“Would we love everyone to hire an interior designer and an architect? 100%. “Our #1 goal is to make sure we’re not interfering with the ability for people to hire designers when they’re excited about their work,” Liza Hausman, Houzz's VP of industry marketing, tells AD PRO. While free online services-like Houzz, decor app Hutch, or even Pinterest-that attract millions of users may seem like a threat to professional designers, there’s also the possibility that many of these users wouldn’t have hired a designer in the first place. Ultimately, the standoff has touched on one of the deepest challenges in the design industry today: More and more homeowners are looking online for ways to improve their spaces, but there are now many avenues for inspiration, instruction, and sourcing beyond the traditional model of hiring a designer. “People mark photos they like and then notice that many of them are mine, and they see that commonality and reach out saying, ‘I saw this pattern and I thought I’d give you a call,’” says Abrams. "For somebody in New York to say, 'I want to work with a Chicago designer is amazing,'" says Abrams, who believes his activity and large following give him a leg up outside his Pro Plus zone (Abrams has also secured clients from Seattle, Baltimore, and New York through the site and has fielded inquiries from locales as far-flung as Dubai). Promotion through Pro Plus is divided by geographical area, and starts at $200 per month per area. Over the years, I’ve gotten about 11,700 followers." This has translated into several clients, including many from cities outside of Chicago, where Abrams advertises his services through Pro Plus, Houzz's paid marketing program. “I had a profile up early on and was involved in the initial launch and I’ve also been very participatory in the questions section. ”It’s been incredible for my practice,” Chicago-based designer Michael Abrams tells AD PRO. The site has a healthy faction of designers who find its services to be valuable ways to market themselves-and find clients. “It’s in Houzz’s best interest to access that data and utilize to their advantage so they can market and sell to a very motivated target audience.” “There is no incentive for Houzz and IvyMark to maintain separate databases of client information, and no laws preventing it either,” Hyman says. Designers who trusted IvyMark to help them store and manage sensitive information like customer data and invoices now worry that Houzz could turn around and leverage that data to drive their own sales at the expense of a designer’s existing business. Though these concerns have existed for quite some time, the IvyMark acquisition reignited them. This concern is the root of the frustrations of many designers, who saw Houzz’s move to becoming an e-commerce platform (the site started selling through its Marketplace in 2014) as a sort of betrayal. I disliked the idea of seeing the two platforms together, merging the inspirational pictures from our projects as a way to sell their products.” However, then Houzz started selling furniture and home decor items, mixing images from designer projects and their items for sale. “I received a lot of positive feedback and exposure from this feature. “I saw this as a way of connecting our interior design business with potential clients and promoting our work,” Kraiem tells AD PRO. In 2014, Kraiem was excited that a Houzz photographer shot a room she designed for a show house, featuring it on the website.
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