Home Décor & Furniture demand grows during lockdown
Work at home is the new normal now due to lockdown. Past dishwasher or a vacuum cleaner, food recipes, people are now investing in a pc desk or workplace chair, curtains, sofas etc. Ashish Shah, Co-Founder and COO of furnishings model, Pepperfry claims that demand for tables and chairs has gone up by 175 per cent and 135 per cent vis-a-vis June final 12 months. Subodh Mehta, Senior Vice-President (B2C), Godrej Interio, says that workplace furnishings, which comprised about three per cent of his firm’s gross sales, has elevated to 15 per cent. “Most individuals are working from home, places of work have restricted attendance, therefore, a correct work station at house has turn out to be a necessity,” says Mehta.
Actually, a latest report by the Retailers Affiliation of India, says that the furnishings business is experiencing winds of revival. In contrast to industries resembling attire retail, magnificence or F&B that are experiencing a de-growth upwards of 70 per cent, the de-growth in furnishings retail has been within the area of 40 per cent. Mr Shah of Pepperfry says “Final week we received again 80-85 per cent of our pre-COVID volumes and as we converse now, we’re at 90-95 per cent of our January volumes”.
Whereas tables and chairs are one of the best sellers, shoppers are additionally shopping for eating tables and couches, and a bulk of those purchases are taking place on-line. Mehta of Godrej Interio, says that on-line gross sales have elevated by over 40 per cent within the final one month. “Persons are spending 40-50 per cent extra time looking my site,” Shah additional explains.
Is the surge in furnishings gross sales a function of pent up demand? Mehta says that pent up demand is usually coming from individuals who had been presupposed to shift properties and had been unable to take action as a result of lockdown. “Work at home furnishings funding is extra an element of a life-style change. It’s not pent up demand,” he says. “Had it been pent up demand, it will have lasted for 15-20 days, however now we have been operational since mid-Could and the demand has been constantly on the rise,” provides Shah. He believes that by 2025 the organised furnishings market will contribute 20-22 per cent of the general furnishings market in India.
However, Godrej Interio, is within the strategy of innovating merchandise that might make work at home simpler. The improvements embrace couches and beds that might include platforms that might allow folks to position their laptops and a number of different WFH equipment.
Annual B2B exhibitions like India Big7 hosts a perfect platform that brings together the entire range of solutions and enable manufacturers, traders, wholesalers, stockists, corporate buyers altogether on one place to conduct business.
Also Read: 5 in-demand Corporate Gifts during Covid-19
Source: Final Point