Nov 26, 2008

Brandwise, GHTA introduce show index for the gift and home industry

(Lakewood, CO) — Brandwise, an application service provider well known in the industry for its software solutions, and the Gift & Home Trade Association (GHTA), the industry’s leading trade association, announced a revolutionary new market information tool called the Brandwise Gift & Home Show Index at the GHTA conference in Sanibel Island, Florida.

“This index will provide a unique opportunity for wholesale vendors and independent sales rep groups to view trending information within their industry, based on relevant transaction data versus survey information,” says Todd Litzman, President of Brandwise. “For the first time, it will be possible for contributing members to gauge their performance against these market-wide trends.”

Acting as the ‘Standard & Poors’ for gift & home sales organizations, the data for the index will be summarized from Brandwise’s unique aggregated database, comprising billions of transactions from their current clients. Brandwise has developed the technology to aggregate data across its customer base, which includes many GHTA members. This data can then be summarized to include order totals and size, revenue amounts and year-over-year changes, customer retention numbers, out of territory sales volume, and much more.

By tracking these statistics, participating GHTA members will, for the first time, have a way to benchmark their performance against the entire industry, which has traditionally used only bottom line sales figures and surveys as the yardstick for success.

“Access to meaningful data is more important to receive for our industry than ever before,” said Basil Elliott, President and CEO of Enesco. “The GHTA, partnering with Brandwise, can now offer valuable, accurate information which will affect major business decisions in our industry into the future.”

“This index will be the primary research data that provides vendors and sales agencies with a benchmark that will enable them to better manage their business,” said

GHTA board member Adam Schrier, Director of Sales and Marketing for Sadek. “It brings valuable insight into the industry. The GHTA continues to look for sources of factual metrics to present the industry and we hope others will do so as well.”

Incentives will be provided to entice active participation from Brandwise clients who may not be GHTA members in the way of discounted GHTA member dues over an initial 90 day “rally”. GHTA Members who cannot participate may still receive the benefits of usage as an index subscriber. Brandwise will launch the live version of the index during Q1, 2009.

For more information about the Brandwise Gift & Home Index, call Brandwise at (877) 435-3225. For more information about the GHTA, call 877-600-4872 or visit www.giftandhome.org.

About Brandwise
Brandwise is an Application Service Provider (ASP) delivering hosted software solutions to manufacturers and their sales channels within targeted industries. The Brandwise product suite integrates a series of industry-specific tools that help manufacturers and sales reps sell more products to their customers, combining Sales Force Automation technology, Business Intelligence tools, Decision Support and Customer Relationship Management (CRM to enhance the coordination and communication of information between manufacturers and their sales channel). In the near future Brandwise will also add e-Commerce to their product offering. For more information on Brandwise visit www.brandwise.com or call (877) 435-3225.

About the Gift and Home Trade Association
GHTA is the gift and home industry’s non-profit professional trade association formed to help vendors, sales agencies and industry affiliates work together to improve relationships. GHTA’s mission is to lead and transform the gift and home industry to ensure its long-term health and viability. GHTA has four major initiatives: to educate sales professionals; to understand and educate the industry on opportunities for technological efficiencies; to support and cultivate the industry’s independent retailers; and to understand and educate the industry on showroom/trade show costs, statistics, schedules, opportunities and preferences. GHTA can be reached at 877.600.4872. For more information on the GIFT AND HOME Trade Association visit www.giftandhome.org.