“MOTIF”, importer of luxury furniture from around the world, has been at the forefront of high-end furnishings for the past 17 years. Its showroom spans across 900 sq m on the 4th floor of Central Embassy. For 2021, MOTIF aims to achieve continuous growth, with strong strategies to get through the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19. This year, it has invited experts to strengthen the team and boost its online sales to meet the needs and changing consumer behavior. At the same time, it will amp up its luxury portfolio with Dutch design furniture.

Akarat Vanarat, Managing Director of MOTIF, talked about the success of the brand, how the company has generated profits despite the economy because of many factors, and its aim to further push its growth in 2021.

“MOTIF’s growth is continuous, particularly in 2016 in which our growth was 30%, and another 30% in 2017. After that, we have continued to grow, and while we closed our shop at Erawan in 2018-2019 because the lease had expired, we managed to grow 10% despite missing one outlet. In 2019 and 2020, overall we grew 10-15%, but as everyone is aware, the COVID-19 took two months out of the picture. However, overall, our performance was good.”

“For 2021, we aim to grow 20-30%, thanks to our expertise. We are more prepared to handle challenges, while our customers are also more used to the situation and are able to adapt, and it is easier for both buyers and sellers to make decisions.”

“Factors that have contributed to MOTIF’s growth include its stock management, which is the key factor of its success. It is a result of having the right amount of products that are in demand, so it can meet the needs of customers without having too many items in its stock. Before COVID-19, it took three or four months for orders to arrive, but with COVID-19, the wait became six months. It became increasingly long for orders to arrive. Over the past three years, we’ve gradually adjusted our stock management.”

He also elaborated on marketing strategies for 2021. “This year, because of COVID-19, we have introduced a new experience for our customers by introducing furnishing items from the Netherlands. In the past five years, Dutch design products have grown tremendously, and the prices are comparable to Italian products. Dutch brands are among the most outstanding and unique, and people in the Netherlands use well-designed products. The design is known as Dutch design, and thanks to the unique design of Dutch products, we’ve imported five Dutch design brands since the COVID-19 period last year. Some of the shipments have arrived in late 2020, and all brands are expected to arrive by the end of this month. Then, we will launch our Dutch design concept.”

“Home office furniture continue to be in high demand, and as a result, we have continued to meet our customers’ needs by expanding our home office line and adding more choices as people continue to work from home in 2021, and the trend is likely to continue for the next five years.”

“Another concept we will focus on in 2021 is ‘Fashion For Home’, and under this concept, we have four fashion brands namely Paul Smith for Anglepoise Lamp, Fendi Casa, Versace Home and Missoni Home. These four brands have a lot of home accessories that our customers can choose to decorate their home with. Home accessories can generate a lot of revenue for MOTIF, and have potential to be the highest growth contributor.” Over the past few years, home accessories have witnessed the highest growth at MOTIF.

In addition to introducing Dutch design products to offer a new experience to its customers, Akarat also said that MOTIF will strengthen its online marketing to make it easier for consumers to shop. “We will expand our online channels and we have a consultation team to oversee our social media assets. Undeniably, social media play a significant role in online communication, such as Instagram, Facebook,  Youtube, Line@, and Pinterest. We are working on improving our assets.”

“In the past, we used to think selling our products online was difficult, because customers want to touch and try furniture before making a purchase. Therefore, we’ve created an omnichannel experience to ensure our customers can access our products as much as possible. We observe their behavior, such as what images they like, and try to offer as much information in our images as possible. We have our support team to answer their questions and provide additional images and information. If they need extra photos, we can take new ones for them instantly, as this helps them make a decision faster. We have also launched an additional service, which is to bring our products to our customers’ homes. If they want to see our products, we can bring them. During COVID-19, it was not convenient for our staff to bring the products to our customers, so we would arrange a showing elsewhere or in one of our buildings. We also promoted small home accessories more. Prior to COVID-19, we signed a contract with a company to launch a Missoni Home collection and a Versace Home collection, and the products arrived during COVID-19. We decided to do the launch virtually, and it attracted a lot of customers. Some of our customers have friends who are also our customers, and they would come to us to ask what products their friends already have, and ask us to select something that matches those as a present. This is another level of our branding success. We want our customers to be proud of using our products and spread the word that they are MOTIF customers.”

This year, MOTIF will continue its success by creating more awareness through various experiences. It will transform its showroom to feature home accessories in every corner, and categorize its products to make it easier to browse so customers can save time. MOTIF also pays extra attention to cleanliness. Whether customers come to buy something for themselves or as a gift, they can enjoy a great experience in every corner, because MOTIF offers a one-stop solution to what they need.