Carpets, towels, curtains, bedsheets… The global home textile market, which includes countless different product groups, is growing rapidly. This growth is prompted by the increasing individualistic lifestyles, increasing consumer spending, rising interest in aesthetic household furnishing, a growing sensitivity toward fashion, development of modern lifestyle, urbanization, growing real estate market, and e-commerce penetration. The home textiles market is expected to grow over the next decade.
Statista data shows that the global market for home textiles is expected to be worth 133.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, this value was 95 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.
In addition to all the reasons mentioned above, an extra increase was observed in the demand for home textile products due to the restriction brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and the increase in the time spent at home. During this period, retailers cut down on traditional retail space and offered more and more products and services online to meet the increasing demand. While e-commerce provided various benefits to businesses, retailers also faced various challenges to overcome.
The home textile industry faces many challenges today. With the scarcity and thus high cost of raw materials and logistics issues, it’s a challenging environment with increasing competition. This is exactly why getting the highest efficiency from e-commerce operations is necessary within the market.
How to Create a Successful Online Presence in the Home Textile Market?
Let's take a look at what needs to be done to be on the winning side in the increasing competition and to overcome the challenges encountered in the home textile industry.
>> Customer Engagement
An engaged customer is one of the biggest assets for retailers. The home textile market has a wide range of products. Within this range, the needs of consumers also differ, and it is essential to respond to various needs accordingly. A customer who does not think much about buying a small towel for their kitchen may need more information when buying a new carpet for their living room. That's why you have to make sure that all your digital channels contain all the information customers may need.
However, we all know that in today's e-commerce sphere, only providing plain information will not be satisfactory. Incorporating detailed images and videos on your website and benefiting from technological developments such as AR usage are among the most important options you can consider implementing.
For instance, digital showrooms leveraging VR technology can help the consumer experience products, understand their suitability for their needs, and arrive at a purchasing decision faster.
The use of such new technologies is not only a savior in the inaccessibility of brick-and-mortar stores in extreme situations such as pandemics. It also paves the way for broader market expansion, by providing an upgraded experience to consumers in locations where you do not have a physical store.
>> Social Proof & Shared Experience
Customer comments and user experience are of great importance in the home textile market, especially in products that are used for a longer period such as curtains, carpets, pillows. From fabric quality to cleaning tips, genuine user experience has a huge impact on purchasing behavior. Creating effective areas to share experiences such as an evaluation system and review section will help a lot in this regard. Different market researches revealed that at least 95% of customers say they read reviews before purchasing any item.
Therefore, a positive impact can be created on sales figures by creating relevant areas in all digital channels. Let your customers tell others how eco-friendly your product is or what quality fabric it has.
>> Increase Conversion through Omnichannel
Today's shoppers want seamless and effortless shopping experiences, and retailers are working hard to deliver on this. Omnichannel commerce has quickly become the new normal, but the proliferation of devices and platforms means retailers need to have a cohesive omnichannel commerce strategy--one that puts their customers first. That strategy begins with understanding the customer.
Omnichannel is one of the best ways to make sure your products are available anywhere and anytime. Especially in industries such as home textiles where physical store visits are common, advanced omnichannel setups are more needed.
The role of physical stores in consumer lifespan is changing. However, we can suggest that they will continue to be in our lives as elements that contribute to the experience and are an important part of the overall strategy. As pick-up areas, logistics hubs, or experience centers brick-and-mortar stores will be a significant part of the consumer journey.
How to Overcome Challenges in the Home Textile Industry?
Dealing with changing customer behavior is a long and endless journey. In this journey, a shopping experience supported in every channel paves the way for building a lasting relationship between the customer and the brand. This can only be achieved with the right 360-degree strategy.
However, with this ever-changing environment, creating a comprehensive digital strategy is only half the battle. Most retailers are facing a new set of challenges when it comes to utilizing a robust e-commerce platform that enables them to keep up with consumers’ demands for a personalized and seamless shopping experience.
At this point, Inveon comes into the scene as a robust, agile, omnichannel compliant enterprise e-commerce platform provider that can be customized according to the needs of the home textile industry.
With the awareness of the need for a robust e-commerce platform and a comprehensive digital strategy to balance agility and change, Inveon offers different products and solutions to meet retail brand needs. Our platform, Inveon inCommerce, with comprehensive toolsets easily meets the needs of the industry, while our digital growth management solution GrowthLab creates a 360-degree strategy to get the highest efficiency from this platform.
To learn more about how we can reveal the potential of your brand, just get in touch with us and let our experts do what they do best.
