls of the guest and bedroom, and finally realize the bag solution based on the integration of the whole house home style.

It can be said that the integration of custom-made furniture and upholstered furniture not only effectively solves the problem of the uniform style of the whole house, but also enables terminal stores to realize business transformation at a lower cost. At the same time, don't forget that the biggest development potential of the large home furnishing industry is the two categories of upholstered furniture and custom furniture.

Accumulation, the key reason behind the customization of Kuka Home's whole house

As a giant of upholstered furniture, how did Kuka Home successfully open up its own new track for whole-house customization?

• Respect the laws of the industry

Different from finished furniture, the custom furniture industry has its own development law, which is a "slow first and then fast" process. These basic skills are essential for the construction of production lines, the establishment of information systems, and the improvement of delivery systems.

Many brands tend to ignore the objective laws after entering the customization field. Marketing work is the first, products and systems are the back; investment promotion is the first, but they have not done a good job in the construction of informatization.

According to FurnitureToday's understanding, today's Kuka Whole House Customization has completed the scientific construction of the product system, the IT system has also been perfected, and the terminal store status has been upgraded from version 1.0 to version 6.0, almost every six months.

In fact, Kuka' s whole house customization has already achieved profitability, but it is not as eager to expand as most brands, but continues to invest and continue to improve the core.

Real view of Kuka' s whole house custom store

• "Restart" and believe in the power of professionalism

One of the key reasons for the unsuccessful transformation and customization of most finished products enterprises is that within the original system, they hope to use the same team to make completely different things. In fact, the transformation of thinking is the most critical and the most difficult. Customized furniture must use a professional team.

At the beginning of the customization of Kuka' s whole house, the importance of professional talents was clarified from the beginning, so a team of professional players who customized furniture was gathered. From product development, scientific construction of production lines, information construction, etc., many detours have been avoided.

• Differentiated positioning, core city strategy

In 2016, in the first year of the start of Kuka' s whole house customization, it took the lead in launching the "no aldehyde addition" differentiation strategy. After the aldehyde-free war in 2020, its' whole house customization has been upgraded again.

Today, Kuka' s whole-house customization has made its own position clearer, that is, “the whole-house customization more suitable for pregnant and infant families”, focusing on making healthy and environmentally-friendly whole-house customization.

More importantly, compared to the package products launched by Oppein and other whole-house customization, Kuka Whole-house Customization has given full play to its core advantages in the upholstered furniture section. That is a richer choice of upholstered furniture, which is becoming a very critical part of the whole house custom consumption decision.

Real view of Kuka' s whole house custom store

• Give enough patience to strategic categories

The success of the strategy largely depends on the ability to persist. After most finished furniture companies get involved in customization, they hope to see results and even profits immediately.

For Kuka Home, whole-house customization is more than just business increment. It is defined as a "strategic category", so it focuses on the long-term at the beginning, rather than rushing to the present. What Kuka wants to fight is a protracted battle for the customization of the whole house.

The ability to "grow out": thinking about "speed and slow" brought about by the customization of Kuka Home

Upholstered furniture companies are moving towards large-scale home furnishings, and customization is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed. However, there are different ways to obtain customized capabilities. Not long ago, Man Wah Holdings announced the acquisition of Chengdu Nacooc Home Furnishing, completing its layout in the customized home furnishing sector.

The Kuka whole house customization is the opposite. It was incubated and cultivated in the Kuka home for five years, and it is the ability to "grow out" from the inside. This growth process will be very difficult, but also very important. Accumulation of experience, integration of business, transmission of brand potential, etc., once completed, it will be twice the result with half the effort, even more powerful.

Real view of Kuka' s whole house custom store

"Do difficult but right things." Perhaps 2016 will determine today's results.

For the entire furniture industry, Kuka Home's exploration in the whole house customization is of great significance. The reason is that compared with the “difficult first and easy later” of mass production of customized furniture, the core of finished furniture, especially upholstered furniture, is the “slow ability” that takes time to accumulate-the accumulation of design thinking, manufacturing, and process experience. For the understanding of lifestyle and other aspects, it is difficult for custom-made furniture companies to obtain this ability in a short period of time.

For Kuka Home, on the basis of the "slow capacity" of finished furniture, the "fast capacity" of customized furniture has been "grown" through the interior. Should Kuka Home be redefined in the future? A giant of upholstered furniture, or a custodian who is moving towards an integrated home furnishing operator? The answer may be more worth looking forward to!