As the top seller in U-LIKE Furniture, a dining chair called Chilli Square, leading its whole Chilli Series, won a remarkable achievement. We were wondering how it was achieved, so today, we have a conversation with its development team and unreservedly tell you the story behind Chilli’s success.
Frame Choice: Take stock of past experiences
The story started with an idea that emerged initially. We wondered how to make a small dining chair with a padded and chunky feeling. So, we went through some factories and visited some big expos, then inspiration came.
For material choice, there are rich considerations in advance. The prime is to keep the plywood board for the basic frame of the backrest. Previously, we’ve tried the plywood board for another piece (BREEZE) usage, but the effect was not so ideal; the overall look is thin and did not achieve a thick look, so in order to make up for this lack, the Chilli Series looks to be finally within striking distance.
Stitching & Fabric: Bring out the best in each other
Those two were meant to be together! Without the cute stitch, the effection of the fabric will be ignored, and fabric texture can’t be left with the cute stitch of different kinds.
When we developed Chilli Square, it was at the dawn of the Microfiber chair era in the furniture market. Through market research, we have keenly captured the signal that Microfiber will be popular and also selected the color with a high probability of popularity among many colors, such as off-white, dark gray, dark brown, and so on (PK1/2/3/4). Therefore, this design perfectly echoes the fresh market and the latest trends.
Speaking of the stitch stuff, as we all know, choosing the cute stitch and the high-density sponge can ensure the padded feeling of a chair, showing a sense of high-end, so our team finalized the stitch patterns after detailed discussions with the designer and the factory, from which the product name was born — Chilli Square.
Background data shows that Chilli Square’s sales reached almost one million, ranking first on the U-LIKE Furniture sales list. As the first chair from the Chilli Series, Chilli Square instantly won the hearts of clients and consumers worldwide.
“We predicted this outcome,” says Elieen, Product Director at ULIKE. “For Microfiber, we were one of the earliest developers on the market, and it was hard not to succeed in matching the ideal style, fabric, and color together, combined with the price advantage.”
Continue the strategy: the birth of Chilli
The success of Chilli Square gave us a solid impetus to develop and design our products, and we decided to continue the explosion. In order to improve the production efficiency of the factory, we kept the same plywood board for the chair frame, and the tufted pattern for the chair back covers and replaced the square leg with a circle leg.
Chilli dining chair adopts the current fashionable fabric: Boucle Series. Boucle tends to bring a relaxed, lively, colorful feel and atmosphere. It is easy to match and perfectly echoes the roundness of the circle legs. As a result, the Chilli Square and Chilli are compatible and differentiated, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent series development. “This chair is very cost-effective for customers who order a whole container of just one design,” Elieen said happily.
Of course, there are a few considerations for the change:
- Easier to match: Usually, we sell the chair with the table, and in the process of the whole set of sales, it is inevitable to encounter a problem: The circle leg for chairs is often not suitable for the circle leg for tables, and the circle leg for tables does not match the square leg for chairs. Therefore, based on the tables we produce and the general choice of our customers, we decided to add the circle legs for this leather dining chair.
- Improve the production efficiency of the factory and ensure the delivery time: Keeping the same frame, materials, and patterns improves the factory’s production efficiency and guarantees customers’ delivery time in various countries.
- Avoid the competitive risk of similar products: Although the similarity of the two products is exceptionally high, we still have to retain the product differentiation. We have set different styles for these two products in terms of style. Chilli Square, famous for its microfiber fabric, is set to be in the classic and industrial style. Chilli Square is not only in people’s homes but also more popular with furniture buyers of restaurants and bars.
W Series: Meet the trendy experience in cutting-edge design
In recent years, as wood elements have become more and more popular with customers worldwide, we hope to extend Chilli infinitely to the top-selling furniture strategy. In addition to the four products in the Chilli series, we have also developed another piece with a wood element, numbered with the suffix W. With wooden legs under the upholstered seat of the Chilli Square, the -W series was born, and it is still in the hot selling process.
In conclusion, the reason why Chilli Square became the top-selling furniture is a typical tale of manufacturing. However, the true essence lies beyond the product, encompassing a deeply considered and prepared concept.
