New home interior service to generate 15% of Urban Ladder’s Revenue

Urban ladder which competes with furniture etailer Pepperfry, plans to introduce Home Interior Solutions to its portfolio next month. This new segment is expected to create around 15% of Urban ladder’s total revenue over the next 12 months.

Urban Ladder has set an ambitious target to reach Rs, 1,000 revenue by next year, so it is betting big on the new category. To put things in greater perspective, Up to Rs. 20,000 is the average amount spent on new furniture, while a new home interior solution can cost customers as much as Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Plan of Action

Operations will be rolled out in Bengaluru and within two months Mumbai is set to follow. Urban ladder is currently present in 19 cities and eventually the home interior service will slowly reach out to all these pin codes. Furthermore, Urban Ladder plans to tie up with builders, as it is targeting new home owners who are looking to refurbish. Products that Urban Ladder does not stock, will be obtained from other companies.

“This business has better margin structure, but it is very tough to scale. About one-third of our senior management bandwidth is working on urban interior solutions,” said Ashish Goel, co-founder & Chief executive, Urban Ladder.

• 70 Urban Ladder employees are working on this project

• Rs.12-15 crore is expected to be invested over the next year

• Forecasts to complete 150 projects per month

“A customer who buys furniture, will buy other home-related products. So, the message is, if you are buying furniture, we will take care of some of your other requirements. This also helps to retain existing customers as it is not easy to get repeat users in this category, at least in the short-term,” stated Harish H.V., partner at Grant Thornton India.