If you’ve ever tried shopping for home textiles in Singapore, you would know how confusing and opaque it can be.
Good quality bedding is often too costly and with the plethora of options available in bedding stores, customers often get overwhelmed, leaving the decision making to the hands of a salesperson.
It’s also easy to get entangled in industry jargon such as ‘thread count’ and ‘weave’, without understanding how these factors can heavily impact our slumber.
Sunday Bedding, a homegrown direct-to-consumer home textile company, aims to change this with its range of quality and well-designed bedding products.
Founded by Clara Teo and her husband Alex Fan, the idea for Sunday Bedding came about when the couple moved back to Singapore from the United States and went shopping for home goods for their new apartment.
The duo saw a huge gap in the market for reasonably priced, good quality and sustainable home textiles, leading them to start up Sunday Bedding in 2018 after six months of brand building and preparation work.
Sunday Bedding offers long lasting, quality bedsheets
Clara shared that she chose the name ‘Sunday Bedding’ with the intention of capturing the essence of the moments where Singaporeans feel the “most relaxed and at ease”.
We imagine that to be the easiness of a weekend morning, where you have the luxury of sleeping in but still wake up to a day full of possibilities ahead. Hence, we decided to incorporate the word ‘Sunday’ in our branding.
– Clara Teo, co-founder of Sunday Bedding
The range of products offered by Sunday Bedding are designed to suit Singapore’s hot and humid climate, such as their Bamboo Rayon sheets that are moisture-wicking and cool-to-the-touch, as well as French Linen, which is breathable and temperature-regulating.
In addition, these beddings are also sustainable and are made with materials that are ethically sourced.
Above all, Sunday Bedding’s products are made to last. It can be difficult for customers to ascertain the quality of the sheets before purchase, but Sunday Bedding’s sheets are rigorously tested and have a fabric pilling resistance of up to 4,000 rubs and colours that do not fade.
Tapping on the expertise of Alex’s home textiles family business
Alex has always known quality bedsheets all his life, considering that his family has been involved in the home textile industry for the past four decades. The Fan family runs a business in Guangzhou, China, that specialises in OEM home textiles, with a focus on quality and sustainability.
The 34-year-old has been helping out with the family business since he graduated from university, garnering valuable industry knowledge which has been instrumental to the success of Sunday Bedding’s launch.
Through Alex’s family business, the duo got to leverage its merchandising expertise, which was built over decades of working with clients based in the United States and Europe. “This means that we can bring the best of what’s available in the home textiles to you,” said Clara.
This gave them an upper hand at starting up Sunday Bedding, but not everything had been smooth sailing for the couple.
Clara hails from a more analytical background, having worked for the likes of Deloitte and Amazon. Without experience in the retail and marketing space, the 35-year-old found it hard to find the right partners for the brand to work in areas such as digital marketing or creative content creation.
“We had no idea how to manage photography for our campaigns, or visual merchandising,” she said. However, through a combination of trial and errors as well as networking events, the duo managed to build up the business to what it is today.
Their revenue grew threefold from 2019 to 2020
Back in November 2018, Sunday Bedding started with only three colours, two sizes, and two materials — Bamboo Sateen and Cotton Sateen.
Their printed Bamboo Sateen sheets were quick to sell out, and the business has since expanded its Bamboo Sateen range to include 11 solid colours and seven prints, as well as multiple sizes today.
From 2019 to 2020, its revenue grew threefold, eventually reaching over S$1 million in revenue in 2021 despite the onset of COVID-19. The business surprisingly did even better at the height of Singapore’s circuit breaker.
I suppose when we are all staying at home, we find that pampering ourselves with an upgrade on our home goods such as bedding and towels are the comfort we all needed at such trying times.
– Clara Teo, co-founder of Sunday Bedding
Seeing how the business achieved significant growth during this time period, Clara added that the duo “made the conscious decision to invest in the business further” at the end of last year, by opening two physical stores.
Its first physical outlet was opened at i12 Katong last September, while its flagship store was opened at Raffles City two months later.
Finding a different way to tell Sunday Bedding’s brand story
Today, Sunday Bedding has established a loyal consumer base worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and Malaysia. With a stockist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the company aims to expand its footprint in the country in the coming months.
Aside from expanding its presence abroad, the company is currently developing two new prints, pillow inserts, weighted blankets, as well as new throw blankets from Portugal, which are set to launch later this year.
The couple sees an opportunity to introduce more design-driven home textile options as Singaporean consumers are becoming more educated about home textiles, seeking well-designed and quality products that align with their personal branding.
That said, despite the brand’s many milestones and accomplishments, Clara and Alex are aware that adapting to evolving trends is crucial to remain relevant.
For instance, while the brand previously relied heavily on Instagram for marketing, the addition of two physical stores and the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok has made it a pressing need for the brand to pivot its practices, in order to present its brand values in an authentic way.
As Sunday Bedding continues to evolve, the brand remains committed to delivering its core values and providing customers with a restful and comfortable sleeping experience.
Featured Image Credit: Sunday Bedding