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I’m an Influencer
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In the world of interior design and furniture retail, inspiration drives purchase. Consumers don’t just buy a sofa: they imagine it in their home, styled just right, in a room that feels like them. This makes user-generated content (UGC) uniquely powerful in this space: nothing builds confidence like seeing a real customer’s living room featuring the exact piece you’re considering.
For the Polish furniture and interior accessories retailer 9design, tapping into that dynamic was a clear strategic priority. By partnering with the Flowbox UGC platform, the brand has embedded authentic community content across its entire website, turning real customer moments into a powerful driver of trust and discovery.
This month, we’re spotlighting 9design as our Flowboxer of the Month, and exploring how their UGC strategy brings the Polish design community to life online.
9design is one of Poland’s leading destinations for high-quality indoor furniture and interior accessories. With a curated selection spanning living rooms, dining spaces, bedrooms, and home offices, the brand serves both individual consumers and interior design professionals, making community and inspiration central to everything they do.
“We wanted to showcase our products not only through professional images provided by manufacturers, but also in real interiors created by our customers. User-generated content is authentic and inspiring, and it helps people imagine how a particular piece of furniture, lamp, or decorative accessory could look in their own home”.
Katarzyna Widera-Szklanny, Marketing & PR Specialist at 9design
Placing UGC galleries in the right locations across your website is essential, as their impact varies depending on where users find them.
One of the most powerful places to set UGC is on your brand’s homepage. From the first sight on 9design’s site, users are greeted with a dynamic feed of community content showing real interiors, featuring the brand’s products that communicate the brand’s aesthetic and sets the tone for the browsing experience.
Two other key places to showcase UGC are your Product Pages and Community Page. On product pages, UGC complements professional product photography with authentic customer images that help shoppers visualise products in real homes. This real-world context builds trust and increases purchase confidence.
On the other hand, a dedicated community page brings all customer content together in one inspiring gallery. It celebrates your community while encouraging visitors to explore, engage, and discover new products.
But 9design takes its UGC strategy a step further with a dedicated designer page featuring projects from architectural studios and interior design professionals. Each image includes shoppable product tags, allowing visitors to click directly through to the featured product page.
This approach showcases products in professionally designed spaces, adding another layer of inspiration and credibility. It also bridges the gap between discovery and purchase by making every featured product instantly accessible. As a result, customers can explore curated designs while shopping for the exact pieces they admire.
“Our goals were to increase customer engagement, build a community around the 9design brand, and strengthen trust in our online store. We also wanted to make it easier for customers to discover products through inspiring real-life interiors and, ultimately, support their purchasing decisions.”
Katarzyna Widera-Szklanny, Marketing & PR Specialist at 9design
9design also extends its UGC implementation to its showroom page, where authentic customer photos bring the in-store experience to life online. By showcasing the space through real customer content, the page gives visitors a genuine preview of what they can expect before they visit.
This helps bridge the gap between digital browsing and the physical retail experience while building excitement and trust.
The furniture industry is one of the most deliberate, highest-consideration categories in eCommerce. Purchases are significant investments, deeply personal, and difficult to evaluate from studio photography alone. Consumers need to imagine a piece in their own space with their lighting, flooring, and existing furniture before they feel confident enough to buy.
UGC fills that gap. When a potential buyer sees a real customer’s apartment featuring the sofa they’re eyeing, or a design professional’s project built around a 9design table, it does something no product image can: it makes the purchase feel real and achievable. Social proof in the furniture category doesn’t just build trust; it actively reduces the mental friction between browsing and buying.
“We can already see that UGC is enriching our website with more authentic and inspiring content. It helps us present our products more effectively and encourages greater customer engagement. We are still developing this area, but the results achieved so far confirm that the solution is supporting the goals we set at the beginning.”
Katarzyna Widera-Szklanny, Marketing & PR Specialist at 9design
For 9design, which serves both everyday shoppers and a professional design community, UGC also signals credibility. When interior architects and studios publicly showcase 9design products in their work, it validates the brand’s quality positioning in a way that traditional marketing simply cannot replicate.
How can you collect content your clients have mentioned or tagged you in on social media? You first need to secure the user’s rights and request permission to use their content. 9design encourages its community to tag the brand using the hashtag #9design or by mentioning @9design_pl.
Obtaining permission for user-generated content is essential for brands on multiple levels. It strengthens content security by ensuring compliance with legal frameworks and helps prevent potential copyright or ownership disputes.
“Flowbox caught our attention because of its comprehensive solution and strong fit with the needs of e-commerce businesses. It was important for us to be able to easily collect, moderate, and display content shared by customers on social media, as well as connect that content with specific products from our range.”
Katarzyna Widera-Szklanny, Marketing & PR Specialist at 9design
Securing clear consent supports legal compliance and reduces risk exposure while protecting the integrity of the brand’s content strategy. It also ensures brands have defined usage rights across channels (e.g., website, ads, social media) and clarifies how long and where content can be used.
“During the selection process, we were particularly impressed by the platform’s intuitive interface, the visual quality of the displayed content, and the flexibility of the implementation. The experience of the Flowbox team and the support they offered throughout every stage of the process were also important factors in our decision.”
Katarzyna Widera-Szklanny, Marketing & PR Specialist at 9design
Many brands formalise this process through direct requests or UGC management tools, allowing them to track consent and manage permissions efficiently. In addition, having explicit permission builds trust with creators, making them more likely to continue engaging with and contributing content to the brand. It also improves operational efficiency by streamlining content approvals and reducing legal friction when scaling UGC campaigns across multiple platforms.
For further information, read our article User Generated Content Permission, Rights, Laws & Legal Issues to explore the topic in more detail.
9design’s recognition as this month’s Flowboxer of the Month reflects the strength of a clear and committed UGC strategy. By integrating authentic community content across different pages on the website, the brand has created a shopping experience that is as inspiring as it is trustworthy.
For furniture and interior brands looking to deepen their connection with customers, 9design offers a compelling model: invest in the community around your products, make their content visible throughout the journey, and let real people tell the story that converts browsers into buyers. Explore how other furniture and interior brands are using UGC to drive engagement, build trust, and increase sales.
Ready to start leveraging your community’s content? Click here to book a demo of our UGC platform and get started today!
