Earlier if someone had to do their home interiors, the idea would be fraught with thoughts of unprofessionalism, delays, contractors charging more than the market rates, dealing with multiple vendors, uncertainty on product quality and so on. But now, this industry has undergone a significant shift with the emergence of a slew of start-ups who are focussed more on providing a simplified and tech-based interior experience. Needless to say the timing of these changes could not have been better and was exactly the need of the hour.
As per some industry estimates, the market size of home interiors is USD 50 Billion and is growing by a CAGR of 20-25%. The sector has been attracting the interest of venture capitalists in the last few years with many firms getting funded by the who’s who of the industry. One of the latest high profile entries has been by IKEA’s parent Ingka Group, which has invested in Livspace, a leader in this nascent space.
Today, in an industry starved of modernisation, Livspace, Homelane and a handful of others like Marks Dzyn, Bonito Designs, and Design Cafe are leveraging technology, marketing smarts and efficient execution to make the customer experience hassle-free. As SrikanthIyer of HomeLane puts it: “The industry is rife with unpredictability, in terms of pricing, timelines and quality of work. We’re solving for this.”
Delays are being replaced by professional corporate style timelines. Over pricing is being replaced by thorough and detailed pricing with utmost transparency. And in the midst of all this, services are getting affordable and consumer interests are getting far more importance than they ever did. There is now a very qualified, creative and professional approach to this field of work.
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Livspace has become the leader in this paradigm shift. It operates in many major cities including New Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. In 2014, Sharma, a former VP of engineering at Indian e-commerce giant Myntra, along with Srivastava, former head of worldwide product marketing for e-commerce at Google, decided to launch Livspace, a one-stop shop for home owners, containing everything from interior designs to a full-scale inventory of home décor items, allowing them to customize a living space and witness a project shape up from start to finish.