How to Start a Home Decor Business

Everything starts with our home sweet home! Who wouldn’t love a well-furnished and aesthetically appealing home? Beautifully furnished homes are like a ‘virtual treat’ for the eyes. This is why the home decor and furnishing business is a thriving business these days.

In fact, the market value of the home decor business is forecast to reach $232 bn in 2021 in the US alone.

So, if you feel you’ve got that flair for designing; starting a home decor business can be a great business idea for you.

Let’s dive in and find out how to start a home decor business.

Know Your Target Customers First & Decide on the Items to Sell (Very Important)

Before starting a home decor business, you must understand one thing. The home decor business doesn’t restrict itself to just decorating the ‘home’. It is rather an umbrella term that covers home decor items, design services, refurbishing, and services. Be it deciding on paint, fabrics, rugs, furnishings, accessories, or anything else, a home decor business includes it all. In short, almost anything that enhances a home interior’s beauty is a part of home decor.

So, first, understand the customers you intend to target and why. Accordingly, you would be able to target them on the basis of their requirements better.

As a rule of thumb, you can sell some trending home decor items for your customers.

A few such items are as below.

Room Hangings and Wallpapers

Room hangings and wallpapers add to the vibrancy of a home. Using wall hangings for home decor beautifies the walls of a home. Further, people can choose wall hangings and tapestries as per their home theme to make their home match their aesthetic.

Similarly, wallpapers also act as a great replacement for paint at times, preserve walls, and enhance the look.

People can choose these wallpapers to suit their personality and nature. People also want to personalize rooms for different members of their family as per their tastes. Wallpapers are especially good when you want fun prints on your walls inside of a single color of the paint.

So, they might pick a sober theme for an aged member and a playful theme for a child. Here again, wall hangings and wallpapers come in handy.

Doorknobs

You may be wondering how things so trivial like doorknobs can contribute to home decor. Surprisingly, they do. People like having custom door knobs with designs, names or initials etched on their doorknobs.

Especially, if they opt for a themed house, their doorknobs can differ as per the room.

Flower Vases/Pots

Yes, a beautiful flower vase with intricate designs engraved! It looks beautiful when placed near a small aquarium or on your guest room tea table. You can surely choose to sell custom flower vases and pots with eye-catching designs.

Mats and Rugs

Ever wondered how it would feel to walk ‘in space’ on your home’s floor? Didn’t get it? No worries. Read ahead, you’ll understand.

A themed mat or rug is a great home decor item. Why? Because you can customize it as per your customers’ demands. Be it the space theme (hope you have got it now!), a jungle theme, a desert theme, or any other; rugs and mats make them possible. Right on the floor!

Thus, you can always opt for selling mats and rugs as home decor items.

Kitchen Accessories

A kitchen is a part of your home and of course – the most important! To put it metaphorically, it keeps you alive! Therefore, you can’t forget to include decor items for the kitchen.

Shelf storage organizers, interesting kitchen wall stickers, artificial vegetable hangings (yes, it exists!), chalkboard panel, decorated lamps, and more – you can sell it all. You can add designer crockery items like wooden cutting boards, knives, etc. to your arsenal. Designer crockery items not only whet people’s appetites but also compliment the stunning look of the designer kitchen, killing two birds with one stone.

Furniture Items

Furniture items are indispensable decor items. Be it a bed, a chair, a dining table, or any other furniture item; you can customize them exactly the way your customers want. Therefore, you must offer custom furniture items to appease your clients.

Lightings

Lighting plays a great part in setting the right mood. Bright light can be good for lively activities and suit a living room. Whereas soft light generally goes well with bedrooms where everyone wants peace and rest. One would generally prefer bright lighting in the living room but warm and dull lighting – and a bedside lamp if one is a bibliophile.

You too can deal with a variety of light fixtures.

