Bespoke furniture and accessories from Lindsey Coral Harper’s Lamshop line made their e-commerce debut back in 2013. Today, the designer of the firm of the same name shares what works, what hasn’t and how customers are responding to business online.

What particular features does your site offer? Why did you decide to add a shop or other e-commerce features to your site—were customers approaching you?
Our site allows you to see most of our products, including the dimensions and custom colorways. We certainly had customers approaching us, so we thought a website could answer a lot of the preliminary questions when looking for furniture and accessories online, such as where items are made, how long they take and what finish options are available.

Can you describe customer response so far?
I think having the prices online allows the customer to know if our product is in their budget and/or reach. Often I see great-looking items online; however, if I see "contact dealer for pricing" it is often a turn-off because it is another time constraint and in our industry time is money! As a designer, I find that also makes something sound unattainable, as if it is too pricey to put online. Customer response has been great.

How do you decide what products to sell online? Do certain items or categories sell better online?
Our items are made to order, so our online feature is mainly a guide for clients to see our products and see what custom finishes we have to offer. Almost every order we get is made to order, so typically we speak to the customer over the phone or through emails. However, we feel the website is a necessary tool in this day and age to give the customer as much information up-front as possible.

Discover Lamshop online.