Congratulations on the launch of Houzz Shop in the UK!
We’re very excited! Houzz focuses on creating the best home renovation and design experience by bringing everything people need to improve their homes together under one roof.
With the Houzz Shop in the UK, people can discover, learn about, and now buy all the products and materials to complete their home projects directly on Houzz.
We already have more than 100,000 products and materials from over 2500 sellers from across Europe for purchase directly on the Houzz site and app, and we’re adding more.
What motivated you to bring Houzz Shop to the UK?
One of the biggest things we heard from our users is that they not only wanted to discover and learn about products through Houzz, but that they also wanted to be able to buy them directly on our website and mobile app.
With the Houzz Shop in the UK, we’re closing the loop for people when it comes to designing their home so that there’s one place where they can get everything they need.
The UK expansion was a response to strong demand from our community of more than two million unique monthly users in the country.
“We’re closing the loop for people when it comes to designing their home so that there’s one place where they can get everything they need”
Tell us a bit about the recent pop-up store you had in Soho, London.
The Houzz of 2018 was a great platform to showcase the Houzz Shop and we welcomed thousands of visitors over the course of the week. The installation brought to life 2018 interior design trends based on insight from our community in a completely shoppable experience.
Our aim was to demonstrate how users make their dream space a reality through our community of over 65,000 UK professionals and 100,000-plus available products.
How is Houzz addressing some of the challenges facing the high street?
With Houzz, sellers and vendors can build their brands and connect with customers, reaching a community of more than 40 million monthly unique users who are actively renovating and decorating their homes and over 1.5 million active home renovation and design professionals.
With the launch of the Houzz Shop in the UK, we also announced the availability of View in My Room, which allows people to preview products in their space before buying, and will continue to introduce new technology to empower homeowners and professionals with tools that will make the experience of shopping more fun and productive.
Describe your role and responsibilities.
My role is managing director international marketplace and I manage international buying, merchandising and product assortment. I am lucky to have the chance to help bring the Houzz Marketplace to international markets like the UK.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background before Houzz.
I helped scale up the largest fashion ecommerce business in South East Asia as their managing director for Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
“In the case of ecommerce, I love how it gives convenient, easy access to products that weren’t available to everyone before, no matter where they live”
Before that, I was in management consulting, advising some of the world’s largest retailers and tech companies across the US, the EU and Asia.
What got you into retail in the first place?
It is such an important part of everyone’s daily life.
In the case of ecommerce, I love how it gives convenient, easy access to products that weren’t available to everyone before, no matter where they live.
How has your previous experience aided your current job?
I’ve been lucky that I have had the chance to work both with large physical retailers as well as scaling up a fashion ecommerce startup across multiple international markets.
These experiences have helped me have a good understanding of the challenges that more traditional brands and retailers in the home renovation space have been facing in today’s digital environment, and to connect them to the right consumer and professional audience.
And the most rewarding?
The most rewarding aspect is when we receive great reviews for our customer service, and even personalised thank you notes about our customer experience team members.
We want to bring the best products to our community, so having a delighted customer which loves the product they have purchased and has had a wonderful shopping experience really makes my day.
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