By Chen Quanzhong

Make a Different Sheet

By Chen Quanzhong

Chen Wei graduated from Beijing Film Academy.It was all by accident that he stepped into the e-commerce circle and became an entrepreneur.

The inspiration came at the moment she lay down herself in the bed after a long day working overtime.The world is changing every day,and the sheets are still in the style of more than a decade ago.Why not make a change? A thought hit upon her.

Why can’t the sheet we use every day bear such functions as cure,education and intimacy.We spend half of a life time in bed.Only when sleeping on such a sheet could we feel the time worthy.

How could such a market potential hidden invisible to the eyes of home textile enterprises?

Chen Wei was born in Nantong, China's largest textile base.A lot of her relatives are running home textile business.She returned home,and after investigation and communication with designers,factories and sales channels, she eventually found a path:to build a creative sheet-making website,linking up designers and consumers.The original design was put online.Only when consumers have placed their orders will the sheets enter the production process,which guarantees zero inventory for Chen Wei.

In theinvestigation,Chen Wei found the reason for many companiesdifficult to transform is that,they are used to traditional channels and dis dain new methods.With a narrow mindset,they are quite difficult to surf in the internet world.

In recent years,intelligent digital printing and dyeing have been adopted in the production lines of home textile products.It takes only two days from the design to customer ordering and the production of the sheets,thus making customization possible.With all this information in mind,Chen decided to build an online platform and change the status quo of the industry.

Chen Wei organized a team in June 2014.In October,5busu.com,the first domestic website focusing on commercializinginnovativebeddingwas launched.

How to attract designers and their works?Chen Wei reckoned:film stars sell their products to millions of audiences through cinema lines;singers sell their music to hundreds of millions of listeners through the network. These channels offer them opportunities to make a fortune.Home textile designers,however,get only some thousand yuan for a piece of work as a one-time payment.This piece of work may bring a sale volume of over hundreds of million yuan to the textile enterprise,but no more to the designer. That’s because designers do not have the opportunity to hold stakes in the Chinese traditional production chain, nor can they gain any benefit from the sales chain.

However,if their designs are up loaded to 5busu.com,designers can get a 1%to 10%commission from the sales of related products.The more their designed works are sold,the higher commission they get.If con tracted with 5busu.com,a designer will get a commission rate as high as 30%.A good bedding design brings the designer profits equivalent to that a top star gains from shooting two movies a year. Therefore,more than one hundred designersjoined5busu.comwithina month after its debut.

Through interaction with consumers, designers became more open-minded andabletoprovidemorediverse styles.

Before the Singles’Day of 2014, on a whim a designer designed a so cial sheet which could help those single find dates.Single customers ordering the sheet can have their social two-dimensional codes printed on the sheets.Feeling lonely?Just lie down on the sheet,and scan the two-dimensional code on it.Enjoy chatting withthe new friend?Why not go out for a date?

Designers also pay attention to additional functions of the bedding.For example:we often left mobile phones, remote controls and books everywhere, and find them nowhere when they are in need.A big bag was designed on the edge of the sheet for storage.That piece of cloth is quite a savior for the sluggards.Thousands of such bedding sets were sold soon after the design appeared online.

Customization saves the costs on in termediate sales and human resources, and thus lowers the prices for consumers.Awhite-collarworkerin Shanghai said,she wanted to give her husband a surprise at the wedding anniversary by printing marriage photos on the bedding set.And she was so excited that in a week,a tailor-made bedding set was sent to the door at the price of only two or three hundred yuan,as low as the bedding sets were sold in supermarkets.

By word of mouth,more and more customers came to 5busu.com.Chen Wei is also planning to revise the website:let in the factory,so that all the procedures can be completed online through self support;set up a property rights center for drawings to protects original works;allow consumers to participate in the design,who may cooperate with creative designers and share the profit from sales,so that everyoneonlinebecomesanentrepreneur.With a creative mind,everything is possible.

(FromChina YouthVol.7,2015.Translation:Wang Zheng,Jessie White.Illustration:Bing Er Xiao Xiao)

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