What is Houzz? Houzz Review

introduce

Houzz is a home decoration design community from Silicon Valley. It creates and promotes the most fashionable home decoration concepts by organically combining designers, photographers and owners. It is known as the "Wikipedia of Home Decoration".

As of the end of 2016, Houzz has entered localized platforms in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Singapore and India, and overseas traffic has increased to 45%.

value

For Chinese users, Houzz's greatest value is to provide examples of various styles of home furnishings for reference when decorating. According to functional areas, Houzz provides examples of kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and dining rooms.

Settlement Fees

1. Rent: Monthly ($39.95 USD) or Yearly ($379 USD -20% savings);

2. Commission: 18% regardless of category;

3. Transaction fees: Once you establish your Merchant Plan, OpenSky will charge corresponding fees for each of your transactions: 15% transaction fee and 3% credit card fee.

Receiving Payments

OpenSky pays out every half month. For orders placed before the 15th of each month, payment will be made at the end of the month. For orders placed after the 15th, payment will be made on the 15th of the following month. If payment is made on a weekend or holiday, payment will be postponed to the first working day of the following month.

OpenSky will provide rebates for orders sent out by sellers based on the seller's delivery time and order status, but if the customer cancels the order or refunds within a certain period of time, the seller will not be able to enjoy the order rebate provided by OpenSky.

Example:

If a user places an order on January 31st and the seller ships the goods on February 2nd, OpenSky will recognize the order and calculate the rebate into the payment item at the end of the month. If the customer refunds or cancels the order midway, the seller will not be able to enjoy the rebate and the rebate for this order will be reset to zero.

Financing

After receiving its first round of financing in September 2010, Houzz hired top engineers from Google, PayPal and Yahoo, and in November, Houzz's iPad application was launched.

In 2011, Houzz completed a US$11.6 million Series B financing round led by Sequoia Capital.

In January 2013, Houzz completed a $35 million Series C financing round led by NEA and GGV Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Comcast Ventures, KPCB and David Sacks.

In 2014, Houzz announced that it had received $165 million in Series D financing. After the financing, Houzz's valuation exceeded $2.3 billion.

In June 2015, Alibaba Group will sell its US online shopping subsidiary 11 Main to another US online trading platform OpenSky. In exchange, Alibaba will acquire 37.6% of OpenSky's shares.

Main Products

In November 2010, Houzz's iPad app was launched.

At the end of 2012, after the iOS version of the software was downloaded more than 5 million times, the Android system was launched.

In 2013, a new product "Pro+" was launched in 12 urban areas in the United States. This is a paid program for professionals, which allows them to have more visibility in the local area and highlight their work. In essence, Houzz charges advertising fees for this. After the pilot was successful, it was expanded to 425 new markets in the United States and Canada, and the Pro+ dashboard analysis tool (Pro+ Dashboard) was launched to obtain real-time data, clicks, click-through rates and add rates of uploaded photos, which helps professionals optimize their marketing and brand building.

In July 2013, Real Cost Finder was launched, an interactive tool to help users plan home renovations and total costs.

In February 2014, we launched Site Designer, which is provided free of charge to professionals for website construction and publishing.

In 2015, Houzz launched a new feature, Sketch, which allows users to add any product to any photo and seek communication and collaboration with professionals.

In March 2016, Houzz opened its API to third parties and cooperated with Shopify to make it easier for merchants on the platform to sell and manage their inventory; in December, it cooperated with ShipStation to meet the logistics and transportation needs of merchants.

In March 2017, Houzz launched the AR product View in My Room. It selected 300,000 most popular single products (SKUs), such as coffee tables, lamps, etc., and created 3D models for them.

honor

Houzz has been called the "Wikipedia of interior and exterior design" by CNN.

Houzz app is the home improvement app that won Google Play's 2016 Best App Award.

References

• 1. Introduction to Houzz: ifanr website [cited on 2018-03-23]
• 2. The value of Houzz: ifanr website [cited on 2018-03-23]
• 3. Houzz’s financing and product situation: Yiou website [cited on 2018-03-23]