The boom in the residential real estate industry over the last few decades has given an impetus to the home décor market. Also driving the growth of this section is an increased consciousness among home owners for stylish interiors and beautiful indoors.
According to Urban Ladder’s Chief Marketing Officer, Sanjay Gupta “One of the factors that has contributed to this growth is that people have started taking their home as the reflection of themselves and so, a lot of people are now spending more on both furniture and fixtures and also on home decor. The second big change seen is that working women are spending a lot on home fashion. A lot of our customers are working women.”
Durian’s Vice President -Commercial, Sandeep Ganguli adds, “Factors like rise in disposable income, better education and also the growing trend of individuals opting for professional services to do their interiors have together led to a rise in this category.”
Says Zynna’s Director, Reteish Sharma, “Indians are well travelled now and have an exposure to lifestyles in other countries – lifestyles which they want to have for themselves.”
And it’s not just traditional players like Bombay Dyeing and Welspun that are cashing in on the trend. Funkier, Gen X brands like Chumbak and niche players like Masper, and Tangerine are expanding their reach across the country as well.
Godrej Interio’s Associate Vice President, Integrated Marketing Communications, Bedraj Tripathy says, “In the demography pyramid according to family incomes, there is a high growth in middle class families than the lower and upper class. We find the middle class to be around Rs 48,000 crores as compared to upper, which is at Rs 7,000 crores and the lower Rs 10,000 crores. Also, the average age of a buyer has changed from 45 years to 37 years over the span of last five years.”
Sharing a forecast on the size at which this industry is slated to grow, Sanjay Gupta reveals, “The home market is worth about US $20 billion; in that, furniture contributes to 75 per cent and decor and the rest is 25 per cent.”
Skipper Furnishings, Business Development Head, Vishal Jain says that by 2018, the home furnishing market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent to reach US $5.29 billion. According to him, “China, India and USA, in that order, are the largest markets for home furnishings globally. With advent of real estate, the growth in this industry is unbeatable.”
IMAGES Business Of Fashion takes a quick look at the current trends in home furnishings and the players that are dominating this burgeoning industry.
Chumbak: Magnifying Home Decor
Chumbak was founded in 2010 by the husband-wife duo, Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chadda, as an idea for creating a range of fun souvenirs for India and Indians. Chumbak is one of India’s most promising lifestyle brands, that brings together an eclectic mix of fashion clothing, accessories and home decor with global design appeal, targeted at consumers worldwide.
The brand was conceived at the time when there was an increasing demand for well-designed and crafted products that could be used as accessories but were not easily found in the market. What started with souvenirs stocked in multi brand outlets, soon transformed itself into a business spanning stores across the country in both large format, full experience stores and pop up stores across popular malls and high streets. A huge part of what Chumbak symbolises, is also driven by its philosophy to ‘Make Happy’.
No. Of Employees: 80 Approx.
No. of Doors Present In: 16
No. of States Present In: 8 states
No. of Cities Present In: 8 cities
Total Retail Space: 20,000 sq.ft.
Market Presence
Chumbak retails in cities like Bengaluru, Delhi/ NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Jaipur and Chandigarh. Apart from this, the brand’s online portal caters to most of the pin codes in the country.
Product Basket
The brand retails through two major categories – Fashion and Home. Under the fashion category, products include apparel, bags, footwear, wallets, watches, jewellery, etc. and as part of the home category, products on offer are wall art, clocks, vases, decor items, bed linen, dining accessories, furniture, etc. Furthermore, Chumbak also introduces new styles, designs and new products every month.
Business Dynamics
Chumbak recently won 3 awards at the VMRD (Visual Merchandising and Retail Design) Awards. Recognizing its potential and the immense growth since its inception, the brand was honoured with the Home Improvement – Specialty Store Award in the 9th edition of in-store award presented by Roland in 2015. It also became the first start-up to win the VMRD Award for Design in 2015 and 2016. The brand has also re-positioned itself in the last year as a design led lifestyle brand that offers its customers, products under the fashion and home categories.
E-commerce Presence
Chumbak has a successful brand website, www.chumbak.com. The brand has recently invested in technology to create a complete Omnichannel experience which is expected to get operational in the coming months.
Customer Engagement
The home and lifestyle brand owns a loyalty program for customer engagement. Chumbak understands that customer experience is the key to business growth and thus, the brand is working to improve the same through various touch points at its stores, website and also through marketing initiatives.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
For marketing and promoting the brand, Chumbak focuses mainly on in-store and digital advertising and also through promotions on social media along with other strategic partnerships.
