Extended quarantines lead to home improvement sales bonanza
Need for more user-friendly kitchen, living spaces also rising as self-isolating periods prolonged
Home improvement-related industries have enjoyed tremendous growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many people to spend long periods confined at home, thus prompting many to rethink ways to improve and even expand their living spaces, industry insiders said.
The uptrend is likely to continue in the next two to three years as residents pay closer attention to the quality of their homes and apartments, since travel and social gatherings have been discouraged for extended periods, they said.
Chahua, a Shanghai-based company specializing in modern housewares, said its domestic sales increased more than 20 percent year-on-year in 2020, reaching nearly 28 billion yuan ($4.38 billion) last year. Sales this year are expected to surpass 32.5 billion yuan.
“We deeply believe that such leaps and bounds in market demand are closely related to the pandemic when people needed to spend more time at home with their families,” said Huo Dongfei, branding director for Chahua.
“Under such conditions, people will think more about whether their space arrangements at home are reasonable and try to make their homes more comfortable within a limited space. Also, they need to tidy up and boost elbow room when entire families stay at home longer, which also eases anxiety,” he said.
Business growth in first-tier cities and smaller urban areas — especially provincial capitals like Hangzhou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, and Shijiazhuang — is strong, according to business data from Chahua.
Last year, storage boxes and clothes hangers were among the bestselling products with revenues of 3.92 billion yuan and 2.75 billion yuan, respectively, on both online and offline channels.
When people increasingly cook for themselves at home amid the pandemic, their need for a more user-friendly kitchen space also rises. Citing statistics from major online shopping platforms, Huo said that the sales volume of hanging storage shelves and corner brackets rose by 120 percent and 41 percent, respectively, over the past year.
Han Yi’en, founder of the Chinese Association of Professional Organizers — who herself began working as a professional home space organizer in Shanghai in 2014 — said that the business segment has undergone an unprecedented boom since last year.
“When it comes to my agency, the number of inquiries we receive each day jumped from dozens to hundreds last year. And the rising trend is still ongoing,” Han said.
She said the rapid development of the business last year was also a factor allowing the home space organizer sector — a profession born in the United States and further developed in Japan — to be recognized by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security as a new profession in January.
Han added that in Shanghai, the average price charged by a team of three home space organizers is usually between 750 yuan and
1,000 yuan per hour. Rates may vary by region.
Kang Xian, a professional home space organizer from Nanning, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said that professional organizers’ work is not only about squeezing more pieces of clothing into a box to save space and make apartments look tidier.
“We also have ways to help customers find things they need more quickly, maintain a level of tidiness at home and spend less time on housekeeping every day,” Kang said.
She also said her typical clients are people in their 30s living with their spouses and children.
“But I believe young people will rely on professional home space organizers more than the previous generation after they get married and start families,” Kang added.
“Longer periods spent at home owing to the pandemic forced people to think of tidying up living spaces — a task that may have been postponed for long periods,” Han said.
“Organizing space is more about dealing with the relations between people and allowing people to see their real needs and values.”
Sales figures also showed that market demand for home space organizing services is becoming increasingly segmented.
The figures from Chahua showed that the most rapid sales growth was seen for storage boxes, disposable face towels and underwear last year.
Data from Taobao showed that in 2020, the sales volume of cosmetic racks and shoe storage boxes rose by 59 percent and 37 percent, respectively, year-on-year.
“The rising number of makeup racks actually means that individuals are purchasing more cosmetics. Such changes remind us that a rising number of people are pampering themselves with small amenities to bring about levels of mental satisfaction,” Huo said.
This also suggests consumers are more willing to buy products that feature new looks and user experiences.
A report released by research firm CBNData in December showed that the frequency of online shoppers entering the search words “good-looking products” on shopping platforms last year was 2.76 times higher than the previous year.
Consumers were also more willing to pay extra for new product experiences as well as creative designs and additional cultural value, according to the report.
Also, when people spend longer periods at home, they need improvements so that they will feel that life at home is less dull, said industry insiders.
China has been undergoing a phase of rapid development and people spend long hours working at full speed. Under such conditions, many people only needed their homes to satisfy the most basic needs of sleeping and eating, said Wang Jun, a professional home and office space organizer from Chongqing.
“But the pandemic allowed many to take a pause and seek more from life apart from work. That also leads to greater needs in home space arrangement. For example, some may cherish having some space on the balcony to sit down for tea and maybe do some yoga to return to relatively simpler lifestyles,” Wang said.
The report by CBNData also showed that health promotion, a clean living environment, personal space and a strong desire for ritual are key needs for Chinese in 2021.
Some upstream and downstream industries related to home space organizing, such as online recycling platforms and smart wardrobe management, have also ridden the wave of development, according to industry observers.
Haier introduced a smart solution helping individuals manage their wardrobes in 2019 that uses imaging, voice prompts and wireless communication technologies to help people find the clothes they need.
Zhao Fei, ecological director of Haier Internet of Clothing, said that users need to download an app. Before they put a new piece of clothing into the wardrobe, they need to put a special digital sticker onto the clothing, take a picture of the clothing with the app and clarify which part of the wardrobe it is placed in.
“When users look for a piece of clothing from the wardrobe, they only need to describe what kind of clothing it is to the app, and the app will tell exactly where it is,” she said.