The Audience Your Home Furnishings Trade Brand Can’t Afford to Ignore

In today’s competitive market, understanding the value each customer brings to your brand is crucial for driving sales. With this knowledge, you can hone in on your business strategy and better grasp where to focus your efforts to most effectively attract key audiences.

If you’re a home furnishings brand that sells wholesale, interior designers should be at the top of your target market list.

Establishing solid relationships with these design pros can be a game-changer for expanding your trade business. These partnerships often lead to consistent orders, open doors to new projects, and boost your brand’s visibility.

Ready to level up your B2B game? Discover how Hampshire Tile Warehouse’s flagship brand, London Tile Company, and luxury furniture store Designerie have mastered the art of targeting interior designers.

How to build your interior design customer-base

Targeted marketing strategy.

Understanding your target audience’s pain points and where they like to discover products is essential to bringing them to your ecommerce store.

In today’s digital-first world, it's no surprise that many interior designers turn to social media for project inspiration and to discover new products and trends.

A social media marketing strategy that positions you as an industry expert is key to making your brand stand out in front of this customer group. Regularly posting content like mood boards and blogs that demonstrate your knowledge of the latest trends and strategically highlight your products will leave a lasting impression on these shoppers, attracting them to your online store.

“We try to be in all the online spaces we know interior designers inhabit. So that would be mainly Pinterest and Instagram,” explained Jon Lett, Ecommerce Manager at Hampshire Tile Warehouse. “We also write insightful blogs on trends that we know are happening at the moment because they're researching those and trying to find those products.”

Lifestyle photography.

Attracting an interior designer to your online store is just the start. To truly engage them, you need to offer an experience that showcases your products in detail and highlights their specifications.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through high-quality imagery. Providing professional photos of your products in different environments helps designers envision their versatility and how well they match a client’s needs.

“If you only offer a photo with a bland white background where the customer can’t see multiple angles of the piece, why would they spend $3,000 on it? Lifestyle photography is key to showing what a product would look like either in a home or a commercial space,” said Brendan McCarthy, Managing Director at Designerie.

Tailored sales process.

Interior designers often need more flexibility and detailed information compared to retail customers. To cater to this audience, it's crucial to provide a sales experience tailored to their unique needs and preferences.

Enhance the customer experience for designers by offering B2B features that allow them to quickly make sample requests, easily access technical information, and effortlessly make online transactions. While many B2B buyers prefer the convenience of online purchasing, offering face-to-face interactions can also be beneficial for those who appreciate a traditional sales approach.

“We marry the online experience with the in-person one. For somebody we've never worked with before, we try to push them to apply for a B2B or wholesale account and give them access to net pricing. We'll give them price lists and any of the tools that they request,” explained McCarthy. "However, we also present our brand and products to interior designers across the country face-to-face.”

Delivery logistics are another critical factor to consider. Given the multi-stage nature of interior design projects, there are often strict timelines for delivering products and fees that you must factor into your total cost.

“Sometimes, a designer gives us days or even time slots where we need to deliver the products to them, and this needs to be factored into costings because all couriers will provide this service, but it is usually at a really high premium. If you’re not careful, this can really eat into your margins,” said Lett.

Custom products.

In addition to creating a tailored sales experience, offering product lines specifically aimed at this target market can help you further establish relationships with designers.

“In our experience, interior designers don't want normal — they want niche. We offer a line of tiles for this audience that we call our Instagramable tiles. These tend to be bold, striking tiles that make a big visual impact,” explained Lett.

Allowing designers to customize your products with outside materials is another way to cater to this audience’s design preferences and help them build standout pieces.

“Many interior designers take advantage of our Customer’s Own Material feature. This lets them customize furniture with a fabric or material from another vendor. We recently rolled this out on our BigCommerce site,” said McCarthy.

The power of partnering with interior designers

Increased brand visibility.

Interior designers are invaluable in boosting a brand’s visibility. This collaboration often leads designers to showcase their work on social media platforms and with other clients — resulting in them tagging your brand and spreading your name through word of mouth. This not only promotes their work but also highlights your brand to a wider audience — helping you grow your customer base.

“I know that if I work with an interior designer, as soon as the project is completed, I will get sent 10 to 20 professional photographs with all of the tagging details because they want us to share them as much as we want them to. This really helps the growth ecosystem,” explained Lett.

Greater brand loyalty.

In addition to increased visibility, working with interior designers often turns into a long-term partnership that results in higher-volume purchases on a regular basis, which can be transformative for your brand’s growth.

“We have designers we've been working with for six or seven years now. They know they can trust us from a stock status, design standpoint, pricing, and quality standpoint because they've had furniture installed in projects for years without issues,” said McCarthy. “The benefits for us are those long-term relationships and the incremental revenue they can bring for the next five or 10 years that we just don't see on the direct-to-consumer side.”

The final word

As a home furnishings brand, adjusting your business strategy to attract designers can put you at a significant advantage compared to those that don’t. Customizing your approach to reaching this market and focusing on building solid relationships is a surefire way to entice these shoppers and turn them into repeat customers.

“Remember that you're trying to build a relationship. Designers are not the end users. We always try to treat them like co-workers. That usually involves calls instead of emails to give them a personal touch in our service,” said Lett.

In addition, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the challenges designers face in their industry and determine how you can serve as a solution. This will solidify your relationship with this audience and position you as a true partner.

“You really have to understand what their pain points are in the buying process and try to eliminate those via the experience that you create online,” explained McCarthy.

Check out our 2024 Global Ecommerce Report to learn other ways to attract consumers and grow sales in today’s market.