Future Plans
Chumbak has plans to open more exclusive stores in the next financial year. Also, the brand is working on introducing new products, which happens every 2 weeks.
Godrej Interio: From storewell to live well
One of India’s largest furniture brand, Godrej Interio has travelled a long journey from manufacturing the humble storewell cupboard 80 years ago, to being a vibrant, innovative brand with a diverse portfolio.
Godrej has sustained itself for years, on the pillars of trust, durability and quality. Be it collaborating with the best design minds internationally, co-creating with the haute couture artists or sourcing the latest in technology from across the world, the brand’s team derives inspiration from a simple leaf to the most advanced technology in all its product categories.
Godrej Interio works with emphasis on comfort and aesthetics while delivering well designed, fun and functional furniture solutions for its customers.
No. of Employees: 4,000
Total No. of Doors Present In: EBOs: 490 | MBOs: 2,000
No. of States Present In: 29 States
No. of Cities Present In: 640 Cities
Annual Turnover: `1,800 crores
Total Retail Space: 75,700 sq.ft.
Average Bill/ Ticket Size: `52,000
Same Store Sales Growth Percentage: 15% YoY
Market Presence
Godrej Interio has a wide reach pan India and also boasts of the largest customer base. The brand claims to be the market leaders in the category for the last 10 years. Godrej Interio have 11 formats for retail addressing every consumer segment spread across 490 EBOs and 2,000 MBOs. The experience across each of the 11 formats of retail is standard.
Product Basket
Godrej Interio’s product basket has expanded over the years from just storewell cupboards to over 1,600 SKUs. The brand’s each product is developed with user insight collected by a strong and dedicated team of designers. Godrej Interio is the only company in India to have BIFMA certification for both manufacturing process as well as products.
The product categories include, home furniture and interior solutions, bedroom solutions, living room solutions, dining room solutions, storage solutions, kids furniture solutions, study furniture solutions, kitchen solutions, accessories, mattresses, customized hardwood furniture and interior solutions, and institutional furniture and interior solutions, desking solutions, seating solutions, storage solutions, modular office solutions, healthcare furniture solutions, laboratory furniture solutions, marine furniture solutions and 360 degree turnkey solutions.
Business Dynamics
Godrej Interio has in its kitty, a number of awards and accreditation, which the brand has earned over the years. Recently, the brand was honored as Asia’s Most Promising Brand 2016, World’s Greatest Brands 2015 Asia, Home and Lifestyle Retailer of the Year, to name a few.
The brand is also working on a number of dynamics for a better business. Godrej Interio is working on a sustainability drive for its manufacturing units, in association with a large private sector interiors company, on E-commerce platforms for a better experience for the customers, etc.
Core Operations
Design– Godrej Interio claims to be the only brand in furniture which has a dedicated design and engineering team who study user aspirations and develop solutions for them pro-actively.
Manufacturing – The brand has distributed manufacturing bases at 5 locations across India, operating with 9 manufacturing facilities.
Marketing – The brand has a combination of direct (B2B) and retail (B2C) sales, touching lives of over 230 million people in India and is growing by 20 percent YoY.
Leveraging Technology
Technology is the backbone of the brand. However, it believes that technology can only enable the strategies that is developed in consonance with user needs. Godrej Interio has strong technology integration right from product design to development, to automation (including robotics) in manufacturing, to CRM platforms that collate user and buyer data to help develop predictive models and help in DSS. The brand is also working on implementing omni-channel experience for the customers and users.
Customer Engagement
The brand takes special care to involve with its consumers and work in different ways for customer engagement:
At Store Engagement Events: Godrej Interio organizes many at store events to have healthy user engagement. It also decorate stores during festivals and the whole staff celebrates with the walk-ins. The brand also conducts competitions and hobby classes such as cookery, stitching, etc., for an enriching user engagement.
Upload & Transform: The brand is on its fifth season of consumer campaign, “Upload & Transform”, where the consumers upload their living spaces, share their experiences, aspirations, concepts and some lucky consumers get the chance to actually see their homes transformed by Interio.
