Husband and wife team create new online business boxing up home accessories
A couple with a passion for on trend home accessories has become the very first business in Scotland, and one of only a handful in the UK, to introduce a quarterly subscription box of hand selected, seasonal themed, home décor items to the online marketplace.
Owned and run by married entrepreneurs, Aman and Ranu Kooner, who live in Glasgow, BonnieHame.co.uk is for home loving consumers with its innovative boxes, which, containing at least seven quality items, are supplied four times a year to online subscribers. It also sells a high end capsule collection of furniture which the Kooners, calling on their own Indian heritage, have personally sourced from sustainable manufacturers in Rajasthan in India.
“We’re very excited about BonnieHame which combines our desire to sell beautiful and unusual furniture from artisan producers in our homeland, with what we see as a yet untapped market in home accessory subscription boxes – it’s a huge concept in the States but has not really taken off in the UK,” said Ranu, who explained that the name for their business evolved due to her being the only English person in the household.
“Aman is Scottish, and our two young sons were born here too,” said Ranu. “We were playing about with names for the business which is all about creating a “beautiful home” – straight away Aman said “Oh in Scotland that could be “Bonnie Hame!” We liked it, as we are based in Scotland, and it works well in terms of branding with the letters B and H creating a nice clean logo. Our sub brand is Beautiful Home Interiors, so it all comes together well with a clear message to our target market.”
Ranu explained that she and Aman researched the box concept very carefully prior to launch, “as we wanted to get the look and feel of the boxes just right, as well as the price point.”
“We’re aiming at those who like to refresh their home accessories every season. They want to be shown a curated collection with mix and match items that tell a story. They can keep the whole collection for themselves, or re-gift some of the items to others,” said Ranu.
A future aim to is present collections that are even more themed, or that hero small artisan producers.
“In the American market I discovered boxes containing products handmade in Mexico and the Caribbean for example. Clearly, moving forward, we would love to source beautiful items from other parts of India. These could be offered to our customers as exclusive one off collections.”
As Aman commented, busy consumers are increasingly looking “to have the hard work done for them”, with boxed collections of items hand picked by experts becoming increasingly common in the online marketplace.
“Cosmetics, wine and toiletries are just three categories of products where the concept of a collection every few months is instantly appealing to consumers,” he said. “They can receive products which are just released, or are perhaps exclusive to these brands. Items for the home are a great fit with this, especially as the pandemic has meant consumers have lavished far more love, attention and money on their homes than ever before.”
“We’re coming out of the pandemic now, but online shopping is here to stay. Some people won’t be visiting physical shops as often as they were before. They’re now looking for that brand loyalty online, and we’re well placed to grab a share,” said Aman who acknowledged that Instagram and other social media platforms would play a huge part in helping Bonnie Hame grow.
“Our concept is very visual, so we’re encouraging our customers to share everything on social media to build a community. We want to know how they end up using our products, where in the house they are placed, how they perhaps mix and match with other lines and favourite items they have. We provide our own styling tips with each box too, so we hope that it’s all very engaging.”
Bonnie Hame’s current Summer themed box contains items that are equally at home outside for al fresco dining – very much a theme of the moment – or utilised inside to enhance the extra light and sunshine of this time of the year. The previous Spring box included items to perk up interiors after a long dark winter, as well as some cute and quirky decorative Easter products.
“I loved home accessorising before, but now I’m even more obsessed with it,” said Ranu, who said that also in the pipeline was a gifting box for those who don’t want to subscribe to the full service, but would love to send a Bonnie Hame box as a housewarming present, or a gift marking another special occasion.
“This will launch on our website soon. Other plans include taking the boxes into the corporate market by offering bespoke boxes to housebuilders and developers to give to clients as they take possession of their new homes,” she finished. “These could easily be branded up with their logos. We’d be very excited to work with them to create something special that captures that new home feeling.”
The Subscription Box service costs £49 every three months. https://bonniehame.co.uk/subscription-box/.
Furniture, including coffee tables, easy chairs, night stands, and dining tables & chairs, is priced from £129. https://bonniehame.co.uk/product-category/furniture/
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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