Life Interiors is a furniture retailer based in the UK, founded by engineer and design enthusiast, Prabhat, and serial entrepreneur, Faz, in 2011. Life Interiors now sells internationally and has warehouses in the UK, the US, Germany, and the Far East, providing high-quality, affordable furniture to customers all around the world. They are a leading Debenhams seller, and also sell through a range of other channels. 

We caught up with co-founder, Prabhat Rai, to understand Life Interiors’ ecommerce journey, and the role that Linnworks has played in helping them manage their scaling business on Debenhams and beyond. 

Life before Linnworks 

“Before implementing Linnworks, life was very hard. One major operational challenge was a lack of a centralized, streamlined process for managing inventory processing orders and fulfillment across so many different marketplaces and across so many different regions” says Prabhat Rai, co-founder. 

He continues, “It was becoming increasingly complex, cumbersome and very, very time-consuming. We found ourselves dealing with a lot of manual errors, and overselling. And a general lack of efficiency in our day-to-day operations.” 

Enter Linnworks. 

Linnworks: A clear, robust choice for inventory management

“We said to ourselves that investing in a comprehensive inventory and order management system would be a key to resolving all the operational challenges that we were facing,” recalls Rai. He expands, “We needed a centralized solution that could integrate with our existing processes that we already had, and a system that could automate routine tasks that we were doing and also at the same time provide real-time insights.” 

“Linnworks presented itself as a robust solution and we hypothesized that it would bring the efficiency and accuracy that we were hoping for in our day-to-day operations,” Rai comments. 

Thankfully, his hopes paid off, as he confirms, “We’ve been with Linnworks for about nearly a decade, and that has proven right.” 

We’ve been with Linnworks for about nearly a decade, and that has proven right.

Prabhat Rai, Life Interiors co-founder

Game-changing for Debenhams operations  

Debenhams is a significant channel for Life Interiors. Rai explains, “Debenhams, with its rich heritage and big reputation in the UK, presented an ideal opportunity for Life Interiors as a brand to connect with a wider audience who appreciate good quality and design.” He comments further, “We were very inspired by Debenhams’ commitment to offering a diverse range of products on the platform. It combined our ethos with their own, which is to offer modern design furniture to a wider audience. This alignment made Debenhams an obvious choice for us.” 

When it comes to how Linnworks has helped Life Interiors capitalize on Debenhams as a core channel, Rai has no doubts. He explains, “Integrating Linnworks has been a game changer for our operations on Debenhams. It has streamlined inventory management, order processing and fulfillment, while ensuring a real-time synchronization and increasing our overall efficiency.” 

He goes on to say, “The integration has reduced our operational workload massively, allowing us to focus more on creating beautiful furniture and providing best customer service.” 

Efficiency on Debenhams — and across 40+ channels 

“When we implemented Linnworks, we first integrated all our diverse channels — 40 plus marketplaces — and our own website as well. It immediately allowed us a centralized view of our inventory order and all our customer data in one place,” Rai explains. He continues, “Linnworks’ order processing tool and automation features played a very, very vital role in increasing the efficiency of our overall processes and reducing any manual errors we were previously getting.” 

“We’ve leveraged features such as batch processing, order splitting, and order routing to ensure that orders were fulfilled correctly. One of the features that I I love the most is the reporting. The stock forecasting feature has allowed us to gauge what products are selling fast, and when.”

Quantifiable improvements with Linnworks 

Linnworks has delivered measurable improvements for Life Interiors. Rai underscores this, saying, “We were able to really quantify the results we’ve received by having Linnworks as our partner. We witnessed a 40% reduction in our order processing time overall, which leads to quicker order fulfillment and increased customer satisfaction.” 

He expands, “Manual orders have virtually disappeared, resulting in about a 25% decrease in order discrepancies. Our inventory accuracy has increased significantly — reducing overselling by about 30%.”

Using Linnworks, Life Interiors has not only streamlined its operations across Debenhams and other channels, but has also achieved palpable improvements in efficiency and accuracy. This partnership underscores the critical role of technology in scaling ecommerce operations, enhancing customer satisfaction, and driving business growth.