Social Media Engagement: The brand has a twitter handle named #HomeCanvas where all the design and interior lovers/enthusiasts can share thoughts, ideas, moodboards and concepts. Godrej Interio also keeps seeding articles, creatives and concepts on #HomeCanvas.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
Godrej Interio have a 360-degree communication approach. It uses the 5E (Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit & Extend) to identify the type of communication which should be going out. It generally runs brand campaigns, tactical campaigns, engagement campaigns and industry level communications. The brand advertises through both print and digital medium. It also has its main campaign resonating through other mediums like on-ground activations, PR and collateral development.
Future Plans
The brand has plans to cover 350 cities in India virtually for better reach across the country. Godrej Interio is also planning on improving online sales experience through omni-channel means.
Happily Unmarried: For the uber cool home
Happily Unmarried started operations in the year 2003 with the underlying idea that everyday regular use products have no reason to be boring and mundane. The brand is all about well designed products but not necessarily designer products. Happily Unmarried has travelled a long distance from a business idea that started in a rented flat with a small
team of 3-4 people to retailing through 10 company owned stores and being available at number of doors in the country. The brand works in a flat operating structure and avoids hierarchy and protocol to the maximum. For Happily Unmarried, every single employee of the company has an equally important role.
No. of Employees: 114
No. of Doors Present In: EBOs:10 | MBOs:35
No. of States Present In: 11 states
No. of Cities Present In: 16 ci ties
Total Retail Space: 2,000 sq.ft.
Average Bill/ Ticket Size: `1,000
Same Store Sales Growth Percent: 8%
Market Presence
Happily Unmarried is present in all major cities in India through either EBOs or MBOs. The brand has a total of 10 exclusive stores and is also present in about 35 MBOs. Furthermore, Happily Unmarried caters to consumers from Tier II and Tier III cities as well through its online portal.
Product Basket
The brand majorly deals in 5 categories, that is, bar and kitchen accessories, home furnishings, apparel/ bags and men’s grooming. The idea behind every product is to turn the items of everyday use into something quirky and fun. Happily Unmarried recently launched its Roamani and RnR range of bags which have been receiving good response.
Business Dynamics
Happily Unmarried has been funded by Info Edge (India) Ltd. and now have launched a men’s grooming brand called Ustraa”, which is receiving a marvellous response in the country. The underlying idea behind its products is to provide men with good quality stuff which is SLS, SLES, Parabene and all other harmful chemical free and also cruelty free.
Happily Unmarried prides in offering products which are 100 percent vegetarian and claims to use no ingredient which is an animal derivative, even remotely.
E-commerce Presence
The brand has tied up with various E-commerce portals like Amazon, Amazon Global, Flipkart, among others and is also retailing through its own website. Happily Unmarried website gets over a million hits a month and ships around 3,000 parcels a day.
Customer Engagement
Happily Unmarried is present on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and have a dedicated social media team, constantly engaging with its consumers and receiving genuine feedback of the products on sale. From collecting feedback to introducing new products and addressing client issues to even featuring on-request customer selfies with its products, the brand claims to have one of the most effective social media team in client engagement. The uber cool brand also publishes contents and listicles on its blog page.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
The brand is not very much into marketing and promotions and feels that it will get the support of its discerning customers if and only if it is deserving. Happily Unmarried has brand ambassadors in all the people who buy its products.
Future Plans
Happily Unmarried is presently concentrating on “Ustraa” and keeping with the response received, is planning to focus on building a new team for “Ustraa”. Also, the brand will be working on introducing few products every month.
Peachtree: Decorating Homes with Trendy Furniture
Peachtree is a world class brand of furniture and accessories, born from a confluence of strong design, product innovation, craftsmanship and international furniture expertise. With focus on creating furniture and accessories that are modern and contemporary, Peachtree develops products with smart features that enhance usability and energise living
spaces. Established in the year 2005 as a manufacturer and exporter of iron and wood furniture, handicraft and accessories, the brand entered into the domestic market only early this year. The brand envisions to be India’s preferred furniture brand and also to fill the vacuum in the India’s Home Fashion industry in terms of quality furniture and decorative items.
Number of Employees: 100+
Total No. of stores Present In: 3 stores
No. of States Present In: 2 state s, 1 uni on te rrit ory
Total Retail Space: 40,000 sq.ft.
Market Presence
Peachtree entered the Indian market with 3 stores in Delhi/NCR and is running a good business from them.
Product Basket
The brand offers a wide range of products in categories like home decor, furniture, home furnishings and wall/ floor coverings.
