E-COMMERCE  /  SUSTAINABILITY

By FedEx | November 14, 2025

Sunday Bedding, a premium home textile brand from Singapore, reached SGD 1 million in revenue within three years and has since expanded into markets like the US and Hong Kong. We chat with co-founder Clara Teo about how she’s crafted a thoughtful and sustainable business.

Comfortable bedding is key to a good night’s sleep, but picking the right sheets can be surprisingly tricky. You might have bought into the myth that a higher thread count means better quality – only to be disappointed by stiff or pilling bedsheets. It’s also easy to get overwhelmed by options when you're unsure what works best for your sleeping habits, skin sensitivities, and other individual needs.

Enter Sunday Bedding, a Singapore-based direct-to-consumer home textile company that creates high-quality sheets for different kinds of sleepers. It all began when co-founders Clara Teo and her husband were shopping for their new home and noticed a lack of luxury bedsheets at reasonable prices. This inspired them to design their own premium bedding that offers customers a more comfortable and customizable sleeping experience.

Since its launch in 2018, Sunday Bedding has built a reputation for quality and sustainability. The brand takes pride in minimizing its carbon footprint across its supply chain, sourcing ethically, and using eco-friendly materials like recycled plastic in its packaging. Today, it ships its luxury home textiles internationally, serving customers from Hong Kong to the US.

For Clara, the road from start-up to success has been filled with valuable lessons – transitioning from a corporate career into entrepreneurship, learning on the fly, and figuring out how to scale her business into a million-dollar e-commerce brand.

Over the years, she has gained deep strategic insights that have shaped her approach to growing a successful business. She recently brought this expertise to a wider audience as a judge at the 2025 FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge Asia Pacific Finals, where she evaluated student-led business ideas and offered her perspective on sustainable innovation.

Here, she shares more about her journey as a female entrepreneur, the lessons she’s learned from setbacks, her strategies for e-commerce growth, and how shipping with FedEx via air freight keeps her business agile.

When you first launched Sunday Bedding, how did you find your first 100 customers?

Clara Teo: In the very early days, we rented a shophouse in Tiong Bahru, Singapore, hosted a launch party, and invited our family, friends, and a few members of the media. That initial event helped us build awareness and generate some word of mouth for our home textile company.

Beyond that, we focused on showing up wherever our customers were – which meant taking part in as many pop-ups as we could, both large and small. Meeting people face-to-face was, and still is, one of the most valuable ways for us to connect with our community and share our story.

As an eco-conscious home textile brand, how do you balance sustainability with transparency and cost-competitiveness?

Because of the materials we choose and the partners we work with, the reality is that we’ll never be the lowest-cost option – and that’s something we’ve been very intentional about from day one. Our suppliers carry some of the strictest environmental certifications, such as the OEKO-TEX® MADE IN GREEN label. Naturally, there’s an added cost that comes with doing things responsibly.

For us, sustainability has never been about cutting corners or chasing trends. It’s about care – for the people who make our products, for the environment they come from, and for the customers who bring them home. We want people to think about the durability and longevity of what they buy. When something is made to last and loved for years, that’s where true sustainability lies.

How much has Sunday Bedding grown since its inception?

We launched in 2019 and grew quite rapidly in our first few years, reaching over SGD 1 million in revenue by 2021. Since then, our growth has been steady and intentional, averaging around 5-10% each year. We’ve always prioritized sustainable, meaningful growth over rapid expansion, ensuring that every step we take stays true to our values.

Beyond e-commerce, we’ve also expanded into physical retail. We currently have two stores: a collaboration with MAVRX Coffee at Holland Road Shopping Center and another at i12 Katong. In December 2025, we’ll be moving out of Katong to open our new flagship store along Joo Chiat Road, which we’re really excited about. It’s a space that will better reflect the heart of the brand and how we hope people experience rest.

How much of your sales come from online vs. offline? If you were to expand, would you prioritize reaching more online consumers or expanding your offline footprint?

Right now, about 75% of our sales come from online, while 25% come from our physical stores. That said, I still believe that offline spaces play an important role – not just from a sales perspective, but as a way for people to truly experience the brand.

Physical stores allow customers to touch and feel our luxury bedsheets, and that interaction often influences their online purchase decisions. So, while our core growth will remain online, we’ll continue to view offline retail as a key part of our brand strategy – one centered on experience rather than volume. The key is finding the right space, with the right atmosphere and rental structure, to ensure that presence is meaningful and sustainable.

When it comes to reaching and converting e-commerce shoppers, what strategies have proven most effective for you?

Branding has been, and continues to be, one of the most important factors for us. In today’s landscape, it’s easier than ever to start an e-commerce business. You can drop ship or place a wholesale order and start selling almost immediately. Because of that, what truly sets a brand apart isn’t just the product, but the why behind it.

It’s crucial to understand the core of your brand – why you built it, what it stands for, and what values drive it. That clarity informs how you tell your story, and that storytelling ultimately plays a huge role in building trust and driving online conversions.

What’s one belief you hold that other business leaders might disagree with?

Not every opportunity is the right one, and building something lasting sometimes means choosing patience over speed. It’s something I’ve learned the hard way. In the early days, I used to say yes to every opportunity that came our way. Over time, I realized that not all growth is good growth, and saying no can often be just as powerful as saying yes.

For me, life isn’t just about business or money. It’s about building a life – and a company – that aligns with your personal goals and values. My goal has never been to maximize profits or revenue. I want to create something meaningful that makes a real difference to Singapore’s retail landscape.

I hope Sunday Bedding can offer a sense of delight and discovery – a reminder that shopping can be both thoughtful and joyful, and brands can grow responsibly without losing their heart.

Describe the greatest business failure that you treasure the most.

One of my biggest lessons came from our decision to open two stores at the same time – even though we had no prior retail experience. I hadn’t fully grasped how challenging it would be to manage both locations while still running the rest of the business.

For about two to three years, almost all my energy and mental space went into keeping those stores running. I couldn’t think about strategy or growth. I was simply in execution mode, trying to make everything work.

I also thought I could do it all on my own – and to make things even more intense, I was doing it while navigating new motherhood. It was exhausting, but it taught me so much about my limits, about delegation, and about the importance of slowing down to think long-term.

It was a tough chapter, but one I truly treasure now. It reminded me that failure isn’t always the opposite of success. Sometimes, it’s what shapes your clarity, resilience, and the kind of business you want to build.

What markets do you currently ship to? Do you plan to expand into other markets?

We currently ship our orders internationally through FedEx. While our main customer base is in Singapore, we also serve customers in Malaysia, the US, and Hong Kong. For now, our focus is on settling into our new flagship store and refining some of our internal processes to ensure we can scale efficiently.

Once that foundation is in place, we’re looking to explore online expansion into the US. It’s something we’re approaching thoughtfully – we want to make sure that as we grow internationally, we maintain the same level of care, quality, and customer experience that defines Sunday Bedding.

How has working with FedEx for international shipping enhanced your business operations?

I’ve always appreciated having the option of air freight with FedEx – it’s incredibly quick, no matter where we’re shipping from globally. There have been many occasions where production delays happened, and FedEx’s air freight services truly became a lifesaver for us.

As a premium bedding brand, sampling is also a critical part of our work. Working with our suppliers often involves multiple rounds of samples, and FedEx has made that so much easier. Our textile samples arrive quickly, allowing us to iterate, test, and provide feedback without long lead times. That speed and reliability really help us stay agile while maintaining the quality and care that go into every product.

***

FedEx helps small businesses thrive with fast and reliable shipping at competitive rates. Learn more about our shipping services here.