If decorating home every now and then is your hobby, you are definitely going to love this one-stop online solution for all your furniture and home décor needs....
interior
Due to Covid-19, we all were stuck at homes for more than a year and now, everybody wants a change whether in their room or their wardrobe. Yes, you can always rearrange your furniture but a new rug on the floor or a new lamp on the side table is only going to enhance the look of your room, and hey, who doesn’t want that? If decorating home every now and then is your hobby, you are definitely going to love this one-stop online solution for all your furniture and home décor needs.
Started in the year 2018, Chahyay.com became a successfully established online e-commerce marketplace for high-quality Pakistani manufactured furniture. It developed a nationwide logistics network to provide products to customers all over Pakistan. In the year 2020, US-based Pakistani-American entrepreneurs Mohammad Arsalan and Omar Mahmood of Strategic Insights Group (SIG) selected this start-up as their first investment into the local Pakistani market and were later joined by the renowned actor Mikaal Zulfiqar who also has a major stake in the business. Having built and managed successful companies in the United States, SIG plans to build upon the foundation of Chahyay.com and introduce proven e-Commerce, customer experience, and digital strategies in Pakistan, as well as continue to build strategic alliances and identify further areas of investment opportunities in Pakistan.
This online store currently features home and office furniture and accessories. “We offer items that can spruce up an existing space as well as complete collections to furnish entire homes and offices. We have recently seen a surge in demand for accessories such as unique lamps and statement cushions, which emphasises the consumer demand to update their existing spaces,” says Mohammad Arsalan.
So, what makes your furniture distinguished from others? To this end, Omar Mahmood states, “Our products meet export quality control requirements, and we are delivering the exact products our customers are seeing on our site. Our team works tirelessly to find and promote local craftsmanship with generations of experience in creating high-quality furniture.
With over 200 vendors providing custom and unique collections, we provide every style and category of furniture to our customers in Pakistan. Our collections feature products that are local to certain regions in Pakistan as well as what’s trending internationally. We are also very reasonable. We cater to every price range. You can find accessories priced under 1,000 PKR to larger pieces at 150,000 PKR.”
Do you make your own furniture for your store or you outsource? “We offer a hybrid approach. We design unique collections which we house in our warehouse and we also work with vendors who can offer unique products to our customers. The company may contract vendors to manufacture products, but the quality control, customer experience, and deliveries are managed end-to-end by our in-house team,” shares Mikaal Zulfiqar.
While talking about the current trends in the international market with regards to home furnishing and accessories, Arsalan explains, “Colourful and unique accent pieces to liven up existing living spaces are trending across the world. The Covid-19 lockdowns have given consumers a reason to spice up their living spaces. Rich colour palette, copper accents, flower motifs, and velvet fabric are what our data shows as trending for 2021.”
“In a bid to keep updated with the latest trends in home accessories and furniture we have developed a comprehensive team. Our dedicated team works in close connection with architects and interior designers who stay abreast of furniture trends in the market. We have recently launched ‘Start your custom project with Chahyay’ and have already seen a significant demand where consumers want to work with our design teams to customise a living or office space based on their interests,” he adds.
Mikaal shares an interesting interior tip with our readers when it comes to furnishing one’s home. “When designing a room, whether home or office, make sure you stick to a theme; modern vs. traditional. If your sofas are modern, then your tables and accent chairs should also be modern. That is how it works.”
To what extent do you think there is a scope for an online furniture store in Pakistan?
“The average Pakistani consumer age is 22 years old. These new consumers entering the workforce have embraced online stores in Pakistan because of the ease of shopping and the wide range of options that are provided by online stores. With the advancement of technology and smart phone capabilities, furniture, along with products, that traditionally were only available to Pakistani consumers in their local markets, are now available everywhere in Pakistan. Location is no longer a barrier to entry into the market.
A major trend in online furniture shopping is leveraging technology such as Augmented Reality (AR) which allows consumers to visualise a product, such as a chair, sofa, bed, table, and even bookcase in their current living space. These advancements in technology and the ability for customers to visualise products before they physically arrive have significantly improved the experience for our young Pakistani consumers, and therefore have increased demand for such products,” observes Omar Mahmood.
