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Designer group signs with HomeFurnishings.com

IDS members can be featured on consumer Web portal

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 11, 2010

CHICAGO — The Interior Design Society has signed up to be a part of the HomeFurnishings.com, enabling its members to be prominently featured on the consumer Web portal.

In what HomeFurnishings.com referred to as a strategic marketing partnership, IDS has the right to sell the opportunity to participate on the site to its members, said Doug Kays, HomeFurnishings.com CEO.

Under the partnership, participating IDS members will be featured on a new "Find a Designer" locator on the site. Designers will be able to designate the markets they serve and include contact information as well as a link to their own websites, where consumers can read testimonials or view photos showcasing their work. They also can have photos of their work featured in the image galleries on HomeFurnishings.com.

The nonprofit IDS has more than 3,000 members including interior designers, sales specialists, interior design students, design-related businesses and suppliers.

"Consumer feedback has revealed that many consumers want additional help in transforming the ideas they see online into cohesive and aesthetically pleasing room designs in their home," Kays said.

"Both the independent and the store-employed IDS members will play an important role in stimulating sales for the home furnishings industry by satisfying this key consumer need," he said. "They will take the consumer, who is ready to update their décor, and lead them through the design phase and remove the barriers that would otherwise delay purchasing new furniture and home furnishings."

IDS CEO Pamela White called the partnership "a perfect complement to the goals of HomeFurnishings.com - to take the consumer from home furnishings design inspiration to a completed installation. And the tens of thousands of consumers coming to HomeFurnishings.com each month are highly qualified leads for our designer members."

Kays said consumer interest in the site has been growing, noting that the website recently has been drawing 60,000 unique visitors per month.

Promotions within the design community are slated to begin in July to invite designers to participate in the HomeFurnishings.com program. HomeFurnishings.com will promote the new designer locator, including promotions through its social network on Twitter and Facebook.

Kays attended this month's Las Vegas Market, marketing the portal to industry trade associations, buying groups and suppliers. He said the site received strong interest and noted that every trade association and buying group HomeFurnishings.com met with was interested in developing a participation program for members.

Kays and other representatives will be promoting the site at the High Point Market, which opens Oct. 16, at the National Home Furnishings Assn.'s Retailer Resource Center.

HomeFurnishings.com originally was designed and developed by the NHFA and spearheaded by Kays "to be the primary source of quality information for the consumer," the company said. In April, NHFA sold the site to a new company led by Kays and John Sullivan of marketing and software development firm JGSullivan Interactive. Roughly 3,300 NHFA member-owned stores are listed on the site.

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