Top 10 Things to Know Before Selling on Houzz

Houzz is the fourth biggest third-party sales online marketplace in the US, with currently more than 20,000 active sellers. 

Choosing the right marketplace for your business depends on your budget, requirements and business goals. So before making this decision, we’ll walk you through you some of the things that you should know before selling on Houzz.

Related Reading: Sales Channels Outside of Amazon

What Is Houzz?

In the beginning, Houzz started as a content platform for home decor lovers and designers and also as a library with photographs and tips of decorated spaces and products. 

Now Houzz is a marketplace not just for goods but for services. This platform focused on home improvement and renovations with more than 900 product categories that bring home design professionals together with people renovating their homes.

Basically, Houzz is a social media platform and a directory of professionals in the home improvement sector. The majority of its users are homeowners who already have project ideas in their minds or are searching for products that they want to buy.

On Houzz, you can navigate between 4 categories: 

• Get ideas – where you navigate through a photograph portal. Besides, products in these photographs are tagged with the products presented in it or similar products are advertised.
• Find professionals – a directory of all the professionals available on Houzz and categorized by profession.
• Shop by department – a catalogue of all the products available in Houzz, divided by categories and with a filter bar option.
• Sale – this section is dedicated to those products that are on sale. 

How Does Houzz Work?

In Houzz, you can find more than 1,500,000 interior photographs, that is precisely where the power of this app is. 

If you're looking to redesign your living room, Houzz allows you to browse photos of other good design living. The power for ecommerce sellers is that if you sell items similar to the ones shown in the photograph, you can promote your products there.

The app is not only limited to photographs. You can browse an extensive gallery of products perfectly classified according to their function (beds, mirrors, shelves…) to find directly what the customer is looking for and visit IdeaBooks, open posts, and a contact list of professionals.

Another of the great advantages of the application is that it allows you to visualize how the products look in your own room. You just have to take or choose a photo of the place you want to redesign and you place the different items on the photo you took, adapting them to the dimensions, like the example above.

How Is Houzz Different From Other Marketplaces? 

They’re the only comprehensive platform, where people get inspired and also they know what materials have been used in each project, the brand, product information and they can also hire these professionals.

Another smart feature that this app has is that sellers can add tags to their space design photos that reveal details about cost, where it can be purchased, and whether it’s available online.

Besides, as a merchant, being active in the advice sections with articles and by joining the discussions is an important part of connecting with new customers (a feature that other marketplaces like Amazon don’t have).

There’s no doubt that Amazon is the giant of ecommerce. Currently, Amazon is nearly half of all ecommerce sales channels in the US but, Houzz can be a viable sales channel and can be significant for you, depending on your niche and industry.

Who Can Sell on Houzz?

Houzz it’s open to international sellers, so this being said, this means anyone can sell on this platform. 

As a business owner, you can create your own profile where you can include all the relevant information about your services and products. 

The sellers should be those who offer products or services that focus on home decor, remodelling and design, so if you meet the needs of Houzz’s users you can start selling on this platform.

If your business category appears in the field “professional category”, then you’ll be able to open an account with Houzz.

What Can You Sell on Houzz?

Being that Houzz is a marketplace specializing in home renovation and design, you can sell home decor, furniture, supplies, and anything else that can be needed for the home space. However, to list products on Houzz all sellers must be approved, regardless of product category. So first, you will need to apply to become a registered user.

In addition, some products are prohibited in all cases.

How Product Listings and Fulfillment works on Houzz?

When you sell on Houzz, customers can purchase items sold directly by Houzz or by third-party sellers who list their products for sale on the marketplace.

You can create listings via the Seller Central dashboard. All products must meet certain criteria in order to be processed for approval. 

Also, Houzz sellers are responsible for sourcing, fulfilling and shipping the products they sell. 

Sellers have to make sure that they meet some requirements such as: provide shipping estimates,  print and include the Houzz packing shipment, include all Houzz-supplied packaging materials and provide tracking information among other things.

Is There a Way to Pay for Advertising on Houzz?

When customers browse different design ideas that they like, there are links to items that you can buy there, you can see that some of these links have more exposure than other ones. Having exposure is difficult when you are surrounded by thousands of competitors.

You can pay to advertise on Houzz if you upgrade to Houzz Pro, getting more benefits and program options, like ads in photo stream, ads in advice and stories sections, analytics, and several others. 

What are the Fees to Sell on Houzz?

While creating a company listing on Houzz’s professional local directory is completely free, this platform also offers Houzz Pro, where you can choose between 4 different plans: 

• Basic plan (free)
• Starter plan ($55 per month)
• Essential plan ($75 per month) 
• Ultimate ($199-$999+/month per market). 

Some of the features of these subscriptions allow businesses more visibility on the site and offer advertising options and a metrics report that tracks company photo activity on the site.

In addition to this fee, each Houzz seller is charged a 15% selling fee per sold product, basically the same as selling on Amazon.

Other fees that you should keep in mind if you are thinking of selling on Houzz are the non-compliance fees – for those sellers with substandard fulfillment. What issues can result in paying these fees?

• If you ship the customer’s order after the maximum stated lead time ($12/order).
• If you provide the customer with an invalid or missing tracking number ($2/tracking number).
• If you cancel an order because it is out of stock ($15/order).
• If you cancel an order because you couldn’t ship it ($25/order).

How Much Traffic Does Houzz Get?

For a marketplace that’s focused on selling only renovations and furniture, Houzz is taking spot #1,802 in the global rank, as compared to all other sites.

Although it is clear which are its biggest competitors. Amazon ranks take position #12 in the global rank, eBay position #29 and Etsy position #61, compared to Houzz, which ranks at #1,802.

It’s no surprise that Amazon and eBay are at the top, with Amazon pulling in nearly 2.47 billion visits per month, eBay getting 947.4 million and Etsy 392.38 million visits per month, while Houzz only receives 23.78 million visits per month.

However,  a channel such as Houzz can be used simply to support conversion rates on any other marketplace such as Amazon or eBay. 

Houzz is a niche-dependent sales channel, resulting in very strong sales if your product assortment matches this channel’s target market.

Unlike Amazon, a huge benefit of Houzz is that this platform links a business’s profile to their own website, allowing business owners to gain an increase in their website and blog traffic.

But for it, you will have to constantly improve your profile, since SEO is a process of optimizing and it will take a while until Google recognizes the content quality and reviews of your Houzz’s profile. Also, some of the top social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest are sending traffic to Houzz.

Pros and Cons of Selling on Houzz

Before you start selling on Houzz, you should consider some of the pros and cons of using this platform to determine if it’s worth it.

Conclusion

In the last few years, Houzz has grown roughly and become one of the biggest marketplaces after Amazon, eBay and Walmart.

For sellers in the sector of home improvement and decorating, Houzz is a good option to start with.

Do you already have a profile on Houzz? Tell us in the section comments below what experiences you have had with your brand on this platform.