The Digital Transformation Every Curtain Retailer Needs

In almost every industry, there is a moment when digital tools stop being optional and start being the baseline for survival. The window furnishings retail industry is at that moment right now.

This is not an argument about technology for its own sake. It is an argument about revenue — specifically, the revenue you are currently not capturing because your processes create friction that your customers will not tolerate.

## Where the money is going

| Revenue loss source | Share | |--------------------|-------| | Slow quote turnaround | 30% | | No online pricing | 25% | | Manual order errors | 20% | | No follow-up on unsold quotes | 15% | | Other friction | 10% |

*InterioApp retailer audit data, 2024. n=180 retailers.*

The majority of revenue loss in curtain retail has nothing to do with product quality, pricing competitiveness, or marketing. It is **friction** — the delay, the confusion, the missing information, the manual error — that sits between a customer's interest and a completed order.

## Investment 1: Online quoting — the highest ROI change you can make

The shift from "call us" to an instant online quoting tool is the single highest-return digital investment available to a curtain retailer. The uplift in enquiry-to-conversion rates — typically **20-40%** — pays back the cost of the tool in weeks, not months.

The common objection is that custom products cannot be quoted online. This is technically incorrect. Every element of a curtain quote — fabric, width, drop, lining, heading, track — has a calculable price. The complexity that feels overwhelming in a spreadsheet is entirely manageable in purpose-built software.

## Investment 2: Order management — the hidden cost of errors

The average curtain retailer produces 15-40 orders per week. Each involves precise measurements, fabric and component selection, a supplier order, a production timeline, a fitting appointment, and an invoice. Managing this manually across email threads and spreadsheets generates errors.

**A single order error costs on average £180-£400 in rectification time and materials.**

Retailers running 30 orders per week with a 4% error rate are spending approximately **£850 per month** correcting mistakes that software would prevent. That is £10,200 per year — enough to fund a proper software solution five times over.

## Investment 3: Customer relationship management — the repeat revenue you are not capturing

The customer who bought curtains from you two years ago is statistically your best prospect for new curtains today. Their first order established trust. Their home is now two years older. Their tastes may have changed.

If you do not have a systematic way to be in front of them at the right moment, someone else will be.

The most effective CRM for a curtain retailer is not sophisticated. It is a contact database that surfaces customers at 18-month intervals with a simple prompt: *"Is it time for a refresh?"*

Retailers who have built this habit report that **20-30% of their annual revenue** comes from reactivated past customers — revenue that requires no advertising spend.

## The question to ask about your own business

Walk through a customer's experience of buying curtains from you — as if you were the customer.

How long does it take to get a price? How many steps are between interest and order? How many of those steps could be eliminated or automated?

The answer to those questions is your digital transformation roadmap. You do not need to build all of it at once. Start with the step that causes the most friction — which, for most retailers, is the quote.

Start there. Everything else follows.

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*Darius Baltunis has been building made-to-measure software for the curtain and blind industry since 2011.*