;s stocked in major department stores, such as DJs and Liberty. Can you tell me the story behind how you launched the business and why you thought there’s a gap in the market for a product like yours? Alyce Tran: I love creating products and working out how to market them. Through previous brand experience with TDE, influencer lunches, dinners and shoots I knew that brands that worked well for creating Instagram content resonated with consumers.  I have always loved entertaining and making beautiful settings, through this I found that there was a real gap in the market for table top items that really popped, are on trend and affordable so you can purchase more of a range and create so many different aesthetics.  I don’t believe there are many brands in market that have this amount of personality, tell a story, stay on top of popular trends and although there is a lot of product in the home space (I mean, there’s a lot of product across every consumer vertical) finding items that really stand out and that are affordable is hard!  My good friend Brooke Bickmore was interested in doing this project with me as she had always wanted to do a tabletop homewares brand and so we decided to launch In The Roundhouse. We saw a movement that Gen Z and Millennials had a new found love and interest for interiors and the last 2 years was a great time to grow a business in this category  IR: How would you describe the In the Roundhouse customer and what does he/she want from homewares? AT: We sell to such a broad range of consumers, from young women who have recently moved out of home, hosting their first dinner party, putting on a hen’s do for their best friend through to a more mature customer who is looking to update their classics and for those looking for a unique gifting moment (I think our products have broad appeal).  We get feedback all the time and personally I feel like my simple meals or even take out meals look much better presented when they’re on one of our decorative plates.  No surprises here but they are looking for that differentiation and something with a lot of colour to add to their table.  Every 30 minutes or so we are tagged in content from our customers showing us how they’ve styled their product, how they think their meals look more exciting on our plates to their children enjoying eating from our kids range.  We believe our customer is concerned about trends in both the fashion and home living spaces, having newness in their lives and want something that is easy and not complicated  to style into a table whether that is for everyday or to celebrate an occasion.    IR: In the Roundhouse is now stocked in major department stores such as DJs and Liberty. How would you describe the growth strategy behind your business?  AT: We are also on Saks.com!  We didn’t set out with the intention to grow this quickly but I know how these things can happen and I think there is almost a viral quality behind our products which have made them recognisable and sought after by consumers.  We’ve really been growing organically, leveraging relationships, collaborating with relevant artists and fashion brands, growing through social media and influencers. The products we create resonate with content creators so we get great cut through with our social media strategy.  IR: You’ve gone from fashion to homewares. What would you say are some of the interesting insights you’ve gathered about the homeware category since launching In the Roundhouse? AT: Overall it is a much more pleasurable business as I am dealing with more evergreen and simple products so everything at ITRH is a walk in the park compared to what I experienced at TDE. For example, a plate is far less complex than a handbag!  IR: Tell me about your plans for physical retail for In the Roundhouse and why it’s important that you have a bricks-and-mortar presence.  AT: I love retail!  I’ve always been a retail girl, I love shopping on the weekends, I love browsing, I love going into David Jones and re merchandising our products while their sales associates stare at me thinking I’m a bit crazy so we are keen to open our first longer term store after quite a successful pop up at The Intersection in Paddington last year over Christmas.  Although I am a digitally native retailer, we all know plenty of customers want to see products in real life, want to pick up things last minute and having stores removes some of the friction you have with online shopping.  I don’t want to bang on about customers wanting to touch and feel product but of course they do and in this category they are able to play around with our products in store and have the confidence to purchase and we find that most people we have sold too offline will come back online to top up their collections or purchase gifts for friends.  IR: You’re also a brand strategist at LTK, which is a tool to help influencers work with brands. How would you describe the influencer economy in Australia and where do you think it’s headed in the future?  AT: I truly believe the future is bright for content creators, we are spending so much time on social media apps from Instagram to TikTok so it seems only natural that retailers want to be top of mind whilst we scroll through these feeds and having products placed on influencers achieves so many things for retailers – brand alignment, impressions/reach and conversion when you work with the right influencer.  As a result I only see more marketing dollars going towards influencers and as more platforms become popular from TikTok to Be Real there is only more opportunity for influencers to build their businesses.   LTK is amazing as the business has over 10 years of data on its influencers around what they sell and when we are working with brands on their strategies we come at it from a branding and amplification perspective but also a sales perspective.  A lot of brands we speak to just choose influencers to work with based on look and feel which is fine to a degree but it is always a good idea I think to set out with the intent of working with influencers who can also drive sales or at least measure the sales an influencer is driving to you.  IR: Given how much you’re juggling, you are truly a modern-day multi-hyphenate: homewares retailer, podcaster, influencer and brand strategist. What would you say are the benefits of working on various projects at the same time and how do they help each other out? AT: I love the variety of work I am doing and there is a lot of cross pollination, for example often a brand will ask me to do a collaboration with In the Roundhouse after a conversation about LTK.   My work at LTK also means I am constantly having to think about different marketing strategies across different industries and so I am hyper aware of everything that is going on in the market which may or may not apply to In the Roundhouse.  I interact with brands daily that are pushing to be the best in their category and that motivates me to keep pushing In the Roundhouse forward.  Personally, I like to fill my day up entirely, idle time makes me a bit anxious so given my breadth of experience and knowledge in the e-commerce space  and understanding of how brands are built through social media and influencers working with LTK makes so much sense.  IR: After leaving The Daily Edited, what would you say are some of the most valuable lessons you learnt from your years at the business and how have they informed you now as a retailer?  AT: I gained so much knowledge and experience working on TDE – most valuable would be efficient use of marketing spend (getting every dollar to work harder and staying on top of all of the data), growing a team prudently and everything can be negotiated. I have a way better sense of cost now then I did 5 years ago I’m sure but having come from a legal background it was hard to know what the right price for everything in a retail business was.