Is it too late to open an online curtain and blind shop for Christmas?

Is it too late to open an online curtain and blind shop for Christmas?

No, it is not too late, and we are still taking on new online store builds this season. Christmas Day is twelve weeks away, and some of the big online blind sellers advertise Christmas order deadlines as late as 21 December. Last December, 28.3 percent of all retail sales in Great Britain were made online, according to the Office for National Statistics. A store that opens in November catches the Christmas orders, and a store that opens in December is ready for January, when people spend on their homes. What matters more than the date is what we build with you: not a website, but your business online.

Why do people change their curtains before Christmas?

Because guests are coming. When Wickes surveyed 1,002 people in the UK in 2018, nearly a quarter said they redecorate before their Christmas guests arrive, and six in ten of them refresh the living room, which is where the curtains are. The nights are long, the heating is on, and the draughty window next to the sofa suddenly matters.

Then January comes. In a 2025 survey for the insurer Homeprotect, three in four people said they plan some home improvement projects in the new year. For a curtain and blind shop that is two busy moments back to back.

What does a Christmas-ready curtain and blind store look like?

We built one to show you. Ember & Weave is a concept store we made for this article. The shop is not real, the photos are from Unsplash and the prices are examples, but everything you see in it is what we build for our clients: the Christmas order deadline on every page, the fabric swatches, the price that changes as you type your window size, and the home visit button for people who want to talk first.

On the product page the customer chooses a colour, types the width and the drop, picks a heading, a lining and a pole cut to length, and sees the full price for the pair before she adds it to the basket. Every option is priced with the shop's own rules. This is the part a website builder cannot do for you, because it needs real price logic behind it, and that logic is fifteen years of the trade written into software.

Many of your customers will look on their phone first. The calculator works the same way there, and when someone is dressing the whole house, a simple form lets them choose a phone call, a video call, a home visit or an email. A big project is rarely bought in a basket. That customer wants to talk to you, and the store makes it easy.

Why do we call it an online business and not a website?

Because a website on its own does not sell curtains. At InterioApp we are not Shopify store builders, we work as business partners. You give us your product list and your supplier price lists for blinds and hardware, and we set everything up: we upload and categorise your products, prepare the product pages with filters, and build a calculator for every made to measure product, priced with your rules, with measuring and fitting guides inside it.

When the store is live, the real work starts. We look at who your best customers are and what they search for, we write articles so Google and AI can find you, we make sure every page and product can be read by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini, and only when we know what sells do we spend money on paid ads.

And it is yours. The store is opened in your name, and everything we build stays with you: the calculators, the design and the content. There is no plugin subscription, no theme licence and nothing monthly to pay us.

How does a new store get found by Google and AI?

Through our partner PUBlish. With our Omnichannel and Market Leader packages your business gets a verified PUBlish page, linked to your store, and a series of articles written to answer the questions your customers ask, so Google, ChatGPT and Gemini can find your shop and recommend it when someone asks where to buy curtains and blinds in your town. It is honest work and it takes weeks, not days, which is one more reason to start now.

What about the showroom and home visits?

InterioApp started as a calculator for the curtain shop of our founder, and today it is also quoting software for curtain and blind retailers. You quote in the showroom or in the customer's home while you are still with her, and the same quote becomes the work order and the fitting order. When your online store and your quoting software share one product library, the orders from your website arrive in the same place as the orders from your shop. Daniel, from our team in New Zealand and Australia, shows how quoting works in under three minutes.

If quoting is what takes your evenings, read how many hours a week your shop loses to quotes.

What does it cost to start selling online?

The simplest start is our calculator on the store you already have. We set it up with your products, your prices and your rules for £1,800, and after that it is £79 a month.

Our online store packages are a different game, because we build the whole business with you. Each is paid once and includes the build, the product setup and the training. Store Launch at £10,000 is the store itself, built beautifully and fully working. Omnichannel at £19,500 is the one we recommend, because it builds the whole business: the store, the articles and up to six months of working together with you on growth. Market Leader at £35,000 adds Google Ads, more articles and more support, until the store is making sales.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to build the store?

It depends mostly on how quickly we get your product list and price lists, and on how many products you sell. Send them early and we plan the launch around your Christmas order deadline.

Do I need a website already?

No. If you have one, we start from what already works on it. If you do not, we build the store from your product list and price lists.

Can the calculator price blinds, curtains and poles?

Yes. Blinds and shutters are priced from your supplier grids, curtains from fabric, lining, making and fullness, and tracks and poles by length, like everything else that is cut to size.

Can customers still book a home visit?

Yes. Every store has a form for home visits, phone calls, video calls and written quotes, because big projects are rarely bought in a basket.

Who owns the store?

You do. With our store packages the store is opened in your name, and the calculators, the design and the content stay with you, with nothing monthly to pay us.

Is Ember & Weave a real shop?

No. It is a concept store we made for this article to show what we build. The photos are from Unsplash and the prices are examples.

If you want to see what your own store could look like before Christmas, book a 30 minute call with me. Pick a time that suits you, there is nothing to prepare. Book a time with Jemma.