CEO ShuWei founded the brand ZAOZUO in 2014. Although the Home Furnishing field scaled to trillions of yuan,the development and production of the upstream product, as well as the sales channels of the downstream, are in a relatively primitive stage of development. Just as Shu said, there are nails everywhere on the floor, and as long as your hammer is big enough, you can always gain some if you bury your head hammering them. " From her words, we know the hammer represents the resources, nails stand for the problems. Later Shu and her team found that the biggest nail in the home field is the mismatch between product supply and demand, which is also the reason why the furniture is sold expensively in the store .
Accepting the interview from Economic Observer, Shu said, to a certain extent, the Chinese furniture market supply chain is not born for users, but follow the foreign trade supply chain. Apart from this, most of the products are used for exportation, a large amount of which is badly needed. In the early years, when the furniture industry flourished, a factory could have tens of thousands of people. Once the assembly line starts rolling , a certain amount of products will be produced, resulting in a large backlog of inventory. In this circumstance, the middle brands have become channels to sell those products. Their solution to this problem is to open more pro-stores, which means they should firstly take delivery of goods, and then accumulate the goods. In this way they are using the store's cash pressure to ease the pressure on the supply side. Moreover, the time they spend in intermediate period is too long, and each side needs to withstand the pressure of funds."Enterprises want to survive, but the efficiency of circulation is not high, so every link has to earn a certain difference.". However, all pro-stores,franchise stores, agents need circulation cost, so that through the chain, the products for the users tend to two extremes: one is particularly large and expensive for the rich, the other is the rental furniture with general quality and design for common people."
Shu found that the consumption structure of developing countries is like an hourglass - the high and low ends expand, but in mature economies, consumption structure is oval, intermediate consumption group matters. ZAOZUO is the intermediate group that wants to meet the demands of consumers from the middle group. The main selling channel of ZAOZUO is its official website, which currently has two entity stores. In May this year, ZAOZUO completed $20 million in the B round of financing. Lead investor is Capital Today, followed by Investors including Bertelsmann, Asia Investment Fund, Morningside Capital etc..
为什么卖场里的家具都那么贵
家具品牌“造作”CEO舒为在2014年创立了这家品牌，当时的家居领域虽然有几万亿的规模，但是无论是上游产品的研发和生产，还是下游的销售渠道，都处在相对原始的发展阶段。用舒为的话说，就是“满地都是钉子，只要你的锤子够大，闷着头锤就是了”，锤子代表的是资源，钉子代表问题。舒为和团队后来发现，家居领域最大的钉子就是产品供需错配，这也是卖场里家具卖得贵的原因。
舒为接受《经济观察报》采访时说，在一定程度上，整个中国家具市场的供应链并不是为了用户而生，而是沿袭着外贸供应链，大多数产品是用于出口的，量也非常大。早年，家具业兴盛时，一个工厂可能有几万人，流水线一开，必须得产够一定的量，结果造成大量库存积压。中间的品牌商，就成了渠道，它们的解决方案是多开专卖店，先提货，压货，相当于是用专卖店的现金压力去缓解供应端的压力。而且，中间环节也太长，每一方都需要顶住资金的压力。“企业要生存，但流通的效率不高，所以每一环节都要赚取一定的差价。然而，各个专卖店、特许加盟店、代理商都会产生流通成本，整个链条拉下来，到达终端用户的产品趋向于两极，一极是特别大特别贵的土豪款，另一极是品质和设计很一般的租房家具。”
舒为发现，发展中国家的消费结构是沙漏型——高端和低端两端膨胀，但在成熟经济体，消费呈椭圆形结构，中间的消费才是大头，造作就是想要满足中间群体的消费需求。造作的主要销售渠道是官方网站，目前有两家实体店。今年5月时，造作完成2000万美元B轮融资，领投方为今日资本，跟投方包括贝塔斯曼亚洲投资基金、晨兴资本等。