Business Dynamics
Peachtree is too young in the market, but has received commendable response from its customers. However, in export business, the brand has been honored with many awards and trophies. For better business, the brand keeps itself well versed with global trends and practices and invests in products and designs which are globally preferred.
Customer Engagement
The brand has involved itself in a lot of customer engagement programs at the store level and has also engaged with the consumers through its social media platforms.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
For marketing and promotions, Peachtree gives advertisements in all mediums of publicity – print, electronic and digital.
Theme of Latest Collection
Peachtree introduces new designs across categories every month based on the season and trends in fashion. Years of experience and knowledge of the material, processes and trends have helped Peachtree develop expertise to match the best in the world. The brand’s designs carry the essence of Indian ancient art and craftsmanship in a modern and contemporary manner.
Future Plans
The brand, presently, has three stores and is planning to expand in all the major cities in the form of EBOs, MBOs and franchise stores. Peachtree is also considering going online soon.
Prestige: Making cooking easy with complete kitchen solutions
Prestige, from the house of TTK, has been working for the last over 50 years with a dream of making a company that provides total kitchen solutions to the modern Indian consumer. Prestige believes that kitchen is a place in the house where love is nourished and so, the brand is continuously working to offer a total kitchen solution for a smarter cooking. Prestige has been loved and accepted by one and all for its innovative kitchen equipments and tools, which complete a modern kitchen. Prestige products claim to have essential qualities like safety, durability, reliability, innovation and value. With the tagline, ‘Jo Biwi Se Kare Pyaar, Woh Prestige Se Kaise Kare Inkaar’, the brand goes an extra mile to offer its customers a cooking guide, “Prestige SmartChef”. Prestige SmartChef is a unique initiative to bring together a community of people who love food and love sharing recipes, cooking tips and more.
Number of Employees: 2,500
Total No.of Doors Present In: EBOs: 530 | SISs: 100 | MBOs: 10,000
Total No.of States Present In: 30 st ates
Total No.of Cities Present In: 290 cities
Annual Turnover: `1,560 crores
Total Retail Space: 2,65,000 sq.ft.
Average Sales per sq.ft. per day: `30/sq.ft. pe r day
Average Bill/ Ticket Size: `2,000
Same Store Sales Growth Percent: 10%
Market Presence
Prestige has a pan India presence with over 10,000 multi brand outlets. The brand also retails through its 530 exclusive stores spread across 290 towns.
Product Basket
The brand offers pressure cookers, cookware, gas stoves, mixer grinders, induction cooktops, which have a huge customer base throughout the country. Prestige’s product basket also includes rice cookers, irons, wet grinder, barbeque, OTG, sandwich makers, toasters, kettles, juicers, hand blenders and air fryers.
Business Dynamics
Prestige has excelled in the kitchen equipments and tools category since years. The brand had crossed a whooping `1,500 crores turnover in the financial year 2015-16. Prestige also recently set up a greenfield manufacturing unit in Karjan, Gujarat with an investment of over `300 crores in an area spanning over 60 acres. Through its wholly owned
subsidiary TTK British Holdings, Prestige had also acquired Horwood Homewares, a table and cookware supplier in the UK, to gain a foothold in the European markets.
E-commerce Presence
The brand has its own E-ommerce portal with four fulfilment centres across four zones in Hosur (Tamil Nadu), Pune (Maharashtra), Gurgaon (Haryana) and Kolkata (West Bengal), and processes over 750 orders per day. Prestige is also present on online portals like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, Shopclues, etc. The brand is also working on omni-channel
initiatives to leverage its 530 EBOs.
Customer Engagement
Prestige claims to be the first company in kitchenware to have a call centre, handling customers’ complaints and grievances. The brand has 250 service centres across the country, providing consumers a seamless experience. Service technicians are provided with a mobile app to get complaints instantaneously and act on them. Besides, over 1 million customers are enrolled in the brand’s loyalty program at its EBOs.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
Prestige has a promotion budget of over `100 crores with over `50 crores spent on mass media, `15 crores on BTL, `15 crores on EBOs, and `5 crores on digital advertisements.
Future Plans
The brand introduces over 100 new products every year. Recently, it has launched a new category —Home Cleaning Solutions. Furthermore, the kitchenware major has plans to open 50 new EBOs in the year 2016-17.
