MyFab has an innovative idea that solves a real problem. One of the scariest things for anyone starting out in product design businesses is not knowing how many to make of any new product design. It’s always a leap of faith that your brilliant idea will be appreciated and actually sell. Especially if you make very high-end designer furniture; each piece can be quite an investment in time and money.
A possible solution is in MyFab’s new site that is launching in California next month and will provide an online venue for start-up designers to get feedback on the popularity of high end furniture designs before committing to production runs.
It’s like taking viewers into the studio of your design office and saying to your potential future customers – which of these ideas on the drawing board now would you prefer to see developed. It takes the R out of R & D. If you get the research done first and find that nobody cares about the idea you thought was your winner this season – you won’t waste time and money developing it.
And it’s all as easy as the click of a mouse. Site visitors come and vote on the pieces that they would like to buy most. When there is a clear trend, then only the most obviously popular pieces are built. It is a great way to jumpstart design businesses. Designers would get the real-world feedback than generally only comes in the form of the school of hard knocks, once you have committed to production lines.
Then MyFab sources the production of the high end furniture directly from the factories in China that supply private-label furniture to European retailers. The designer does away with the middleman. By producing only the most popular ones on demand, this eliminates inventory, showroom, and catalog costs, resulting in Myfab’s prices being 50 to 80% lower than comparable retail prices.
Image: MyFab
This is a post from Home Design Find
MyFab.com – R & D Made Easy for Design Biz Startups
Original Source: Home Design Find » Furniture
February 11th, 2010 at 6:19 am
I know MyFab because I work in Asia (near Foshan where all the factories for furniture are) and if there is one thing I can tell you : it's that they DO NOT USE THE SAME FACTORIES that high end level brands use.
One of their top management told me that they have a very bad buzz in France because of quality issues !