From sliding door wardrobes to whole house customization, and then to high-end customization, the home furnishing industry has developed step by step from single products to whole houses and then to high-end customization. As market demand changes, home furnishing companies continue to update their positioning, which reflects that consumers have higher and higher requirements for home furnishing quality.

Nowadays, everyone pays attention to individuality when buying things. There are more and more young people, and the quality they pursue is getting higher and higher, which makes high-end customization very popular. Quality, service, mood, experience, these have become the key to consumers' spending money, and their purchasing power is getting stronger and stronger, and they are willing to spend money on good things.

However, behind high-end customized brands, there must be strong supply chain support, such as panels, hardware, mechanical equipment, and decorative materials. Hardware is particularly important. Although it only accounts for 5% of the value of furniture, it can determine 85% of the comfort of use. Strangely, China's high-end customized brands almost all use hardware from other countries, so what is the difference in China's hardware?

Hardware from other countries, such as Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia, and Japan, are all "standard" for high-end customized brands. The hardware used by China's high-end custom brands, such as CINETTO, TERNO, EFFEGI BREVETTI, SERVETTO, etc., is not well known in China.

Germany's Case Bauma, Italy's Salici, Austria's Blum Hardware, Germany's Hettich, these other countries' hardware brands are almost the "standard" of China's high-end custom brands. Some media divide other countries' hardware brands into four categories. Now Dongtai is considered a representative of Chinese hardware brands, but it is still only at the mid-to-high-end level.

It will take more than 20 years for Chinese hardware to catch up with other countries. Why do Chinese high-end custom companies use hardware from other countries? There are two main criteria for them to choose hardware: one is to match the high-end positioning, and the other is to need some hardware with special functions, such as the rebound function of Italian IF hardware.

Hardware brands such as Salici and Glass from other countries are representatives of high-end customization; while Blum, Hettich, and Hafele, which are commonly used by Chinese high-end custom brands, are considered mid-to-high-end in other countries, but they are still a grade higher than Chinese hardware brands.

Why can't Chinese hardware compare with those of other countries? From the perspective of development stage, brands such as Glass, Blum, and Hettich in other countries realized Industry 4.0 20 years ago. They were established early, and after decades or even hundreds of years of accumulation, they have a complete set of mature production, sales, design, operation, and service models, which are better than Chinese hardware in terms of brand, quality, design, and service. Chinese hardware has gaps in technology, equipment, talents, and funds, which have restricted the development of Chinese hardware brands.

From the perspective of product quality, the materials used by hardware brands in other countries are of high quality, the processing details are more refined, the design is more reasonable, and it is more in line with the habits and preferences of users, and it feels better to use. Although the quality of Chinese hardware is also good, there is still a big gap in brand and cultural connotation.

In the past, many Chinese hardware brands mainly engaged in OEM and ODM OEM, and the market was mainly for export. Sales were the focus of corporate development and lacked their own brand awareness. However, with the increase in Chinese demand, they have begun to turn to the Chinese market in recent years and began to strengthen brand building. However, Chinese hardware brands started late, and most companies are small in scale, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. It will take at least 20 years for Chinese hardware to catch up with the development of hardware in other countries.