RH Trade Program: How It Works & How to Apply (2026)

Quick answer: RH Trade is a free program for residential design professionals that includes an exclusive trade discount, a dedicated trade team in every RH gallery, and design support (2D CAD plans, moodboards, presentations). Unusually, RH does not publish its trade discount percentage — for comparison, RH's consumer Members Program costs $200/year for 30% off everything, including sale items. Apply through the membership application on rh.com/trade.

The thing to understand about RH first

RH runs two parallel programs, and knowing the difference saves you a confusing afternoon:

RH Members Program (consumer): $200/year, 30% off everything including sale items, complimentary interior design services, and RH Credit Card financing (0% APR over 12 months or 3.99% over 60). Anyone can join.
RH Trade (professional): free to join for qualifying professionals, with "an exclusive discount" RH deliberately doesn't publish, plus trade-specific service and support.

RH keeps trade pricing opaque by design — terms are discussed with your trade representative after approval. If a site quotes you an exact RH trade percentage, treat it as hearsay. What is public: the program costs nothing, and it's built around service as much as price.

What RH Trade includes

An exclusive trade discount (disclosed on approval)
A dedicated RH Trade team in every gallery, with presentation rooms you can use for client meetings
Design support: 2D CAD floor plans, moodboards, renderings, and presentations
Project support from ideation through installation
Complimentary fabric swatches and finish samples
Preferred financing via the RH Credit Card
Online ordering with trade credentials
Sales-tax waiver at checkout if you submit a valid resale or exemption certificate

For large commercial or developer work, RH runs a separate Contract division (production builders, multi-family developers) — different program, different application.

Who qualifies

RH lists: residential interior designers and decorators, architects, landscape designers, custom home builders, licensed general contractors, and professional home stagers and stylists — working directly with homeowners on single-family residential projects. If your business doesn't fit those categories, RH points you to the consumer Members Program instead.

What you'll need

RH's public FAQ is light on document specifics — the application asks about your business, and a completed resale or exemption certificate must be submitted if you want sales tax waived. In practice, expect to demonstrate a real design business: a formal business footprint, a company website that presents you as a trade professional, and evidence of professional work. Final terms come from the trade team after review.

And approval is only step one. Running an RH trade account directly means the same operating stack every trade program demands. You set up a business — either form an LLC (state filing, fees, annual reports) or operate as a sole proprietor with every client order riding on your personal liability — and get an EIN. You register for sales tax in every state you'll charge it: home state first, which is what earns you the resale certificate, then each state you deliver to, since roughly a quarter of states (California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington among them) don't accept out-of-state certificates. You keep your completed exemption certificate on file with RH for each of those states. Because buying tax-exempt makes you the seller, you collect sales tax on your marked-up client invoices and remit it on ongoing returns in every registered state. And you place and track every order through your RH trade credentials or gallery trade team — then repeat the whole cycle for every other brand you source. (State rules vary; an accountant who knows designer sales tax is worth the hour.)

On Suede, procurement runs through us: we purchase from RH under our own access and tax registrations, with terms known from day one — we place and track the orders, invoice your client, collect and remit the sales tax, and pay out your earnings. You pick the products and find clients, Suede manages the rest. Join the waitlist here.

How to apply

Go to rh.com/us/en/trade and open the membership application.
Complete the business and contact details; attach your resale/exemption certificate if you have one.
An RH Trade representative follows up to confirm eligibility and walk through your terms — RH doesn't publish an approval timeline.
Once approved, you order online with trade credentials or through your gallery trade team.

The fine print worth knowing

Trade discount terms are individual and undisclosed publicly; get yours in writing from your rep.
The Members Program's 30% includes sale items — depending on your terms, a $200 membership can be surprisingly competitive for small-volume purchasing, which is exactly why RH keeps both doors open.
Exclusions apply to both programs ("limited exclusions" per RH's terms).

RH is one of many trade programs a working designer ends up managing. On Suede, procurement across all of them runs through us, on your behalf — along with the invoicing, the sales tax, and the payments. Join the waitlist here.

Program details are as published by RH as of July 2026; verify current terms at rh.com/us/en/trade.