Luxury home decor brand, Address Home foresees great potential for growth in the furnishing segment in India. And why not! With the current size of the furnishing and home decor market in India at Rs 10,000 crore and a growth rate of 25 per cent per annum, the segment is developing at a healthy rate. Seeing the progress, Address Home has decided to invest in the market by opening 50 exclusive stores across India by 2018.
Launched in February 2008, Address Home is a stylish, innovative, home decor, gifting and lifestyle destination, which provides superior quality products with unique and eclectic styling ideas. Their collection keeps evolving consumer tastes in mind and the brand aims to give the global look in a stylized home concept.
The brand recently forayed eastward with the launch of its first exclusive store in Kolkata. With this outlet, Address Home’s total store count now totals 16.
In an exclusive interview with Indiaretailing Bureau, Founder & Creative Director Address Home, Rajat Singhi, talks about the changes consumer preference for furniture and furnishing shopping, the lure of e-commerce and the importance of Omnichannel retail.
Sum the main trends in home decor shopping in India. What is the market size of home decor in the overall furniture / furnishing market?
Over the years, the Home Decor Shopping trend in India has seen a definite shift from consumers investing only in furniture to growing interest in home decorative products as well as home linen.
India’s furniture and furnishings market brings in Rs 44,000 crore per annum, the home decor market size is Rs 10,000 crore yearly and the entire segment is growing at approximately 25 to 30 per cent per year.
This can be further broken down for Address Home. Our hard goods (sculptures, vases , décor accessories, dinnerware and candle ware) segment is growing at a rate of 53 per cent per year, while the soft goods segment (home and bed linen) rakes in 47 per cent of the total sales.
How has the consumer’s preference evolved over the last five years?
With the Internet, the world has evolved as a common marketplace and customers are exposed to global trends as soon as they emerge. Across categories, consumption has increased and that stands true for the home décor segment too. Apart from furniture, consumers are now looking at decorating homes and office spaces with trendy lighting, bed linen and other home décor accessories.
Do you feel that online furniture retailers have disrupted the market, making furniture and furnishing an easy purchase?
With the advent of e-commerce, there is no doubt that online retailers have gained in prominence in the past couple of years and we are experiencing that in the furniture and furnishings category, too. Customers can now avail of a large range of products at competitive pricing. There is no denying that the online furniture retailers have tilted the equilibrium but this applies more to the mid-ranged brands in the market. Having said that, we also see a huge potential in the Luxury Home Decor segment, too.
What has been the response to your e-commerce site?
Address Home forayed into online retail in 2014 and I think it was well-timed. Our online store gives us the opportunity to reach consumers in those cities where we do not have high street stores. The response to our online store has been tremendous and we see it growing year-on-year.
However, for furniture and furnishings it is important for the customers to touch and feel the products within the store environment and our 16 stores – spread across India – allow the consumer to get the complete brand experience. This combination of online and offline retail allows new-age consumers to gain easy access to our complete product range.
How many SKUs / product categories do you offer under your brand? What is your USP as compared to others in this space?
Currently, we have over 5,000 SKUs spread across 75 product categories that includes Home Linen, Dining, Dinnerware, Tableware, Lighting and Home Accessories.
The USP of the product is its quality and cutting edge design. Each product range is carefully designed and curated in tandem with global decor trends highlighting visual aesthetic and design language for a contemporary luxury lifestyle.
Share details of year-on- year growth numbers (last two fiscals) in sales.
We are witnessing growth between 35-45 per cent year-on-year.
How many retail outlets do you operate and what locations are they present in? What are your expansion plans for this year?
Address Home has 16 stores across India with a major footprint in North and West India. The recent launch of our first exclusive store in Kolkata marks our foray into East India. The brand has 16 stores spread across nine cities that include New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nagpur, Indore and Surat.
We have an aggressive expansion plans and by 2018, we will have 50 exclusive stores pan India.
Address Home to open 50 stores by FY18: Founder, Rajat Sanghi
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