Reference no: EM132917549

Castlery plugs a gap in the furniture industry EMERGING ENTERPRISE 2017 Its philosophy: great quality at great price. After various attempts at start-ups, Castlery Pte Ltd co-founder Declan Ee finally found success in the form of e-commerce designer furniture. The e-commerce furniture site was then launched in 2013, from a small basement in Ubi. Looking at brands such as Warby Parker and Dollar Shave Club, both ecommerce businesses, Castlery wanted to build a similar strategy of reaching out to consumers. "The whole concept that these companies have is bringing furniture direct to consumers from the makers in the factories, cutting out the middle man, eliminating unnecessary costs, as well as having a digital engagement to reach out to customers, and that is what we are trying to do." "We had to quickly learn about the industry and market, and build customer trust. Of course, we had to deal with small but challenging issues like not having a huge product range, supply chain issues and things like that," said the former law student. Castlery targets young millennial professionals as well as first-home owners. Though starting off just as an e-commerce business, the company now has a 12,000 sq ft showroom in Alexandra Road, which showcases their extensive range of furniture. "Customer experience is what our big focus is on and a physical store is essential to a customer's journey for buying furniture. After all, it is furniture. They may do their research online, but they would still want to have a touch and feel of the product as it is above a certain price point and it is a big item in your home," said Mr Ee. The business has scaled 10 times over the past three years and now has operations in two other cities - Shenzhen and Sydney - other than Singapore. The business launched Castlery Feat, an international collaboration with six international award-winning designers in May 2017. "We shared our vision of bringing designer furniture to the masses, and signed them on to design for us, so it's exciting to be able to provide our customers with more designs," said Mr Ee.

Question 1 In the article, the founder of Castlery mentioned Customer Experience as their big focus. Experience is but one of the 5 Es according to J G Barnes' view of relationship. The others include Engagement, Expectations, Environment and Emotions. Using Castlery as an example, appraise how the 5 Es by J G Barnes can be applied for the company in its CRM strategy.