Understand the three scenarios of social design and how a 3D planning solution can support them.

Consumers are increasingly moving away from traditional one-to-one consultation with an in-store expert when it comes to home and kitchen remodeling. Instead, they are seeking more insights, involvement and validation from friends and family on their projects, from design through to implementation.

For many, planning a new home or kitchen redesign, getting inspired and finding new products and collections, is an enjoyable and social experience. Others like to document their design journey on social media channels, sharing their ideas and sourcing validation from peers. Combined with the rise of DIY home improvement projects, retailers must now adapt their selling strategies to facilitate and focus on a more socially oriented design journey for customers.

Collaborative design

Home and kitchen remodeling is and should be a fun process for customers. Flicking through home and lifestyle magazines for inspiration, creating Pinterest boards of ideas, looking through catalogs with friends and family, the initial design process is a sociable one. But with so much information at customers’ fingertips, retailers need to ensure that it doesn’t become overwhelming or never-ending. They require a strategy to help make sense of this research for customers, elevate their excitement and convert this into sales.

With a 3D planning solution, retailers can offer a standout design process that’s highly visual and packed with sophisticated and fun functionalities for customers to use collaboratively. Life-like renders ensure families can try out new ideas and visualize them in their homes by applying them to exact room plans they have created. By enabling customers to select automatic proposals pre-populated with products from their collections, retailers can also spark instant inspiration for customers still seeking new ideas.

A 3D planning solution incorporates a retailers’ entire catalog so that customers can play around with different layouts and designs at their leisure and plan rooms with the help of their friends. In turn, retailers are supporting a more enjoyable and collaborative home and kitchen design experience that supports customers through the purchase journey.

Community feeling

The opinion of friends and family is of great importance to consumers and social media channels are an ideal way to share ideas and get feedback on them. This is especially true when it comes to large-scale projects such as home and kitchen design.

An omnichannel 3D planning solution such as HomeByMe for Retailers allows customers to plan their home and kitchen design projects from anywhere. Once a design is complete, 3D renders can be easily published via integrated social media sharing options so that customers can gain the thoughts and validation of peers.

By implementing a 3D planning solution, home and kitchen retailers can better support and encourage a community feeling for customers, while creating opportunities to develop their social amplification and traffic. They can host competitions, facilitate online forums and utilize user-generated content.

Social remodeling

The DIY trend has skyrocketed and for various reasons: more savvy spending, a rise in accessible, online tutorials and reviews, and the desire to personalize and place an individual spin on trends and ideas to name a few. As a result, the DIY home improvement market is projected to register a CAGR greater than 3% by 2026. But for retailers to grow their share of this huge market, they must help customers overcome the challenges of DIY, such as long lead times, technical hurdles and access to expert knowledge when needed.

A 3D planning solution empowers DIY home and kitchen remodelers by limiting risk and ensuring their designs are realistic and on spec. The HomeByMe for Retailers 3D planning solution allows retailers to offer the full design experience in a simple way that instills the confidence that DIYers crave online – with the option to seek additional support from an expert in-store or online if and as needed. For customers looking to purchase online, the solution’s integrated intelligence and business rules mean they can rest assured designs are accurate, error-free and sales-ready.

Conclusion

The social design trend is here to stay as consumers continue to rethink how they engage at every stage of the purchase journey. They want a fun home and kitchen design experience, with complete control over their design journey, and options to seek validation and support from family and friends. To facilitate this, home and kitchen retailers can benefit from a 3D planning solution like HomeByMe for Retailers, revolutionizing selling strategies by providing autonomous design with collaborative features.