Skipper Furnishings: Decorating homes with sentiments
Skipper Furnishings has been a household name when it comes to beautifying homes and interiors. Established in 1986 by Kamlesh Agarwal in Kolkata, Skipper Furnishings is distinguished as one of India’s most valued furnishing brands. It is a family owned business, committed to converting spaces into signatures – signature of style, signature of poise and above all, signature of your dreams. With its wide array of exclusive furnishing merchandise, the brand ensures that the customers get the best buy, however personalized their choice may be. Skipper Furnishings believes that a home is not just a place that houses, but also defines a family, and the brand ensures to make every design, every product a reflection of its customers’ emotions. A space complete with beautiful sentiments is Skipper Furnishing’s commitment.
Number of Employees: 174
Total Number of Doors Present In: 29
Number of States Present In: 12 states
Number of Cities Present In: 22 cities
Annual Turnover: Over `100 crores
Total Retail Space: 72,500 sq.ft.
Average Sales Per sq.ft. Per Day: `34 pe r sq.ft.
Average Bill/ Ticket Size: `42,000
Same Store Sales Growth Percent: 25%
Market Presence
Skipper Furnishings is spread across more than 22 cities and 29 stores in India and has emerged as the country’s largest home furnishing retail brand.
Product Basket
The brand offers a wide range of products which includes wall coverings, carpets, curtains, blinds, mattresses, drapery rods, upholstery, wooden floorings, bed linen, etc. Skipper Furnishings also deals with major luxury brands like Armani, Versace, etc. The brand points out that all the categories are performing well; however blinds and wallpapers have
shown extraordinary response from the customers.
Business Dynamics
Skipper Furnishings was recently awarded the ‘Images Most Admired Retailer of East India’ award.
E-commerce Presence
The brand is present in almost all the major E-commerce platforms including, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Pepperfry, Jabong, etc. Skipper Furnishings also has its own online portal www.skipperhomefashions.com.
Customer Engagement
Skipper Furnishings have a loyalty program in place for customer engagement. Apart from that, the brand also engages with customers on social media.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
For marketing and promotions, Skipper Furnishings engages in ATL, BTL, social media, sponsorships, mock ups, etc. The brand also runs promotional campaigns and puts up in-store stuffs like danglers, stickers, etc.
Future Plans
Skipper Furnishings is planning to launch its mattress brand very soon. It also has plans to expand its store count and reach 35 stores by March 2017.
Story@Home: Helping homes create beautiful stories
Founded by Sohan Rungta in 2011, Story@ Home has now evolved as a leading brand in the home furnishing category. A part of Elite Decor Private Limited, it is much more than just a source for beautiful home furnishings and decor items. It works on transforming its customers’ decorating ideas into reality, with inspiration and excitement. Over the years, the brand has worked and brought in a lot of modernization and technology to keep abreast of changing trends. The brand claims to be a symbol of style, comfort and luxury and assures to give a style statement to future homes as well as stylish make over to the existent ones. Story@ Home also boasts of a team of designers who constantly travel around in search of new trends in fashion, color and style and translate these into exclusive products.
Annual Retail Sales Turnover: `50 crores
No. of Pin Codes Served: +18,000
No. of Brands Offered: 5 (Story@Home, Bedspun, Happy Life, Queen Cotton, Ahem Homes)
No. of Products Offered: +3,000
Percentage Wise Category Break Up: Bed Sheet: 50%
Curtains : 15%
Towels : 5%
Others : 30%
Market Presence
The brand retails only through E-commerce portals. Story@Home prides on its presence pan India, through its online retail channel. The home furnishing major also has a strong and healthy partnership with portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, etc. Working on the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the brand is also planning to expand to overseas virtual
market.
Product Basket
Story@Home offers products like bed sheets- single, double and king size; comforters—single and double; curtains—for both doors and windows; towels—hand, bath and face; bean bags and poufs; mattresses —single, double and foldable;mattress protector; doormats; carpets; pillows and cushion fillers; cushion covers; diwan sets; blankets; and mosquito nets.
Best Performers
Story@Home stands for value for money product range in home furnishing segment. The brand’s best selling products vary within the price range of `499 to `699. Besides, other best selling product range includes:
a) Queen sized bedsheet collection named Candy;
b) Magic collection made of 100 percent cotton; and
c) Forever XL self satin striped king size bedsheet, which sells for around `999.
