Leading online interior design platform Designbx has been named a finalist in the 2018 NSW Telstra Business Awards in the ‘Emerging and Energising’ category. An industry disruptor, this very impressive hat tip recognises the impact that the company has had on the interior design industry.
Designbx was launched in 2016 by businesswomen Kerena Berry, Kylie Pratt and Emily Carding, connecting homeowners and small business with interior designers who compete to style their homes. Created to be affordable, flexible and fun, the egalitarian platform was designed to put interior design within everyone’s reach.
“We’ve built a 100 per cent online marketplace where you can collaborate with amazing designers and choose from a huge catalogue of furniture and homewares to create amazing spaces. From our online style quiz all the way through to our personal shopper service, we’ve made it an incredibly intuitive process to ensure every Australian can have access to professional design,” says co-founder Kerena Berry.
“By migrating all the best features of professional design to an online platform, Designbx brings design packages well within the budget of most Australians and our industry discounts mean our clients can save thousands on furniture and homewares,” says Kerena of the platform that also offers 60 day post-project support.
As for the company’s recent Telstra win, it’s certainly no mean feat – to be a finalist, Designbx had to be in the top 25 of 5,000 applications in New South Wales. “Although entering the awards took a lot of time, I would highly recommend it to any other business owner to have a go. No matter the outcome, we viewed entering the awards as a way of being able to stop and reflect upon what we’d achieved. When you’re building a new business, you seldom get a chance to do that so this kind of forced us but in a good way. We were able to reflect on our successes and celebrate our achievements, and this was an inspiring process. It made us so proud,” says Kerena.
“An aspect of the business the judges singled out was our commitment to innovation and customer experience improvements, as we reinvest 25 per cent of gross profit into product development. We are continuing to grow our partnerships with designers, manufacturers and other suppliers to grow our product catalogue of 50,000 products, to continue to offer clients a diverse range of bespoke and mainstream products. Our client base is continuing to expand geographically, with incredible projects being delivered by designers in all states of Australia.”
The company has a charitable focus too. “For every home that we transform, it allows us to give back to the community. We are currently committed to the Pledge 1% movement, and support organisations such as Bear Cottage who tirelessly provide respite to families facing terminal illness. We have a strong vision to expand this year on year, and it’s a very big personal driver for all three of us,” says Kerena.
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