How to Start a Home Decor Business
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Last updated
Last updated
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 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 add to the vibrancy of a home. Using wall hangings for 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.
You may be wondering how things so trivial like doorknobs can contribute to . 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.
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. As part of your marketing stint for this product, you can place fresh flower bouquets in your vases to promote it, while inspiring your customers to visualize them in their own homes.
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.
Shelf storage organizers, interesting kitchen wall stickers, artificial vegetable hangings, chalkboard panels, 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.
Don’t miss the opportunity to offer personalized mugs with unique designs to your customers.
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.
No matter what products you choose to sell, enable shoppers to customize their products using a Product Design Tool. Let them add text, upload custom images, add clipart or artwork, and thus create a personalized product.
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.
– 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.
For businesses like home decor, a physical store can sound like a better option.
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.
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.
Looking to avoid getting tangled up in the web of online store setup for your home decor business?
Let PrintXpand’ Web-to-Print Storefront Solution handle the nitty-gritty while you focus on what you do best – creating stunning decor!
Choose from industry-specific themes or a custom-made design to showcase your products and reach a wider audience.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A themed mat or rug is a great 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.
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 items for the kitchen.
Furniture items are indispensable items. Be it a bed, a desk 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.
Now that you have got a good idea of items, read on to know about several furnishings that you can start selling alongside.
People prefer to visit stores in person and get a better idea of all they can do with their space.
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.
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 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.