Young chinese consumers prefer imported laminated flooring over domestic products in a recent market survey.
Main reasons cited were the wide choice of colours, espeically if it’s available in ‘pavement’ style, even at the expense of foot comfort.
Other reasons for the preference were convenient installation as imported laminated flooring can be glue-less with an interlocking slot design, which is easy for consumers to install by themselves. Consumers also reported that imported laminated flooring is durable and with better anti-slip features than domestic flooring.
Prices for imported laminated flooring are considered reasonable for many middle class Chinese. The current retail prices for imported laminated flooring are RMB3-700 per panel, which has declined from RMB8-1,000 in 2012.
Consumers also rate the environmental performance of imported flooring higher than domestic products. The Standard E0 for European flooring is less than 0.9mg/L formaldehyde emission while the Standard for domestic flooring (E1) is “not exceeding 1.5mg/L formaldehyde emissions”.
Local experts note that the market share of imported laminated flooring is less than 20% in Guangzhou City but anticipate sales of imported laminated flooring could reach a 50% market share within the next five years.
Source: ITTO
