Who wouldn't desire a well-furnished and aesthetically attractive home? Whether it is a living room, bedroom or balcony, the home's decor sets the ambience for people to reside comfortably and enjoy their lives. Keeping the living room fun and lively, the bedroom cosy and quiet for good rest, the kitchen- dining neat is significantly dependent on home décor elements, carefully chosen to add functionality and nice looks. Home décor helps create a good environment, lift the feel and look of the home, and boost the residents' self-perception and confidence. The saying "Home is where the heart is" captures the essence of the highest value that families accord to their homes.
Did you know?
In India, the online home decor market is expected to grow by ₹28.34 thousand crores from 2021 to 2026.
Easy Steps to Start a Home Decor Business
A growing middle-income population with increasing surplus income and improving living standards means that the Indian home décor business has excellent scope. With this quick understanding of the home décor business, its market value and the potential for a home décor business, the subsequent paras will elucidate further on the fundamentals of home décor, its components and pre-requisites to commencing and growing a home décor business.
Also Read: Actionable Ways To Start an Interior Design Business
What is Home Décor?
Home décor is the furnishing and decorating of a room or home premises. In other words, decor comprises the decoration and all the furniture in a room. It can be done using a particular theme, changing per season or aligning it to the latest trends.
On the other hand, decoration is the process of decorating something by adding or changing items like a wall hanging or a painting.
Home Décor and Home Interior Accessories
Home décor comprises a whole list of items. It includes:
- Wall hangings-paintings, frames and pictures
- Plants and flowers
- Flowerpots
- Wall accents like wall cabinets, mirrors, key holders, magazine holders, clocks
- Vases and bowls
- Candles and candle holders
- Home fragrance
- Personal notice boards
- Doorknobs
- Lightings and light fixtures –chandeliers, table lamps, floor lamps, panel lights, spotlights
- Door and window curtains and drapes
- Mats and rugs
- Bed linen-bed sheets, bedspread, pillow, pillowcase, duvets, blankets
- Sofa, sofa covers, cushion covers
- Dining table with chairs
- Table linen, like – table runners, placemats
- Kitchen accessories
- Kitchen cabinet
Home Décor, Shop décor and Interior Design
Home décor is all about sprucing up the look and feel of home through adding and changing décor elements like furniture, curtain - drapes, pillow covers, kitchen accessories. Business decorations or decorations for shops focus on store design and aesthetics, to set up the store for the display of products and merchandise, as a means to enhance the brand, drive sales and foster a better customer experience. Interior design plays a vital role in planning, designing and executing store projects.
Interior design enhances the interior of a commercial or residential building, resulting in an aesthetically pleasing ambience for people using such space.
Trends in Home Furnishing and Home Decor Business
Buyer preferences and choices can change due to various reasons. It is important for décor businesses to factor in the latest trends in the décor industry, to meet consumers' priorities and preferences. Key trends include:
1. Eco-friendly Fabrics
With a greater focus on sustainability, eco-conscious consumers are looking to reduce their carbon footprint by choosing local, natural and ethically made fabrics like cotton, jute and khadi. This choice also benefits micro-entrepreneurs, the cottage industry and women SHGs in the handmade fabric industry.
2. Functional Fabrics and Engineered Fabrics
Engineered fabrics are finding wider acceptance in the home décor business and interior home accessories. Renowned for their functionality, the trend for engineered fabrics has led to new manufacturing plants adopting new processes.
3. Shift to Online Purchase
There is a pronounced shift in buyers' preferences towards online shopping of interior decoration items for homes, especially people from Tier-2 and Tier-4 towns/cities. Triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers have overcome the 'touch and feel' requirement to a comfort level in making online purchases based on trust in virtual display, product quality and reviews.
4. Door Delivery Demand
There is a significant uptake in demand for home-delivered décor products. From being an optional service, retailers' ability to provide door delivery services has become a key requirement for purchasing decisions.
5. Energy Efficient Technology and Processes
As the textile industry contributes immensely to carbon footprint, COP26 decisions have given the impetus for a renewed push to achieve net-zero emissions by making fabrics with a low carbon footprint and adopting energy-efficient processes.
How to Start a Decor Business for Home Décor and Decoration for a Shop?
The décor industry has grown withstanding the pandemic shock to the market. Aspiring entrepreneurs with a flair to design and innovate in home décor and interior decorations can tap the excellent business potential in the décor business. Some of the key requirements to start a home décor business are:
a) Know Your Potential Customers Before Trying to Sell the Home Décor Products
It is vital to understand one's potential customers, like their possible choices and preferences in home décor, influencing factors, emphasising functionality or contemporary trends. These can help determine a customised marketing strategy to achieve success. A home décor business is an umbrella term covering design services, refurbishing and general décor services. Therefore, anything that lifts the beauty of a home is home décor. So understanding the customers' will help customise the selling strategy aligned to their needs. Generally, test the market acceptance by testing the waters using trendy décor products.
b) Mode of Selling
A physical store (offline) seems the obvious choice to sell home décor products, as it facilitates customers' need to touch and feel before purchase. However, traditional offline stores present challenges like high initial setup costs - infrastructure, hiring, maintenance and the risk of low Return on Investment (ROI).
In the digital era, online presence is an absolute must. A website featuring home décor products and home interior accessories will widen the reach of the products. A hybrid model that adopts the best of both offline and online stores.
- Offer an offline experience store to satisfy the customer's desire for 'touch and feel' to supplement the online services.
- A hybrid model that starts with an online store and, based on its success, expands to a full-fledged offline retail store is the most recommended.
- An online business with an add-on feature of product customisation.
c) Research Competitors
Notwithstanding whether it is an offline store or an online store, awareness of the competition in the market is crucial. Adequate research on the market, including analysing the nearby retail stores offering- products, pricing, branding and marketing strategies, will help understand the likely competition. The research should also analyse leading online brands and their top-selling products. Such market research and analysis will aid the preparation and rollout of products with distinguishing features that will draw consumers' attention and patronage.
d) Present a Strong Visual Portfolio of Products
Home décor is all about visual presentation. If you display pictures, galleries of offline stores in a catalogue, it will be handy to share quickly. Video clippings of products displayed on the business website (if available) will boost the social media presence of those using these channels to buy home décor products.
Also Read: Furniture Business In India - How To Start A Furniture Manufacturing Business ?
e) Participating in Trade Events
Participating in trade events will boost exposure to your home décor company and enhance its outreach. It is also an excellent platform to interact with industry veterans and experts, listen to their critiques and advice, exchange ideas and build useful networks.
f) Promote the Business
Marketing and promoting the décor business is necessary.
- Develop contacts/networks with people in the allied sector- builders, architects and real estate agents.
- Passing on brochures and hand-outs of the décor products improves visibility.
- Advertisements in magazines and newspapers.
- Online- through a user friendly, interactive and fast-loading website.
- Leverage the power of social media to be visible and draw inquiries and sales.
- If possible, offer customisation of home décor products to boost consumer interest and purchase decisions further.
Conclusion
The fast-growing market for home décor and decoration for shops-both globally and in India indicates the excellent potential for décor business, especially online décor business. Market trends indicate that post-pandemic, people's preferences have changed with a perceptible shift towards online home décor purchases – both from the convenience and cost-effective perspectives. With the blog throwing light on certain interior design business ideas and the nuances of setting up and establishing a profitable décor business, aspiring entrepreneurs can explore the prospects for online business.
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