Will the home building materials industry change in the next five years?
No, it’s a reshuffle.
Have you ever felt like this: you have been running a store for more than ten years and suddenly you no longer understand the business.
Where have the customers gone?
Douyin, Xiaohongshu, live broadcast room.
What to sell?
Whole home customization, smart home, door and wall cabinet integration.
I used to rely on one category to dominate the market, but now customers come in and ask, “Can you help me do it all?”
Many bosses are panicking.
Don’t worry, I won’t sing high-key today, I’ll just talk about the visible road ahead in the next five years.
In a word: the home building materials industry is moving from “single product is king” to “solution wins”.
Whoever can save customers worry and trouble, and still make their home look beautiful, will get the next boat ticket.
1. Hypermarkets will not die, but they will peel off
Big shopping malls such as Red Star, Juran and Fussenmei will not disappear, but they must be revitalized.
Stores that can survive in the future will have five new looks:
First, you have to grab online traffic yourself.
Stop expecting customers to wander in on their own.
Stores have to do their own live broadcasts, shoot short videos, and shout out in Douyin and Xiaohongshu.
There is a store where a live broadcast can bring in tens of thousands of orders. What are you waiting for?
Second, connect online and offline.
Customers like it online and come to the store to experience it and place an order; if there is no stock in the store, they place an order online and have it delivered to their home.
To walk on two legs, one cannot be missing.
Third, extend your tentacles into communities, decoration companies, and real estate properties.
Don’t stick to one place.
Cooperate with real estate developers, make friends with designers, and set up stalls in front of construction sites.
Wherever the customers are, go there.
Fourth, everything must be sold.
In the past, we only sold furniture and building materials.
In the future, home appliances, soft furnishings, smart locks, and even housekeeping maintenance will all have it.
Let customers enter your store and decorate a whole home.
Fifth, service must keep up.
Don’t just collect rent.
Help merchants with customer operations, after-sales follow-up, and activation of old customers.
You help merchants make money, and merchants will work with you.
The store is no longer a “landlord”, but a “trader”.
2. Multi-category integration, from “selling one” to “selling a set”
In the past, we relied on one type of wooden door to dominate the world, and one set of cabinets to open hundreds of stores.
In the future, what customers want is “door and wall cabinet integration”, “ceiling and wall integration” and “cupboard and wood integration”.
You only sell doors, and the customer turns to the cabinet maker next door.
Now there is a brand that is successful: Mengtian makes door and wall cabinets, and it took two years to complete the one-stop process of design, production and delivery.
We also train dealers to be “woodwork beauticians” and provide installation and after-sales service.
Customers are happy and you make money.
Whole-home customization is the next trend.
From cabinets to sofas to mattresses and even soft furnishings, we will help you get it all.
Customers have peace of mind and your unit price is high.
Of course, not everyone can do this, and must have supply chain integration capabilities and delivery systems.
But remember: not all companies need to be large and comprehensive.
Focus on one category and do it to the extreme, and you can still live well.
For example, we only make mattresses, only wooden doors, and only ceramic tiles.
But you have to become the “king” of this segment and let customers think of you when they think of this category.
Either make it deep or make it wide.
To be broad, we need integration; to be deep, we need hard work.
3. Overall soft decoration, from “choosing curtains” to “matching style”
I used to go to several places to buy curtains, wall coverings, and hanging paintings.
What young people now want is “you design it for me and get it all at once.”
Overall soft decoration brands are on the rise: Aimanshi, Embroidery Workshop, Lingxiu Home… They provide one-stop services from whole-house soft decoration design to curtains, wall coverings and accessories.
You earn not only material fees, but also design fees and worry-free fees.
What you sell is not cloth, but the answer to “making your home beautiful”.
Four. Products must be “Internet celebrity”, and young people are willing to check in for you
In the next 10 years, many “flow-based products” will emerge: a shower can generate electricity, a sofa can charge, and a bedside table comes with its own wireless charger.
Young people buy not only functions, but also “materials for posting on WeChat Moments”.
How to do it?
Study the aesthetics of young people, collaborate with designers, and do reverse customization.
The data tells you which colors and functions sell well, so you develop them accordingly.
Let the product speak for itself and attract traffic by itself.
Products are the biggest billboards.
5. Three practical suggestions for you who are confused
1. If you are a dealer: don’t stick to one brand or category.
Try to get together with the nearby bosses who sell bathroom ware, flooring, and lighting fixtures, and everyone will take orders from each other.
If possible, learn to customize the entire home, or do a partial renovation package.
2. If you are a manufacturer: Either make a single product perfect so that your competitors cannot catch up; or integrate resources and develop multi-category solutions.
Don’t hang around in the middle. It’s the most uncomfortable when you’re neither up nor down.
3. No matter who you are: learn online quickly.
Douyin is not just for young people, it is your channel to gain customers.
Once a video is posted and hundreds of people see it, it will take you one month to distribute flyers.
Don’t know how to shoot?
First, take photos of the construction site, the installation, and the smiling faces of satisfied customers.
Truth is the best content.
It’s not that business is difficult to do, it’s that the logic of making money has changed.
In the next five years, the industry will wash away a group of people and help a group of people.
Do you want to be washed off, or stand up?
Are you ready to switch tracks?
Chat in the comment section.