Chandeliers, floor lamps, table lamps, flush mounted lights, panel lights, spotlights, and more! Each light fixture has its own charm and you can choose between modern, vintage, and a mix of both to suit the aesthetic of your house. Lamps are more suited to bedsides, whereas spotlights are great for gallery walls.

Now that you have got a good idea of decor items, read on to know about several furnishings that you can start selling alongside.

– Bed linen including custom embroidered bed sheets, bed covers, bedding sets, duvet covers, quilts, comforters, blankets, cushions, pillows, etc.

– Curtains and drapes

– Bath linen including bath mats, bath towels, hand towels, face towels, etc.

– Table linen including table runners, cloths, placemats, etc.

– Cushion covers including cushion covers, sofa covers, chair pads, etc.

Willing to expand to dealing in wall art and paintings too in the future? You always can!

Stay tuned.

There are various wall art products:

– Wall accents like wall shelves, wall cabinets, mirrors, key holders, magazine holders, set top box holders, clocks enhance the charm and help keep things organized too.

– All wall art accessories like wall tiles, wall murals, art panels, wooden wall art, wall plates, and more ramp up the magnificence of walls.

You can always add them to your product listing the moment you think your budget allows for expansion beyond the basic items.

Moving ahead, you can start providing in-person home decor consultancy services.

Decide on the Mode of Selling – Offline, Online or Hybrid

For businesses like home decor, a physical store can sound like a better option.

People prefer to visit home decor stores in person and get a better idea of all they can do with their space. Renting or buying a physical space and starting a home decor business right away may tempt you too..

But hold your horses!

There are a few challenges that you might face.

Very high initial costs, high run-time maintenance charges, chances of lesser ROI, etc.

If you think you have enough capital reserve and a surefire business plan, you can go ahead.

However, if you have even an iota of doubt in your venture and want to cut down on initial expenses; just hold on.

Rather, launch a website to display all the products and services you offer. This business website will be your first interface for customers looking for home decor items and services online. As a result, your reach will widen.

Pro Tip: In today’s digital age, your online presence is kinda a mandatory thing. You would have to put your business online willy-nilly if you intend to take off and go beyond your local customers.

You can also choose to set up offline open source experience centers for customers who want to see everything in person before buying it. Once they make up their mind, they can simply visit your online store and order the product(s) they want.

So, it is recommended to go for a hybrid model starting with an online retail store and expanding to a full-fledged physical store once your business fares well.

Research Your Competitors

No matter which kind of store you launch – offline or online; tough competition will be there. And being ready to face it is not an option!

To be ready to compete against competitors, research them first.

Analyze the market, your nearby home decor retailers, their products, pricing models, brand awareness, and marketing strategies. You should also research online retail stores to get an idea of the top-selling products on the internet.

A few popular names such as Pepperfry, D’Decor, etc. are home decor industry giants. You can take inspiration from them and tailor your online store accordingly.

Note: Tailoring your store accordingly doesn’t mean ‘emulating’ the giants of the home decor industry. It is neither wise nor feasible to do that. Nevertheless, you can take some good points from there and apply them to your store in a way that suits your business and convenience.

When you have finally researched all of this, plan your products, offerings, sales, discounts, and other things accordingly.

Don’t go too ‘high’ or too ‘low’ and tread the tightrope between quality and pricing. As it is important for a business – especially when it is in its nascent stage.

Create a Strong Portfolio

Home decor is all about ‘visuals’. Hence, you can’t do without creating visuals of your products. Hire an experienced photographer to create visual galleries of your physical store and compile them in the form of small videos and snippets.

When customers visit you, you should be able to show them what they want. The photos of your products and work! So, keep a catalogue ready to showcase that all.

If you have your own business website, post the same videos and visuals on your site and share them across various social media pages.

Attend Trade Events and Expos

A trade expo or exhibition forms an excellent platform for better exposure to your business and broader outreach. Stay informed about any upcoming trade shows being in your town and register your business for it.

