nousDECOR® Announces Funding, Launches Partnership with Dwell Store and Unveils Improved Product Shopping and Discovery Experience
Backed by $2.1 million from several Silicon Valley social media pioneers, nousDECOR revamps site with features to benefit users and retailers.
SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- nousDECOR®, the first comprehensive, community-curated interior design and décor site, today announced it has raised $2.1 million in seed funding from several prominent angel investors and social media pioneers from YouTube and Facebook, including Chris Kelly, Jennifer Carrico and Kathy Clark.
Backed with this capital infusion, nousDECOR has also unveiled a redesigned site that includes an enhanced and contextualized product discovery and shopping experience for users, as well as an interface for retailers to upload their products onto the site to increase sales and exposure. In addition, the San Mateo-based startup has introduced a partnership with Dwell Media to feature and integrate products from the Dwell Store—the e-commerce arm of Dwell, which launched in November 2013 and provides home furnishings and décor items for the discerning modernist.
"Through my career as an entrepreneur and an investor, I've seen firsthand the power of social community and curation to disrupt and transform industries and consumer experiences," said Chris Kelly, who has backed such startups as social networking site, Path and Galavantier, an online travel company specializing in curated experience packages. "With nousDECOR, we have the opportunity to bring community and curation to one of the last verticals yet to embrace them – home décor and interior design."
Dwell Partnership
In the first partnership of its kind for nousDECOR, the Dwell Store collection will be featured and promoted throughout the nousDECOR site. nousDECOR will integrate Dwell Store items in curated moodboards, blog content and within user search results.
"We believe the future of online interior design lies in the hands of the consumer, and is directed in many ways by social media and online community," explained Dwell Media President and CEO Michela O'Connor Abrams. "nousDECOR combines social curation and the power of crowd-sourced inspiration with tools for product discovery and shopping in a fresh and compelling way, which is why they are one of a few companies Dwell has selected to partner with thus far."
nousDECOR 2.0
Shopping for décor and furnishings on nousDECOR is now a much richer and layered experience for users. Instead of just a simple pop-up window when you click on an item in a moodboard that only lists price and has a link back to the retailer's check-out page, now users who click on an item are directed to a full product page that shows how that product has been styled in various moodboards created on the site. The product page will also display a variety of "Similar Items" – products similar in style, category, color and dimensions but at a range of price points.
In addition to the new Product Page, nousDECOR has added the ability to choose paint colors when creating a moodboard in the "Create" section of the site. nousDECOR has also introduced a new Inspiration page that shows how other users have interpreted one look in many different ways. The company has also overhauled its popular blog, reorganizing all posts into three categories: "Styling", "Expert" and "Community."
For retailers and furniture or décor brands, the newly designed nousDECOR site now provides a tool to easily upload a catalog of items to the site, providing the opportunity for enhanced exposure and sales to the nousDECOR community.
"nousDECOR aims to revolutionize the world of interior design by bringing together a complete discovery and shopping experience that no other site has yet been able to achieve," explains nousDECOR Founder & CEO Heather Gillette. "We provide community-curated design solutions – not just the ideas and inspiration available in many places. Pulling it all together – the discovery and translation into reality – is the hard part nobody else has solved in home décor until now."
Designers Joining the Community
Since launching in late March, nousDECOR has steadily gained momentum with consumers and design professionals. Today, in addition to Chief Designer Mark Cutler, several high profile designers have begun uploading their images on the site and creating moodboards, including Philip Gorrivan, Gillian Lefkowitz, Adam Hunter, and Philip Nimmo.
"It's been our mission from day one to bring the transformative power of design to as many people as possible, because we truly believe that creating a beautiful, personalized home or work space can truly change lives," explains nousDECOR Chief Designer Mark Cutler. "It's been exciting to see others in the professional design world joining our community, contributing inspiration and sharing insights with users."
About nousDECOR
nousDECOR® (www.nousdecor.com) is an interior design and home decor site that combines crowd-sourced ideas and inspiration with search tools and automated recommendations to provide users with everything they need to decorate a space, regardless of budget or level of expertise. Unlike other home décor sites or remodeling apps, nousDECOR provides much more than beautiful images and links to products, but also all the resources and tools you need to translate dream designs into reality. From intelligent search tools that enable users to search for décor items by dimension, color and category, to recommendations of "Same Look Different Price" décor items, to tools for creating moodboards using found and existing images and products, nousDECOR offers a start-to-finish interior design solution that mimics the way we decorate our homes in the real world. In addition, the site offers a host of exclusive expert content from celebrity designer Mark Cutler, as well as an active community of design enthusiasts and other design professionals to seek out for advice, inspiration and collaboration. For more information about the company, please visit: nousdecor.com/press.
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