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The accelerating arrival of the AI era of home furnishing brings endless challenges and opportunities. Wayes Custom, the pioneer of whole-home customization, continues to drive personalization and intelligence in both design and service — reshaping the ecosystem and lifestyles of the custom furnishing industry for years to come.

“I firmly believe that the bright future of AI is also the bright future of custom home furnishing.” — With a stunning opening speech by Vanny Wei Yudie, the AI design ambassador, Wayes Custom’s 2024 national market strategy was officially launched.

On February 29, the “2024, Win with You Again” Wayes Custom National Franchisee Summit was grandly held in Shenzhen. Group Chairman Li Lianzhu, Group Director & President Zhou Shuyi, Wayes Custom General Manager Zhang Zhifang, Group President’s Assistant & Director of the Group’s Digital Intelligence Center Li Quan, Group Investment Director Jiang Weisen, Group Accessories Business Unit General Manager Gui Yating, Group Product R&D Center Director Chen Wenquan, and other leaders gathered with franchisee partners from across the country to map out strategies for breaking through an era of intensifying competition and rapid iteration.

“Good Design, Go Wayes”: An Unwavering Strategy to Become Customers’ First Choice

Amid relentless “involution” and price wars, many competitors’ franchisees and dealers have sunk into crisis during the industry downturn — receiving little effective support from their brands and even facing all kinds of disguised pressure. Wayes Custom, by contrast, has always stood “in the trenches” with its franchisees, overcoming difficulties together, and completing a remarkable turnaround in 2023 with breakthroughs in both performance and profit.

At the annual strategy release session, Wayes Custom General Manager Zhang Zhifang stated: “Our ‘Good Design, Go Wayes’ strategy for 2024 remains unwavering. I thank all our franchisee partners for their long-standing commitment and joint efforts.” This year, headquarters will continue to empower franchisees across multiple dimensions — store opening, omni-channel traffic, sales playbooks, tiered driving, and organizational incentives — to achieve full-process penetration and full-scenario implementation of “Good Design, Go Wayes.” The goal is twofold: to provide consumers with high-quality exclusive lifestyle customization the “More, Faster, Better, Cheaper” way, making Wayes their first choice; and to keep a close eye on foot traffic, information flow, and cash flow, going all out to “break the involution” in fierce market competition and win together with franchisee partners once again.

New Marketing Leadership: Turning “Good Design” Capabilities into Results

Group Chairman Li Lianzhu proposed earlier: converting the capability of good design, aesthetics, and fashion sense into real combat power is the key to supporting frontline franchisees and achieving tangible results.

To that end, Wayes Custom Deputy General Manager Lin Wenbin, after reviewing the marketing strategies, methodologies, and practices of the past year, distilled a “6+2” new-marketing store implementation system for franchisees. It comprehensively explains how to build more sales-effective stores around six dimensions — scenario, process, customer engagement, campaigns, delivery, and mechanisms — to capture omni-channel traffic from online new media and offline new residential communities.

As the originator of the whole-home customization industry, Wayes Custom has always used “Good Design” to explore frontier consumption trends and lead home design and innovation thinking. At the summit, Lin also unveiled the 2024 full-range new products and the group’s latest age-friendly living research findings. With a series of innovative product matrices, marketing practices, and management reforms, the new year is set to help franchisees achieve another leap in performance.

Market Tiering: Refined Management Drives High Growth

The downturn in the upstream real estate market and the arrival of the “stock era” have fundamentally reshaped how the custom furnishing industry acquires customers and operates. With first- and second-tier markets becoming relatively saturated, lower-tier markets have become a battleground for every major brand. Yet market conditions and franchisee operations vary greatly across city tiers — and so should the corresponding marketing strategies.

Shu Chang, General Manager of Wayes Custom’s Southern Region, shared at the summit: “Last year, Wayes achieved counter-trend growth, with traffic focus playing a notable role. In 2024, we will tier our markets according to franchisees’ operating backgrounds, develop category-based market-driving strategies for different city levels, and empower franchisees through refined management and precise traffic. With professional ‘accompanied guidance’ and resource support, we will drive overall high growth in performance.”

“AI Good Design Factory”: Sharpened Sword Boosts Efficiency and Conversions

After the baptism of the AIGC year, the industry-first AI vertical large model and one-stop design service platform “AI Good Design Factory” from Wayes Custom has already achieved over 100 million yuan (RMB) in assisted transactions since its launch. With its exceptionally solid software capabilities, it delivers high-quality design plans, quotations, and 360° panoramic renders within 24 hours — solving urgent problems for many franchisee stores. Thanks to its performance, there have even been “legendary moments” of snatching orders directly from competitors.

As large models rapidly iterate this year, the AI Good Design Factory will surely bring even more surprises. Liu Bo, Director of Wayes Custom’s AI Good Design Factory, introduced: after two major version updates (1.0 and 2.0), the factory has become increasingly mature and reliable, with output efficiency and quality evolving yet again. It will further help stores improve conversions and reduce costs, letting franchisees focus on sales while leaving the rest to the factory with total peace of mind.

New Media Playbook: Douyin Local Group-Buying for Traffic Explosion

Digital marketing across industries continues to accelerate, bringing more challenges and opportunities to traditional offline store models. Making better use of new media tools for precise traffic, building and maintaining brand trust, stimulating purchase desire, and driving conversions is another major topic of the moment.

Douyin local group-buying, as a long-term incremental digital tool, can efficiently empower stores. The summit invited Deng Hui, General Manager of Juxingxuesheng, an official Douyin service provider, to share ten practical execution tactics for local group-buying. Combined with the five elements of new-media internet marketing — “exposure, trust, conversion, private domain, and repurchase” — he provided franchisees with practical, efficient solutions to master key digital transformation strategies and stand out in a fiercely competitive market.

Closing

In his concluding address, Group Chairman Li Lianzhu said: “In the era of involution, we should walk forward hand in hand. The way to respond to the ‘left-shift in consumption’ is a ‘left-shift in management’ — getting hands-on, refining the granularity of management, and creating a sense of belonging for employees. At the same time, we must seize structural growth opportunities — above all, keeping pace with the AI wave, going all in on the AI Good Design Factory, and further strengthening Wayes Custom’s advantages in whole-home design. This holds enormous industry value and market potential.”

Every gathering is a chance to set out for a better future. The successful conclusion of this summit was not only a celebration of the past year’s achievements, but also a vision and commitment by Wayes Custom to walk hand in hand with franchisees nationwide toward a bright future. In 2024, guided by the “Good Design, Go Wayes” strategy, Wayes Custom will surely win together with its franchisee partners once again.