DecorBase
The Business Need
decorBase is part of a growing online industry that brings together all who are interested in interior design as well as decorators themselves. decorbase.com is the perfect tool for interior designers, design bloggers and anyone looking to spruce up a room in their home. Before Plasma, decorBase was only an idea. Pete McCarthy and Alaina Kaczmarski came to Plasma to turn that idea into a reality. They wanted to create a sleek and modern platform where users and designers could find everything necessary and desirable for their designing needs.
To fully realize their vision, decorBase would need to have a custom web application developed, designed and launched as a collaborative space for users, designers and home goods vendors. This custom web application would need to bring together a large amount of material and information in a uniform and user friendly way. The website would need to include three major sections of use: shopping, inspiration board personalization, and hirable interior decorator profiles.
The Solution
Plasma began developing the home goods website wherein third party products and product details will be passed to the website via API or similar method and listed as searchable products. decorBase has created partnerships with furniture and home goods retailers to provide their products to feed into the decorBase website through API or flat file scraping. In this way, users can search and browse aggregated vendors and purchase the products through the specific retailer.
There are over 10,000 items available for search from over 30 online home goods shops such as IKEA, Z Gallery and Ashley Furniture. Additionally, interior designers can use the tool to create design inspiration boards where products are arranged and saved on a canvas and published out to their customers. This allows designers to create a best-of breed room for their clients without the constraints of shopping at a single store. The inspiration board has many user-friendly features such as resizing, personal uploading, and drag and drop. Plasma helped decorBase turn their dream into a reality by developing a customized web application that met all necessary requirements.
The Impact
Shortly after the site was officially launched, it was purchased by a competitor for an undisclosed amount, proving that not only was the idea innovative and worthy, but the execution and implementation by Plasma was a huge success. The site contains a shop feature that enables users to search and purchase decor items from a multitude of home goods stores from across the web.
If users are feeling a bit indecisive, they can visit the create page which includes an inspiration board to see how pieces work together in a room (the perfect solution for those struggling with complicated software like Photoshop and CAD). The site also gives users the ability to browse the database and hire an interior decorator that can tailor a room to their exact specifications. Plasma satisfied all business needs uncovered and, most importantly, helped turn the decorBase idea into a successful reality.