“Collect things that you love, that are authentic to you, and your house becomes your story.”

– Designer Erin Flett

This quote perfectly describes the buying behavior of modern consumers, who are ready to flout the norms, who prefer edgy and chuck the standards.

Yes, that’s the neo-consumer for you! Home décor is an art in itself, and getting people interested in art that beautifies their surroundings is not quite an arduous task.

Whether you want to start an online business, or a brick and mortar store, the fundamentals of increasing sales are more or less the same. The first step for a home décor seller, or for any business owner, it is essential to Know Your Consumer with respect to their tastes, preferences, what drives them, and their buying patterns.

Before we begin, let’s get this idea straight that in a digital world like ours, no store owner can achieve unprecedented success without leveraging the online platform. This doesn’t mean that brick-and-mortar stores are passé.

In fact, for an industry like home décor, it’s great to have an actual store where the target consumers can walk in and experience the article firsthand.

However, your need to be online is highlighted because that’s where all your consumers are! That’s where the buyers research, compare and make up their mind before initiating a purchase. Even if they don’t buy a product online, they will check out online reviews before making purchases.

Now let’s move forward and get to the 5 steps a home décor store owner can take to increase sales and boost business potential.

1. Have a strong local presence using Google My Business

Apart from making your business global through an online reach, it is essential to localize your business as well.

After all, according to a Google research, consumers tend to act very swiftly after a local search on their smart phones. Therefore, if they are likely to find your business online, there is a greater possibility of them visiting your local store.

A study conducted by Google substantiates this through the following insights:

• 88% online users search for local businesses on their smartphones.
• 4 in 5 buyers use search engines to find local information.
• Consumers mostly search on their smartphones, followed by computer/tablet for: store location, hours of operation, contact number etc.
• 50% of those who performed a local search on their mobile phone ended up visiting a store within a day, and 34% of those who searched on computer/tablet also did the same.
• Local searches also tend to convert more leads into sales than non-local searches.
• 18% of local searches on a mobile phone ended in a buying decision within a day vs. 7% of non-local searches.

2. Befriend online retailers rather than looking at them as competitors

A well-recognized online retailer can prove to be a blessing in disguise rather than a competitor. You can choose to befriend online retailers as opposed to competing with them.

This will help you leverage their already established value chain to connect with distant customers. This will enable you to boost sales without the extra cost of running and maintaining your own e-commerce platform.

Therefore, a collaborative model works best when you’re just starting out with your own home décor business or are new to online retailing. This will help you garner more visibility and engage with prospective clients. So, once you’ve established a decent base, you can pull customers on your own strengths.

3. Watch customer buying patterns and online behavior closely

1. Amazon Reviews

Keep an attentive eye on Amazon product reviews, and you will get to know a lot about customer preferences as well as their pain points. This is important because if you notice something a miss in the products offered on Amazon, you can position and promote your product with better attributes.

Become an Amazon Verified Seller and make use of its Recommendation Engine:

Amazon has a robust recommendation engine, and research shows that Amazon uplifts sales by around 35% by enlisting recommendations of related products on its website.

By analyzing “recent searches” and “frequently viewed” or “Customer who bought this item also bought this” features on the Amazon website, you can maximize your selling potential to greater heights. Also, you can partner with other online retailers such as eBay and Flipkart, and showcase similar products to people visiting your store, which will give you clear idea of customer preferences in home décor industry.

This activity will give your business a lot of exposure by converting traffic to sales and provide the initial boost that a business which is new to online platform can benefit from.

4. Go social and engage with your prospects and buyers

Social media marketing and SEO is the need of the hour for every business irrespective of its location, type, reach or size. A quick search on the internet precedes every buying decision of the modern consumer.

Therefore, it is indispensable on the part of a business owner to take full advantage of this platform by creating an online identity. Join and get active on most popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Instagram, and Pinterest to name a few.

The home décor business largely depends on pleasing the aesthetics and a sense of beauty, therefore make extensive use of picture based social media sites such as Instagram and Pinterest.

5. Build a USP and offer something better and different than others

Spend some time out in the real world interacting with people, testing the waters and validating your ideas. Defining a Unique Selling Proposition will help you distinguish your product from others, and position it better in front of your target audience. Here are a few tricks that you can follow to get started:

• Go online and browse products similar to your products on eCommerce sites to observe the customer pain points? Try to understand what exactly are critical reviewers wishing for? And attempt to fulfill the gap through your product offerings.
• Create a mockup of your product, and then repurpose the negative feedback into a list of positive benefits. (For instance, if an Amazon reviewer has quoted “this product’s colour comes off in a month!” so you can write “this product’s colour stays the same month after month”.
• Your next step should be to reach out to as many people as you can and segment them down to those who would be most interested to buy, and then ask them to buy it.
• Make sure you mention payment details and link your PayPal account with your credentials.

Following these tips and tricks to kickstart your home décor business can help you make inroads into a new world that is driven by immediate feedback, quick response and 24X7 availability. These steps if followed correctly can transform your small local store into a thriving business!