Chapter 1: PROFILE OF THE COMPANY

About the Industry:

Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interiors of a building to
develop a more healthy and aesthetic environment for the people using the
space. The interiors affect the daily lives of the person, including how he or she
works or relaxes. Creating comfortable homes, functional offices, fun-filled
public entertainment spaces, etc. is the job of an interior designer. The
industry consists of trade members, architects, and interior designers
equipped with jobs of planning, designing, and transforming interior spaces.
The market is driven mostly by the increasing real estate market and India’s
increasing population, urbanization, and income. Some of the other factors
contributing to the increasing demand for interior designing services are smart
home technology, social media influence, and variations in lifestyles and living
standards. The Indian Interior Design market was estimated to be worth USD
23.2 Billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 38.2 Billion by 2027, at a CAGR
of 7.4% during 2021-2027.
Impact of COVID-19 on the industry- COVID-19 has drastically impacted the
economy affecting households, businesses, financial institutions, etc.,
negatively. The pandemic has affected India’s construction and engineering
projects to a great extent that many projects were canceled during the
lockdown imposed in the country to curb the spread of the virus. Thus, the
crisis negatively affected the country’s construction industry, therefore
reducing the demand for interior design as well.

Introduction:
HomeLane is one of the leading interior designing companies and furnishings
marketplace. The company was founded in 2014 by Srikanth Iyer and has its
headquarters in Bengaluru, India. It’s a Bangalore-based startup that helps
people manage home renovations and interior design. It is backed by the
former professional Indian cricketer who was the captain of the Indian Cricket
team- MS Dhoni. HomeLane has caused a radical change in the interior design
sector by integrating the key streams of design, functionality, and high-end
technology. The company provides its customers with a one-stop shop for all
their interior design needs, from design to delivery, installation, and post-
installation services. One of the USPs of the HomeLane co-creation platform is
how it enables its customers to interact with the designers and make changes
to the design. The designers at HomeLane are specialized in home interior
designs and home décor, which helps the customers to create a personalized
home to suit their lifestyles. All the products come with up to a ten-year
warranty along with support and maintenance services. It also helps property
owners furnish and install fixtures in their new apartments, or houses or while
renewing their houses. Interior designers are local to customers and supply
chain partners have the capacity to ship to a location. The company has
established 34 experience centers in 19 Indian cities, so consumers can touch
and see materials and furniture. The site of the company allows property
owners to upload floor plans, which are reviewed by interior designers in turn.

History:
The interior design sector in India has faced an immense number of problems
like sub-standard work quality, unexplained delays, high costs, etc., and has
remained highly unorganized. The founder of HomeLane- Srikanth Iyer had the
same experience while he was trying to set up his home. Since Iyer was not
satisfied with the quality and efficiency of services, he decided onto bringing
corporate standards to the interior design sector. This is how the idea of
HomeLane came and the company was then launched in the year 2014.
Owning to its customer-friendly services, HomeLane has grown immensely in
the last few years. The company offers a 45-day installation guarantee and also
it provides 5 years of warranty on installations, which turns out to be really
beneficial for its customers. The company has served roughly more than 20000
customers through its experience centers. The company has expanded its
business to 25+ cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad,
Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida, Pune, Kolkata, Indore, Mysore, Coimbatore,
Thane, etc. The company will eventually expand its operations to other cities
as well in the upcoming years.

Vision: HomeLane brings together functionality and aesthetics to provide home

owners with customized and efficient home designs. Designers specialized in
home decor and home interior designs, help to create a personalized home to
suit your lifestyle.
Objectives:
HomeLane’s major objective is to build the most trusted and customer centric
home interiors brand. While handling design, delivery, installation and post-
installation services, HomeLane ensures three objectives- transparency,
convenience and predictability. HomeLane promises its customers
personalized and customized interiors with transparency and timely
deliverability, helping them to avoid the hassles of dealing with an unorganized
workforce. The company’s main target is middle-class homes, which stay away
from expensive interior designers and end up hiring contractors, with
unpredictable time frames. HomeLane tries to eliminate all the hurdles in the
interior process by making it personalized, predictable and within the range of
its customers.

Strategies:
1. Gaining customer’s trust in a largely unpredictable segment-
 Guarantee of a 45 day delivery- HomeLane promises delivery as
well as the installation of the project within 45 days, failing which
they will pay the customer house rent for the extended period.
This is one of the first kind of commitment made by a company in
the interior design sector in India.
 After sales service with 5 years warranty- HomeLane offers a
warranty period of 5 years after sales service, which makes it one
of the few companies offering such a long warranty period on
customized products.
2. Building a strong team-
 HomeLane creates an open communication environment for its
employees. Also it believes in being sensitive to its employee’s
needs. This has translated directly into creating a predictable
environment for its customers as well.
 In order to maintain a healthy work-life balance, the company
offers flexible working hours, best leave policies, laptops,
complimentary off in case as employee works on weekends, and
gives employees opportunities to work from home (WFM) which
has encouraged employees to join the organization. Female
 employees aren’t encouraged to work late nights, but if in any
case they have to, the company ensures that they reach back
safely and inform their manager via text. Team outings and parties
are some of the other boosters to motivate employees to have a
long-lasting relationship with the company.
 HomeLane has also partnered with #HomeDecorMoms, providing
an opportunity for mothers to work as interior designers
according to their own convenience and let HomeLane execute
the work, sparing them the coordination with the work force.
3. Digitized process of interacting with customers-
 Website- HomeLane has created categories from vast range and
variety of options out there. Customers can choose based on
various categories such as design type, size and cost. For example
when customers go for a modular kitchen they have very less idea
of the vast range of kitchen accessories available out there in the
market, making them choose from only those options displayed in
the showroom or else they just leave the decision to the
contactor. But HomeLane uses their website to showcase a wide
variety of kitchen accessories with descriptions, letting customers
to make the right choice according to their needs. Also by getting
instant costs, customers can tailor their choices, by adding or
deleting items to fit their budget, which in turn saves them
valuable time and energy that is generally taken by going back and
forth during discussions in a showroom. It is therefore not
surprising that their website draws in majority of their online
traffic that is somewhat close to 40%.
 Kaliedo- Mostly customers find it very difficult to visualize the final
look. To make that easy for its customers, HomeLane has
introduced Kaliedo. It’s a virtual-reality based device that uses
Google Cardboard which provides users with an immersive
experience into a virtual world where it’s very easy to choose
between colors, finishes, countertops, flooring options,
appliances, etc.
 Whatsapp- In order to deliver in a predictable manner, HomeLane
uses Whatsapp to keep their customers updated with the progress
at their site.
 Social media- HomeLane uses Facebook, Google plus, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter in order to put up their latest
offerings and hold competitions. Their social media generates
about 21% of their online traffic out of which Facebook plays the
major role since it accounts for almost 99% of the traffic
generated.
 SEO and SEM- The traffic generated by HomeLane from search
engine is almost 23%, which is greater than that which is
generated through their social media. Their paid search generates
almost the same amount of traffic as created by their organic
search.