Latest Introductions
The home furnishing brand has recently introduced carpets, sofa-cumbeds, canvas bean bags and poufs in its product
category. The brand has successfully succeeded in making the sofa-cum-beds, canvas bean bags and poufs, a hit
among its customers. However, the carpets are yet to bag its place in customers’ hearts.
Business Dynamics
Story@Home has recently invested in the field of infrastructure and are setting up a 25,000 sq.ft. additional office and warehouse space. It also claims to efficiently handle up to 2,500 order dispatch per day.
Leveraging Technology
The brand is working with the latest technologies and have developed an internal ERP system to maintain the order flow. Equipped with the latest fabric manufacturing and printing processes, Story@Home also boasts of an enthusiastic and highly qualified backend team, which takes care of all the quality checks and listing parameters. Also, its creative and photography team and a dedicated R&D team ensures that the brand is always one step ahead of its competitors. All these has helped Story@Home to garner customer loyalty and has also lowered down the overall returns percentage.
Customer Engagement
For customer engagement, Story@ Home updates its Facebook page with the latest trends and ongoing deals on its products. A customer engagement team also connects with its customers on social media and caters to its online consumers. The brand also writes blogs about the brand products and about latest trends in home furnishing and decor.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
For promotions and campaigns, the brand involves in a lot of ad campaigns on social media, print media and digital media.
Future Plans
Story@Home is planning to expand its product range in home furnishings, and also on entering into home decor and furniture.
Urban Ladder: Beautifying homes at ease
Urban Ladder started in the year 2012 when the founding members, Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa, felt the need for an online home furniture brand, while looking for good quality furniture for their homes in Bengaluru. Urban Ladder came into existence with an aim to offer high quality products both in terms of design and functionality, and also to give Indians a hassle free experience in home shopping. After some intense planning, trials and discussions with the best manufacturers across India and the world, and hundreds of consumer interviews, the founders narrowed down on a solution that could get distinctive products, manufactured at prices that consumers would find practical. The brand works with a vision to set global benchmarks for distinctive products, consumer experiences and honest best practices.
No. of Cities Present In: 19 cities
No. of Products Offered:4,000 SKUs
Market Presence
Urban Ladder retails in 19 cities and operates via online channel only.
Product Basket
The brand offers furniture for living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, study rooms, kitchens, etc. The categories include furniture like sofas, dining tables, beds, storage units, etc. Urban Ladder also deals in smaller items including coffee tables, book shelves, mattresses, and other interiors and decor items. Among all the product categories, the brand’s range of sofas are receiving good response.
Business Dynamics
Urban Ladder was recently awarded with the best online furniture consumer brand award. Also, the brand has bagged a host of other awards because of the quality and service it provides to its customers.
Leveraging Technology
Urban Ladder, being an online business, conforms to best technology for a pleasant customer experience. The brand claims to have ranked as one of the best websites in terms of responsiveness and ease of E-commerce. The online brand also claims to have one of the best applications in terms of rating and 35 percent of its business comes from the same.
Customer Engagement
The brand works continuously to provide a seamless online experience to its consumers. Urban Ladder prides in having a great customer service team, who encourage the customers to call or chat (10:00- 20:00) with them, in case of any query or grievances. The brand also boasts of an in-house customer service and delivery team, who not only delivers the products but installs them for the consumers at the same time.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
Urban Ladder basically targets working professionals who do not get time to shop for home furniture and decor items. The brand started its initial marketing through Facebook, where it basically identified potential consumers and connected with them. It considers ‘word of mouth’ to be one of the biggest reasons of its growth. Urban Ladder also boasts of a Net Promoters Score (NPS) of 0.8, which is one of the highest in the world, and the brand gives the credit for the same to the ease it gives to its customers, who come back remembering the past experience. Urban Ladder does not involve in television advertisements.
Future Plans
The brand has recently launched a new range in sofas, named ‘The Apolla Infinity’. These are customized sofas, which will be made as per demands and designs suggested by the consumers. Furthermore, Urban Ladder is also considering to go offline in some point of time but for now, will remain an online retailer.
Bianca: Adding life to lifestyle
Bianca, the flagship brand of Mangal Exports, was launched in the year 2008 and since then, has emerged as a prominent player in the Indian home decor space. Mangal Exports stands as one of India’s most formidable export houses and a premier manufacturer of home textiles and accessories, since the year 1980. Bianca prides in being a contemporary, one-stop shop for all the home decor needs. It works on a distinct design philosophy that represents a perfect blend between western trends and eastern artistry. The brand has successfully explored its existence within the horizon of tradition and modernity, thus inventing and determining the term ‘TRENDITION’.
