(Yicai) March 7 -- Chinese home furnishing brands have been actively focusing on opening retail stores overseas, especially in India and Southeast Asia, given the sluggish domestic real estate market.

As the domestic furnishing market approaches saturation, companies need to find new business growth points, Jiang Han, a senior researcher at the Pangoal Institution, told Yicai. Overseas markets, particularly in India and Southeast Asia, have significant market potential and development space, becoming key markets for Chinese home furnishing brands to expand their business, Jiang added.

"Many institutions predicted that the annual transaction volume of China's new housing market will remain at around 1 billion square meters in the foreseeable future, down about 40 percent from the peak in 2018," a home furnishing industry expert told Yicai. "This will naturally affect downstream enterprises, including home furnishing suppliers."

China has been the world's leading home furnishing country over the past decades. Its previous business model involved original equipment manufacturer production for overseas brands, but with the improvement of design, production, and marketing capabilities since 2018, many Chinese home furnishing firms have begun entering the European and American markets. And in recent years, they shifted their focus to the India and Southeast Asia, emphasizing the mid-to-high-end positioning.

The We Story, the overseas brand of Chinese mid-to-high-end home furnishing firm Zuoyou, announced on Feb. 25 that it opened its first store in Asia outside China in Mumbai. The brand had earlier opened stores in Europe and North America.

Leading Chinese home furnishing firm Jason Furniture (Hangzhou) also opened its first overseas flagship store in Mumbai last December.

In early January, leading Chinese custom furniture enterprise Suofeiya Home Collection announced the opening of its high-end home furnishings customization experience center in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

Another home furnishing brand, Zbom, also opened flagship stores in Thailand and Singapore and established comprehensive local sales service teams.

Zbom, which opened its first overseas store in Bangkok in January 2022, saw its overseas business revenue increase nearly 88 percent to CNY113 million (USD15.7 million) that year from the previous one, according to the company's annual financial report.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione