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Home Bar Styling Tricks We're Stealing from Fashionable Hotels | Home Living Newsletter

PLUS: How Much Should You Be Spending on PMAX

Author

Zihan Lyu
April 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 32 minutes

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Welcome to Home Living, your essential newsletter for decorating and furnishing eCommerce professionals.

Editor’s Pick 🌟

Curious to know the optimal way to allocate your Google Ads budget? Fospha’s latest analysis of top performers reveals key insights into balancing Performance Max (PMAX) and Paid Search:

🥇 How Top-Performers Do It: For the highest-performing 25% of brands, a strategic allocation of around 55% of total Google budget to Performance Max and 12% to Paid Search appears to be the sweet spot for driving results.

🏢 Size Matters: Note, this optimal allocation does vary slightly between different brand sizes. Top-performing small brands were found to have a 52% PMAX / 15% Paid Search split, while top-performing large brands allocated more to PMAX, with a 59% PMAX / 9% Paid Search split.

Why? With extensive product catalogs and diverse customer segments, large brands can leverage PMAX's AI-driven optimization, while smaller brands benefit from the precision targeting of Paid Search to capture high-intent traffic while still leveraging PMAX for efficiency

Unlock the full potential of your Google Ads budget! Fospha’s new Performance Max and Paid Search Playbook is your guide to cultivating cross-channel synergies, reducing wasted ad spend, and maximizing blended performance.

Expert View 🧠

Tariffs, Trust, and the New Value Equation for Home Brands

With the reintroduction of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, home living brands face more than just increased import costs—they face a reshaped consumer landscape. As tariffs push up prices on key materials and finished goods, especially from countries like China and the EU, brands are being forced to make decisions that go beyond logistics. The moment calls for a shift from reactive sourcing adjustments to strategic positioning that frames these changes as part of a broader, value-driven narrative.

This isn’t just about absorbing or passing on costs. Consumers, already sensitive to pricing pressures, are also increasingly values-conscious. Rising tariffs create an inflection point where storytelling, sourcing strategy, and consumer sentiment intersect. Brands that are able to lean into local manufacturing, emphasize quality over quantity, or build modular, long-lasting product lines will find new opportunities to differentiate—not just defend.

Marketing and product teams should collaborate to turn origin and durability into front-facing features. Transparency around supply chain decisions—why a product now costs more, or why it’s been redesigned using domestic materials—can actually deepen customer trust, not erode it. The shift also invites experimentation: dropship avoidance, limited-run collections from nearshore partners, or content-rich DTC launches that elevate the narrative behind the product.

This is also a moment to test elasticity. eCommerce and CX teams must be closely watching how pricing shifts affect bounce rates, bundling behavior, and average order value. Those insights should feed back into creative and merchandising in near real-time.

Reciprocal tariffs may have returned under a political banner, but their commercial impact is deeply brand-specific. The home living brands that win in this climate won’t just offset costs—they’ll elevate their relevance by aligning operations, messaging, and innovation with what the modern home consumer values most: transparency, durability, and integrity.

Sector Spotlight 🎥

HOME DESIGN TRENDS

Gallery walls, matching furniture sets, and open-concept layouts are becoming outdated in living room design by 2025. To remain relevant, embrace personalized art pieces over gallery walls, varied furniture over uniform sets, and employ room dividers for spatial definition, enhancing both aesthetic appeal and functional versatility.

HOME BAR STYLING

Transform your home bar with design insights from chic hotels, enhancing your hosting experience with practical elements like bar carts, floating shelves, and cabinet storage. Integrating natural accents and statement accessories can elevate the aesthetic while optimizing functionality. These approaches ensure your bar becomes a stylish focal point tailored to modern hosting needs.

INNOVATIVE HOME APPLIANCES

Gorenje has evolved over 75 years from a small Slovenian workshop into a global leader in the household appliance market, known for quality and sustainable design. The company's collaboration with Hisense Group has expanded its reach and enhanced technological developments, ensuring innovative products stay accessible. This is relevant for marketers as it highlights strategic growth through partnerships, customer-centric value addition, and engagement in global events for brand visibility.

HOME OFFICE OPTIMIZATION

As remote work solidifies post-pandemic, traditional home offices are evolving into compact, multifunctional spaces, which aligns with shrinking home sizes. Marketing professionals can leverage this trend by designing products and services that cater to consumers' demand for efficiency and ingenuity in limited spaces.

Key tactics include utilizing dual-purpose furniture, optimizing layout with room zones, and ensuring strategic placement for natural light, effectively transforming small areas into productive environments.

MODERN HOME DECOR

Modern home decorating thrives on a neutral palette and natural materials, emphasizing clean lines and functionality. Furniture serves as focal points, while textures and patterns add warmth and interest. A minimalist approach with selectively curated elements enhances the space's aesthetic appeal, offering strategic insights for those seeking to cultivate a sophisticated yet practical home environment.

Influencer Corner 📢'

We chatted with Amy J. Oelkers, TikTok’s GM, US Head of Commerce, about how the power of discovery on TikTok is driving commerce everywhere | TikTok for Business

📌 4 in 5 users are discovering brands through creators' recommendations.

📌 After discovering something on TikTok (via a creator), 45% of users continued searching for more information on the platform.

📌 1 in 4 users search within the first 30 seconds of opening the app (internal user data).

In our Shoptalk 2025 wrap up with ClickZ.com, one thing was clear | Lee Arthur

This industry is operating in a new reality. From full-funnel AI to omnichannel orchestration, the conversations weren’t speculative,they were tactical.

Here are the biggest shifts we heard on the ground:

🔹 AI is everywhere
“AI isn’t a concept -it’s a capability,” summed up by voices across the floor. From text-to-buy to media measurement, brands are moving from testing to scaling.

🔹 Omnichannel is baseline
“Omnichannel isn’t a trend - it’s the new baseline,” said Sam Carter, CEO at Fospha. The new standard is unified journeys online and off.

Optimization Hub ⚙️

BUSINESS MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK

Breaking organizational silos is essential for building effective measurement frameworks, ensuring data-driven insights drive marketing success. By involving all stakeholders and focusing on real-world applications, businesses can align metrics with strategic objectives. Tailored frameworks improve communication and performance across departments, essential for today's competitive landscape.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Instagram's new monthly recap feature provides creators with valuable insights into their content performance, including total views, follower engagement, and specific audience activity times. This feature aids marketers by offering actionable tips to enhance content strategy based on the unique behaviors of their audiences, fostering a more tailored approach to growth and engagement.

ECOMMERCE OPTIMIZATION

Adjusting the Google Ads bid strategy, specifically the Target ROAS, can enhance Shopping Ads revenue without reducing profitability for eCommerce businesses. Use Impression Share and Search Lost IS metrics to identify and rectify revenue loss. Gradual budget and ROAS adjustments ensure consistent performance improvement.

📲 Like what you’re seeing?

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ClickZ is a Contentive publication in the DTC Ecommerce division