Instagram for interiors lovers? New app Housetagz lets you buy homeware directly from social media photos

Housetagz users simply upload photos of their home renovations and tag the featured products so that others can click and buy. The next step is to let you make money from those clicks.
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Jess Denham20 July 2018

Our Instagram and Pinterest feeds are flooded with photos of beautiful home makeovers, but falling in love with that particular shade of paint, rattan chair or marble side table without knowing where to buy your own can be frustrating.

Brixton entrepreneur Nick Morris, 32, clocked this problem and set about building a new app to offer a solution to our interiors shopping woes.

The idea behind Housetagz is simple — homeowners upload pictures of their renovations and tag where all their homeware comes from.

Fellow users click on the little blue tags and pop-ups appear revealing how much each product costs, where it comes from and a link to buy it online.

Nick came up with the concept shortly after him and his girlfriend bought their flat and set about seeking inspiration for a kitchen and bathroom renovation.

They struggled to find the paints, furnishings and products they saw in social media pictures.

“Brands are sometimes tagged in Instagram and Pinterest posts but they don’t feature direct shopping links,” he said. “You might know that lamp you want is from Laura Ashley, but they stock hundreds of lamps and the process of finding it can be tiresome. Housetagz takes away that unnecessary stress.”

Over 65 brands are already on board as affiliates, from John Lewis and Marks and Spencer to MADE and The White Company.

They pay Housetagz a fee when a product reaches 100 click-throughs and between six and 10 per cent of the sale price if a click-through leads to a purchase.

Click and buy: the little blue tags bring up shopping links
Cally Foster/Housetagz

The next step will be to allow users to generate their own income from clicks and sales. Nick hopes this feature will be added by the end of the year.

“Users would get, say 80 to 90 per cent of the commission and Housetagz would take the rest,” he said. “I want people to be motivated to post, so I’d like to give them as much financial incentive as possible.”

Nick also plans to expand into fashion and beauty, meaning Housetagz could be destined for a name change.

“I’ve been focusing on bloggers and the top 50 in the UK are dominated by fashion and beauty,” he said. “Homes targets first-time buyers primarily, whereas younger people are more likely to post about clothes and makeup.”

Since Housetagz launched at the end of last year, it has been downloaded 10,000 times from Apple’s App Store.

This is not the first entrepreneurial endeavour for former electrician Nick. Seven years ago, while still training as an apprentice, he launched Easy Off Gloves, a range of “fold back fingertip” gloves. Today, the business generates a £150,000 turnover.

Housetagz is available to download for free on Google Play and the App Store.

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