Vanlian home decoration company to speed up expansion

Vanlian, the home decoration company jointly founded by China Vanke and Homelink Real Estate Agency, opened its second experience center in Beijing in a year, indicating it's speeded up expansion.

According to Chinese entrepreneur and business blogger Wu Xiaobo, the home decoration market in China is worth 4 trillion yuan ($599.75 billion). Stirred by low-price competition, the huge yet saturated market hasn't seen a unicorn company in years, which offered Vanlian an opportunity to venture out and grow with standard services and good quality products.

Vanlian's monthly order volume rose from 200 to 500 in the past year, and is eyeing 1,000 orders per month, next seeks to top Beijing's market.

"Slow is fast, we are building a solid foundation with a clear supply chain and a steadily expanding customer base aiming to reach the future target, getting 10,000 orders a year," said Liu Xiao, China Vanke Beijing's general manager.

The home decoration industry in China is growing in accord with consumption upgrade and supply-side reform, as ever stronger middle class families tend to pay for standard services and products, instead of spending time decorating the house themselves, said Wu Xiaobo.

Latecomer Vanlian made its breakthrough by pursuing high quality products and keeping pace with consumers' changing needs. For example, Vanlian's newly launched home storage system gave a precise set of data on people's behavior in the kitchen — a Chinese family generally spends 2.5 hours per day in the kitchen, with 45 percent of the time spent on cleaning, 35 percent to cook and the remaining 15 percent on storage. The detailed service is based on Vanlian's big data from market reseach.

Success in Beijing's market marks only the tip of Vanlian's ambition. Monthly orders' exceeding 1,000 will enable Vanlian to expand business into other cities like Tianjin or Shanghai. The strategic cooperation between Vanke and Homelink took off in Beijing and will become nationwide, Liu said.

Vanlian, in fact, is never the only one eyeing the potential business opportunities in the decor market. Duocai.cn, an O2O brand offering renovation and decoration services, recently signed a deal with Tmall's decoration channel, aiming to provide a one-stop service for customers.