Urban Indians cooped up at home through three waves of the pandemic are spending big on home decor and furnishing, tempting domestic and international home retailers to expand their collections. Britain’s Marks & Spencer and Sweden’s H&M this week launched home furnishings and décor collections in India, underscoring demand in the home category, including furniture.
M&S introduced its homeware collection including bed linen, cushions, dinnerware and mugs in India, while H&M is offering a similar range on its online portal as well as e-commerce marketplace Myntra. Last year, Asian Paints began offering home furnishings solutions. Homegrown start-ups too have started selling a range of products. Also, Sweden’s Ikea is currently ramping up its investments with plans to open both large and small format stores, a shopping centre, and online stores across cities.
At its homeware launch in India recently, James Munson, Managing Director of Marks & Spencer Reliance India said it is the right time to enter the market as consumers are spending more time at home and looking to upgrade their living space. “In line with the market trend for more homes shopping online, and our own omni-channel strategy, we’re introducing this collection across selected stores, our flagship website, Ajio and Myntra,” Munson said.
H&M’s home products range includes small decor items, dinnerware and linen products for living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and kids’ room. The products will also be available at its Ambience Mall store in New Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. The company attributed the launch timing to an overall interest in home-related products.
“So, we feel this is a great opportunity we would want to capitalize on and offer great home products to Indian consumers,” Amit Kothari, Regional Marketing and Communications Manager, South Asia, H&M, said.
“With people having rediscovered their homes during lockdowns, the demand growth is here to stay. Home decor is going to get segmented like fashion market, into luxury, affordable luxury, premium and so on, to mass. So far, it was just branded and unbranded. Now, branded share will grow and within that, different segments as above will emerge,” said Harminder Sahni, Founder and Managing Director, Wazir Advisors.
In 2021, Asian Paints said it is transforming into a home décor company offering wallpapers, hard furniture and design solutions, besides its core paint products. It currently has a network of 18 Beautiful Home stores.
