Business142(Wed, Thu, Sat) – Three Ways Covid-19 Has Affected The Interior Design Market

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Three Ways Covid-19 Has Affected The Interior Design Market

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Article

1. During the pandemic, our attitude toward our home has changed significantly, affecting the entire interior design market. And according to the American Society of Interior Designers, 51% of designers have already adjusted to the new norm.

2. The Pandemic Has Split The Interior Design Market

The pandemic has dramatically changed consumption habits, as it happened during the previous one in 1918: People started to redesign their kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms. Powder rooms were invented for people to sanitize their hands before interacting with other people. And now our home has become a kind of refuge as well. 

3. People tend to forget the original meaning of home — being a personal stronghold. People stopped buying apartments and primarily switched to renting, whether because of the rising prices or changing habits. Consumers were encouraged to eat out more, which led to declined kitchen size.However, during the pandemic, we ended up locked at home and forced to live there. Your home now has to fulfill all kinds of needs, providing a place for work, recreation, dining, studying, etc.

4. And what we’ve noticed is that people now value their home again. Wayfair stock has grown 10 times since the start of the pandemic.The home renovation market has reported accordingly. More people are hiring designers, investing in renovations and taking interest in interior design trends.

How has your home changed since the beginning of the pandemic? What changes did you make and why?

5. Technologies Couldn’t Alleviate The Lack Of Physical Space And Facilities

Over the two years of the pandemic, more and more people began to visualize their living spaces, so brands started adopting AR technologies not as a gimmick but as a viable alternative to showcase their products and offerings. One of the most obvious applications is simply allowing consumers to place furniture in their current homes to see how it feels. 

6. While earlier you could be motivated to go outside to do shopping, now you don’t always get an opportunity and this encourages both businesses and consumers to adopt virtual technologies. Still, it will probably take us about 10 years for VR and AR to become an indispensable part of our life

What are the greatest challenges in buying furniture online?  What services or technology could be developed to make this process easier?

7. How You Can Leverage This Shift In Consumer Needs

A lot of companies in the space have tried to preserve their offline-first model — they believed that their goal was to attract customers to the store first and then deal with them. Ikea did that in Europe as it preferred to drive people to its superior and thought-out store experience. The first step for classic offline businesses is to provide delivery as an option to their customers, and that’s pretty straightforward. In all regions of the world, you can find third-party networks that can deliver your goods, whether it’s a small lamp or a giant bed.

8. What comes next is much more difficult. You need to redefine the customer experience and build a digital alternative. Yes, when everyone was locked down at home, people would use almost any service available to get what they needed. But we adapted, and choosing some goods on a webpage is way more difficult than others.
9. The key step is to stop deceiving yourself that everything will simply return to normal. We’ll probably be stuck with remnants of this pandemic for a long time, and the old consumer habits will not revert back. The changes are inevitable and we have to embrace them.

What changes would you like to make to your home? What is your favorite interior style, what is the popular style now? Which furniture stores are popular, why?

Phonetic Chart

Phonemic Chart - click to see or print full size