Interact with industry experts, garner suggestions and feedback from them to work on for your business growth. There are also chances that you may come across several other home decor business owners over there who have just started and are looking to expand. Talk with them, exchange ideas and motives, and establish connections with them.

Who knows – they may turn to you for some work they want to get done for their clients or vice-versa? The result would be the mutual growth of both. Even more, you and they may collaborate for certain products and offerings. The result would be broadened outreach and increased sales and orders.

Don’t forget to give visitors your business cards. Make sure your business card design is impressive and contains all essential info including phone number, website address, physical address, etc.

Promote Your Business

Everything done? Great.

Now comes the last but not the least – marketing and promotion stage.

If you have a physical home decor shop, here are the few strategies you can follow for promotion.

Build contacts

Collaborate with real estate agents, builders, and architects looking to offer home decor service to their clientele.

Distribute flyers and brochures

Flyers and brochures still hold value and can help you make people notice your business.

Newspaper and Magazine Ads

Get some ads printed on a timely basis in local newspapers and some good magazines to get people to notice your brand.

As I said, all these tactics are good for your offline store. And your store can grow too.

But this is the digital age and you are gonna miss out on a huge exposure if you fail to take your business online.

So, just don’t sit back relaxed and content.

Always take your business online and expand it through online marketing. With a proper business website in place, there will be a door open to a lot more business opportunities.

So, go for an online business site always! It’s worth it.

Here are a few strategies that you can use to promote your online store.

Create a user-friendly, interactive, easily navigable, and fast-loading website

The look and feel of your website are itself no less than a ‘live’ salesman that can impress visitors.

Post the images of your products and work over there in different categories.

Use Social Media Well

Underestimating the power of social media can be your biggest mistake. Don’t make that! Use social media platforms to share pictures of decor items, videos, shots from your projects, etc. to create interest.

Announce timely give-aways, discounts, and offers to keep customers engaged. Motivate your happy clients to upload some pictures of their home interior and tag you in them. This will help you get more popular via word-of-mouth.

Tap Into Influencer Marketing and Affiliate marketing

There are a number of bloggers (including some well-established interior designers) who love writing about home decor. Search for such bloggers and influencers online and try to collaborate with them.

When these bloggers mention your brand name in their posts; you are sure to get more traction from their followers. Eventually, your overall customer base will go up! And so will your revenue.

You can take it up one notch by arranging their photoshoot with your products. They would become your brand endorsers. In return, you can offer some free products/services to them now and then.

They get free products/services, and you get more customers.

A win-win situation for both!

Offer Customization Freedom

Technically, this tip may not be directly a promotional strategy, but it is quite closely related to promotional and marketing strategies.

Let’s dig a bit to find out how.

While you can always try broadening your range of products and services, there is no limit to customers’ imagination. It simply means that despite leaving no stone unturned, you may end up not being able to meet your customers’ ‘exact’ demands.

Here comes into the play the freedom of customization.

What if a customer wants no design, no pattern, but a couplet of their own?

Would you be able to do that by yourself? NO. Then what?

Let the customer do it for themselves by integrating an online product designer. When they find that they can use the designer tool to upload an image, a quote, write something, etc.; they feel more involved. And when they see their creative ideas turn into something tangible, they get delighted.

The outcome is their high satisfaction and enhanced experience and your publicity through good word-of-mouth. Indirectly, your satisfied customers become your promoters.

In fact, most of the online retail stores are switching to web-to-print technology – the future of the printing industry.

One thing worth noting here is that this type of customization freedom is exclusive to only online stores.

Wow, you’ve got one more solid point in favor of going online!

Ready to Set Off?

Starting a home decor business brings you very big opportunities!

If you do it right, you can hit gold in the home decor industry.

Planning to launch your online home-decor business? Not much aware about prospects or risks involved or an estimate of initial investment. Worry not.

Our industry experts can help you figure out the solutions, solve your doubts and queries, and reach the best decision.

Meanwhile, check out our cutting-edge web-to-print storefront solution backed by an online product designer tool.

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