ScS: Leveraging consumer content to provide home design inspiration and democratise interior design

UK furniture brand ScS has integrated User Generated Content into their site to display their products in an authentic way and create a wealth of practical design suggestions for their clients. Read on to learn more about how Flowbox complements the brand’s marketing efforts.

Numbers

The Story

ScS is a UK furniture chain that has grown exponentially over the years. In fact, they are now listed on the London Stock Exchange. They sell sofas, flooring, and furniture, which are guaranteed to be of high quality as demonstrated by the BSI Kitemark they have been awarded for domestic furniture. They place a lot of value on the relationship between their colleagues and their customers, and those who buy their products can expect nothing but the best customer service before, during, and after they have made their purchase.

The challenge

The challenge for ScS was to get past the conventional imagery used in marketing furniture and to move towards a model that provides practical design suggestions for potential customers. Gathering an authentic form of content was an option that was appealing to their brand as it helps them to market based on their corporate values.

“For our customers, it’s about helping them find a product that suits their style as well as their needs. Our traditional website imagery does a great job of showing what our products are, but they don’t offer the inspiration that’s often needed to turn a browser into a shopper. That’s where UGC is so beneficial. Seeing a sofa or piece of furniture in a real-life setting, especially when it mirrors your own style, not only inspires, but it also reduces the perceived risk when buying a high-ticket item.”

Katrina Bhowruth, Social and Content Manager at ScS

The brand prides themselves on adding value to consumers’ lives by offering quality products for their homes. ScS don’t view their products as an isolated piece of furniture in a person’s home, but rather as a piece of the puzzle. Their products need to mesh well with several elements like existing home furniture, interior decoration, as well as the lifestyle of the people using them. 

“It’s about giving people cues on how they could style their current furniture, or how a new piece could fit into their current set-up, or giving them fresh ideas if they’re starting from scratch.”

Katrina Bhowruth, Social and Content Manager at ScS

Interior design is not an area of expertise that feels accessible to everyone – for some, buying or styling a new piece of furniture is a daunting task. Minor purchases that consumers make day to day might feel less significant, take items of food or home cleaning supplies for example, it is likely that these purchases will repeat themselves, and if something goes wrong they can always choose better next time. It stands to reason then that the much longer lifespan of well-made items of furniture makes this a niche that requires a different marketing or social media approach.

“I think interior design can be a bit scary to a lot of people, especially when you see all the experts doing it so well. They’re able to marry all the colours and the textures and pieces of furniture together and you think, ‘How do I even start doing that?’. Seeing how others style their rooms allows people to see that they can do it too. It helps to democratise interior design as well.”

Katrina Bhowruth, Social and Content Manager at ScS

The solution

“The main benefit of having UGC on the website is two-fold: firstly, it not only provides inspiration to our customers so they can visualise how products will look in their homes but, secondly, each image is a great independent product recommendation.” 

Katrina Bhowruth, Social and Content Manager at ScS

Happy customers can easily tag their social media content with the hashtag #myScShome and the website also currently boasts a beautiful customer gallery page. Flowbox has not only helped ScS to gather more trustworthy images for consumers to relate to, but it also has potential as a strategic tool moving forward. 

“Our new mission is ‘helping create the home you love’. And obviously, UGC plays a massive part in that because we’re showing people how they can create a home they love with our products.” 

Katrina Bhowruth, Social and Content Manager at ScS

Flowbox can be utilized to democratise a specific niche for potential customers. In the same way that making interior design decisions can be an overwhelming process for some, price points also need to be justified. The questions being asked here are: ‘Why would I pay X amount of money on this item of furniture? Does the pricing mean that the product will be reliable?’.

“Buying a new sofa or piece of furniture for your home is an investment and decision-making can take a long time. You want to get the best value for your money and seeing the product recommended by someone else is proof of this. If others see the value in the product then you are more likely to.”

Katrina Bhowruth, Social and Content Manager at ScS

Results