How This D2C Kids' Furniture Brand Clocked 3X growth Targeting the Mid-Premium Segment?

The furniture market, one of the oldest markets in India, has long remained without any major change or disruption with consumers relying on their trusted local carpenter for building their home décor products. However, in recent times, particularly with the advent of emergent technologies and rapid adoption of e-commerce, several major developments have come to the surface in the sector. 

Furniture brand Boingg! which offers a range of children's furniture has been making its presence felt in the market. In the industry which is about 80 percent unorganized, the D2C company has been able to clock growth of 3X by April 2021. Launched in 2019, the brand had recently raised Rs 2.2 crore in a seed round. In the 2021’s Diwali season, the company clocked sales of 90 lakhs of orders.

The company’s right segmentation of its products and customized offering in terms of shape, size, and design is possibly the reason behind the growth of the firm. 

Targeting the Mid-premium Segment

Both the founders Dhruvan Barar and Neha Indoria had ventured into business in 2015 when they realized there is a major gap when it comes to furniture in terms of quality, design, and price point. One could easily get really cheap stuff or you have to buy high-end custom or imported stuff. 

“We did not have anything that fits with the mid-premium segment,” said Neha Indoria, Co-founder, Boingg!.

“There were no designs or quality products that were available in the segment: be in terms of functionality or materials being used. That is why we decided to go ahead and do our research in 2018 in terms of what kind of offering is there in the Indian market, and based on this research, we launched in 2019,” she added.  

Overall, the company’s price range of the products is basically very wide. The portfolio includes furniture, soft furnishing, décor, and accessories for age groups from infancy till 17-year-olds. 

When the company started, it spent largely on platforms: Pepperfry, Livespace, Flipkart, etc., and then once they got some validity towards product and price, it adopted the D2C business strategy starting December 2019. Right now, Boingg! is available on both the online models (marketplaces + D2C) and it’s also launching its first store in Gurgaon. 

Business-wise, the company claimed to have been operationally positive since June of last year i.e., outside of marketing expenses, they are essentially staying positive on the balance sheet. The Rs 2.2 crore of funds raised will be used to further increase their marketing potential in both SEM (search engine marketing) and non-SEM domains and hire more people. Currently, they are working with 60-65 of the workforce which includes skilled workers.

READ MORE: How Furniture Sector Has Toiled Towards Capturing a Bigger Pie On E-commerce Space

Market Perspective

Firstly, there is already less number of notable organized players in the market, even less so for the kid's section. In actual figures, the India Furniture Market was $17.77 billion in 2020 and will rise to $37.72 billion by the end of the year 2026, growing at a double-digit CAGR of 13.37 percent during 2020-2026.

Indoria shared: “Within the organized market, you have marketplaces like Pepperfry, Urban Ladder, etc. who are not driven by quality or design. They are primarily driven by price. Also, most of the furniture brands are basically exporting from China. They are not putting any mind to it or any level of customization on the product – simply importing and selling it like it.”

Customization as the Core Strategy

To get an edge over the other players in the market, the company relies heavily on customization to bring the right set of products as per the demand of their consumer base. 

Indoria stated, “Every product that we have on our website is customized to change its color, outer dimension of the product and add storage where you need it. There is no size fit all solution so by allowing people to make changes on the dimensions we take care of people's space requirements and by allowing them to change colors we take care of the inert requirements to be able to customize to 'my kid's room/needs'.”

The company has thus launched a customizer on the website which allows people to change the colors of the products in real-time and also see the product in AR (Augmented Reality) in their room. 

“We are trying to customize the benefits of the organized and unorganized market to create an offering which will satisfy any customer for any type of products and know exactly what they are getting before buying,” Indoria further stated. 

To enable all this customization, it currently has its technology operations in-house. It is also planning to adopt Data Analytics in the coming future. 

Moreover, Boingg! runs on a zero inventory model, and it manufactures everything on its own. It is thus easy for the firm to control the kind of raw materials used. “It allows in saving costs on real estate, warehousing, etc.,” Indoria added. 

As for service providers, it works with multiple logistics partners including Gati, Bluedart, etc. Besides, it has installation partners to do the installation on site. 

In terms of geographical reach, their major demand is from Delhi, second is Bangalore, where the company is planning to open its second store.