Boston Design Center and Seattle Design Center use Dering Hall to power their online search and augment their other online marketing efforts

Dering Hall expanded their design center partnerships with the addition of Boston Design Center and Seattle Design Center.   Dering Hall now works with five design centers including the groundbreaking partnership with San Francisco Design Center announced earlier this year.   As the design industry embraces the digital landscape, Dering Hall is positioned to be the bridge for design professionals between online discovery and onsite purchases through these types of partnerships.  

“In our market today, people are more likely to come into a showroom because they have seen something online than for any other reason,” said Peter Sallick, co-founder of Dering Hall.   “Once they have seen it in the showroom they are highly likely to return online to get additional information. By partnering with Dering Hall, design centers are able to meet this demand.”

After launching the San Francisco digital design partnership in February, Dering Hall expanded into design centers in both Boston and Seattle.  “Dering Hall is rooted in the world of high-end design,” said Alan Blaustein, CEO of Dering Hall. “Design is in our DNA and because of that, we have a great respect for the role of design centers.  We want to partner with these centers and enhance what they do today. Unlike other digital platforms, we have no interest in driving these centers out of business. We recognize the value they bring to the design community.”

Partnering with Dering Hall allows design centers to create an interactive and engaging online search experience through their websites.  Once on their site, design professionals can search by type of item, brand, price, or style to discover what is available before visiting.  “Design centers and brands in the design market need to do a better job using the digital world as a tool to bring people into our tactile world,” said Sallick.  “Dering Hall can help.”

In addition to powering their online search, Dering Hall offers digital marketing to select partners to help drive traffic from the trade to their websites.  

This is a huge benefit for tenants of these design centers, who also might be struggling with the best way to drive additional foot traffic to their showrooms.  A partnership with Dering Hall instantly makes those brands searchable and findable online and often includes digital marketing support in the form of premium articles, online profiles, and the ability for visitors to download, print and share tearsheets or reach out to them directly.  Dering Hall essentially becomes the digital marketing arm of not only the design centers but the brands inhabiting them.

“I usually start sourcing online with my late night hunting, searching for the perfect item,” said Nancy Davilman of ND Interiors (https://www.ndinteriors.com).  “But I ultimately end up in brick and mortar stores.  The majority of my clients want to tangibly feel things - touch the wood, open the drawer, sit on the sofa.  Ideally, the online shopping experience needs to have that in-person follow up.”

Dering Hall plans to continue its expansion before the end of the year.  

“We feel like design centers are a great partner for us and we would love to expand into even more centers in 2018 and beyond,” said Blaustein.