Retail Presence: MBOs: +2,000; SISs: +100
Number of Cities Present In: 40 cities
Average Bill/ Ticket Size (FY 2015-16): `1,200
Market Presence
Bianca is present pan India, offering everything from home decor to table and bath accessories, under one roof. Bianca is also available in leading home decor stores in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, and many other cities. The brand also retails through E-commerce channels.
Product Basket
The brand offers bedsheets, bath towels, floor rugs, curtains, table linen and a variety of other bath and kitchen accessories.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
For marketing and promotions, Bianca puts in-store stands and brandings, creating awareness about the offers and discounts and new products on sale. The brand also has a loyalty program in place, to encourage customer engagement.
Theme of Latest Collection
The theme of Bianca’s latest collection is Tropical, with different textures and bright bold designs.
Future Plans
Bianca has plans to launch new and refreshing collection of carpets, curtains and other furnishings. The brand also has plans to focus more on developing exclusive online range in home decor and furnishings.
BSL: Offering best home furnishing fabrics
BSL Ltd. was formed 45 years ago in Bhilwara, Rajasthan and has moved from strength to strength to reach a point of excellence in the field of manufacturing and exporting men’s suitings. The company diversified into the field of furnishing fabrics about 10-12 years ago. In this segment, the company produces and mainly exports a wide range of furnishing fabrics for the purpose of upholstery and drapery. It produces over 18 million meters of fabric every year, from all fibers such as polyester, linen, cotton, silk, etc.
No. of Employees: 450
Annual Turnover: `400 crores
Market Presence
BSL Ltd. has significant global presence in the furnishing business and the company is also exporting its products to almost 25- 30 countries all over the world. BSL Ltd. also supplies its furnishing fabrics to some of the biggest retail chains in the world. Apart from this, it also supplies its products to some of the largest retail chain stores in India as
well.
Product Basket
The company offers furnishing products which include, fabrics for curtains, fabrics for upholstery and made-ups in the form of ready curtains and cushions.
Business Dynamics
BSL Ltd. has made major investments recently in the furnishing business and is constantly ramping up its production facilities to cater to the demands. Apart from increasing the production, the company has also been investing regularly to maintain the environmental and pollution norms and to attain zero discharge.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
The Company takes part in 2-3 global home textiles exhibition all over the world, such as Heimtextil Frankurt in Germany, Intertex in Shanghai, etc. for promoting itself.
Theme of Latest Collection
BSL Ltd. offers a new collection every 4 months. Each collection is an exhaustive range of new presentations in dobby and jacquard, having a wide array of designs and colors. Each collection of BSL Ltd. has about 2,000- 3,000 SKUs.
Future Plans
The company is constantly in expansion mode with some expansions being planned every year.
Durian: Bringing your home alive
Started in 1985 under the Durian Industries Ltd., the brand Durian has, over the years, excelled in the home fashion category with relentless pursuit of its vision. Durian initially started with importing furniture, but later, came up with its own factory manufactured products. The brand prides in taking the ‘Make in India’ initiative forward and also in promoting the same among the fellow countrymen. Durian believes in constantly upgrading itself and works to bring new ideas that inspire business innovations. The brand has covered a long journey from being the pioneer in veneer business to being the leading infrastructure company and a lifestyle brand.
Total No. of EBOs: 31
No. of States Present In: 13 states
No. of Cities Present In: 24 Cities
Market Presence
Durian has a total of 31 stores in India. Also, the brand retails through its own E-commerce portal www.durian.in and is available at some of the leading online websites like Pepperfry, Flipkart, Amazon, etc.
Product Basket
Durian’s product basket comprises of home furniture including living room furniture, dining room furniture, bedroom furniture and bedroom sets, storage utilities and also a wide range of office furniture. Other offerings include laminates, veneers, doors and plywoods.
Customer Engagement
For customer engagement, Durian has a dedicated team to look into the grievances of its consumers. Besides, a research and innovation team constantly work to bring to its customers research based designs that fulfill contemporary needs. A quality control team works on different testing technologies in order to ensure that every product meets the
expectations of the consumers. The different types of tests through which a Durian product passes, include furniture test, Component test and Package test, to give 100 percent satisfaction to its consumers.
