Like most brilliant businesses, Showerscape, as a concept, started out of the need to solve a personal challenge. For founders Ian and Andrea Clewett, this was when they renovated a slate-built holiday cottage in Snowdonia, Wales, back in 2013.
The couple needed to update the small bathroom with a pokey shower over a bath to a more practical and spacious walk-in shower. They wanted to make the space feel bigger and celebrate their beautiful surroundings in the Dyfi valley. The solution was to make use of large-format printed panels to create a wraparound floor-to-ceiling photograph of the local landscape for the shower walls.
Utilising the advanced materials and printing processes Ian used in his career as a graphic designer, it incorporates a striking ‘view’, a smooth, easy cleaning surface and outdoor-grade durability into their bathroom. The result was a beautiful and practical success, and friends and family visiting them thought so too.
Within a couple of years of buying the cottage and just loving the area, the couple decided to move their young family to Wales, with Ian going self-employed as a designer, while Andrea got a job locally to stabilise their income initially.
The move enabled them to offer Showerscapes to others, as a product and design service with great potential – and as a side-hustle income initially – until it turned into their main business, turning over six figures.
Concept
Your business idea has to solve a problem for people. Showerscape is based on personal frustrations and limitations of what was out there for bathrooms; they wanted a better solution. Ian’s design and print knowledge, combined with Andrea’s organisational and customer care experience, bring a natural complement of skills to take it from an idea to a full product and service offering and make it work.
Creating a strong brand
With a premium, creative product offering, giving the business a professional, trusted appeal from the get-go was crucial – first impressions count. Ian’s skills in this area really set them apart early on.
Know your potential customer – who are you trying to attract?
Try to create a distinct way of doing things that is visually consistent and recognisable. Develop a tone of voice that is true to who you are and what you offer to convey your USPs and niche authentically.
Getting it out there
Creating a website to showcase the range and possibilities of the product was the next step – a portal to build content, offer products and funnel interest and sales. However, Andrea says, “It also became clear that people also like talking to us, asking questions, and for design advice, so we’re still very much a personal service than a faceless e-commerce business.”
The trick is to constantly adapt and make the customer journey better. Talking to customers to find their pain points or decision-making process can be used to improve a product and how you sell it.
Customer Connection
This focus on customer service and care, coupled with personalised creativity in bathroom design, has been a real competitive advantage in a sector that is generally mass-produced and trend-driven.
Showerscape allows private customers and small businesses to create a bathroom feature that is meaningful and unique to them – something that is increasingly valued and timeless.
Always be available and open to questions about your product. People really value that, and it gains their trust and rapport before they purchase from you.
Be nimble
When Ian and Andrea started Showerscape, there wasn’t anything else like it on the market. With near limitless creative options for imagery and customisation, they offered something completely different, a new ‘category’ of bathroom wall covering. Initially, this created the problem of ‘awareness’ that their product was even an option to tiling or boring ‘stone effect’ panelling.
Being small and with a limited budget to get found online meant steady, organic growth – but this had the advantage of allowing fine-tuning of product development, creating new designs and taking time to discover what their customers valued and wanted.
As Andrea notes, “One thing I have really learnt along the way is to constantly review and adapt our processes – the website, designs, packaging, logistics. It’s a learning curve and you won’t get it 100% right on the first try, but there is rarely one right answer or way of doing things, so try again to improve it!”
Andrea and Ian are the founders of Showerscape [https://www.showerscape.co.uk/], creating bespoke printed shower panels perfect for more than just home bathrooms – from swimming pools, camper van and narrowboat showers, to wetrooms, new-build extensions, listed properties, boutique hotels, holiday lets, cabins, and even hot tub surrounds.