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
For promotions and campaigns, Durian gives out Above the Line (ATL) advertisements in print, and also uses outdoor campaigns and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, in order to spread awareness about the brand.
Raymond Home: Embellishing homes in unique style
Raymond Limited, India’s leading textile and apparel company, entered the home textile segment in 2013 as “Raymond Home”, to exploit the opportunities in the rapidly growing segment. In less than 3 years since its launch, Raymond Home has created its space in the home textile market and is growing rapidly. Raymond Home promises to deliver its
customers the same impeccable design, as well as quality that the company is known well for over 88 years. With over 500 designs ranging from the contemporary to the classic, Raymond’s relentless product innovations and stringent quality standards has been its hallmark.
Market Presence
Raymond Home retails, currently, through 2,000 multi brand outlets and also through 600 The Raymond shops, spread across the country. Plans are also underway to open a few exclusive stores for Raymond Home this year. Apart from these, Raymond Home products are also available at major large format stores like, Home Stop, Pantaloons, Hypercity,
Evok, Big Bazaar and Walmart.
Product Basket
The brand’s product basket includes a complete range of bed sheets, pillow covers, comforters, blankets, bath robes and towels in a wide selection of colors and designs. Raymond Home A/W’16 collection features unique prints and soothing hues enhancing home decor this season. The collection also consists of innovative fibers such as Tencel and Modal. Also, the special feature of S/S’16 collection is the launch of designer bedsheets collection– Grandeur.
E-commerce Presence
Raymond Home’s myriad options in home fashion are available at all the major E-commerce portals.
Rumors Fine Furnishings: Adding charm & elegance to homes
Rumors Fine Furnishings is a Bengaluru-based one stop furnishing brand with top-notch quality furnishing products at the finest furnishing stores across the country. The brand has put together a collection of timeless creations that the discerning customers could invite into their living spaces. Through its unrivaled expertise in furnishing business, Rumors Fine Furnishings amalgamated its inherent creativity and zeal for providing exquisitely designed fabrics. The brand works with a promise to offer creations which never go out of style, are fresh and exclusive.
Market Presence
Rumors Fine Furnishings has a pan India presence with presence in all the leading furnishing stores across the country. The brand also works in partnership with international brands like, Fabricut, Silk Wave, Texture, Prestigious Textile, Artiq,
Antex, and Daylight.
Product Basket
The brand is known for sophisticated yet elegant upholstery, curtains, cushions, etc. Rumors Fine Furnishings offers products in three broad collections:
a) Premium Collection which is a collection of 15 catalogues ranging from classics to contemporary to florals and plains;
b) Sapphire Collection which offers a collection filled with delicate damasks, modern geometrics and bold florals; and
c) Quartz Collection which is a sharp collection with a special emphasis on textured upholstery weights and breezy drapes, on cost effective jacquard for home and the hospitality sector.
Customer Engagement
Rumors Fine Furnishings have loyalty programs and have a good customer base at its disposal.
Theme of Latest Collection
The brand’s latest collection sports burnished jacquards, textured weaves, geometric abstracts and dotted patterns.
Zynna: Beautifying homes with sophistication
Zynna has been creating beautiful home decor solutions under the erstwhile Deepak Furnishings since 1970, however, it was registered as a brand only in 2015. Zynna has, today, established itself as one of the largest luxury curtain makers in India. The brand aims to become the finest curtain making stores not just in India but internationally and this has led Zynna to bag exclusive partnerships with a number of iconic European and American brands. The brand has also created its own exclusive designs which are supplied across the world. Zynna works to educate people and spread the joy of fine window treatment.
Market Presence
Zynna retails majorly in NCR region and is also increasing its presence in all major cities through a number of dealers.
Product Basket
Zynna offers elegant window treatment with exclusive and luxurious window draperies, sheers, blinds, fabrics, stitching solutions, wallpapers, furnishing coordinates and specially ordered European design products. Other product offerings include cushions, bed runners, etc.
Business Dynamics
Zynna has been recently awarded the ‘Good Homes Award’ for the best in drapery section.
Customer Engagement
Zynna has a very loyal customer base including some of the leading architects and some high net worth individuals (HNIs).
Marketing & Promotion Strategies
The brand does not involve majorly in marketing strategies. However, Zynna feels that its good presence on Google has tremendously increased its visibility.
Future Plans
In the times to come, Zynna is planning to introduce some exclusive European brands in its portfolio and also on increasing its dealer network.
