Mar 11, 2009

Brandwise and GHTA Announce Updates to Atlanta, Dallas Gift and Home Indices; Release of Los Angeles and Chicago Market Indices

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, have announced significant updates to the initial Atlanta and Dallas Gift and Home Indices showing marked improvement in the sales data.

“We received a number of calls from clients stating that they believed the index numbers would reflect differently on the markets in question, if we gave confirmed orders a longer period to clear the system than the two weeks after-market that was the historic standard,” says Todd Litzman, President of Brandwise. “Based on these inquiries, we re-ran the Atlanta and Dallas indices and the numbers did indeed reflect a more positive trending result for both markets. We feel this longer post-market period gives a more accurate snapshot of the data and therefore we will use four week as the standard moving forward.”

In addition to the updated reports, the Gift and Home Index reports are also now available for the Chicago Gift Show held January 17 – 20 at the Chicago Merchandise Mart and the California Gift Show held January 16 – 19 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Both these reports were developed with the new post-market time period.

The Gift and Home Index reports provide subscribers with valuable data in the form of pie charts and graphs, never before available in the industry. Brandwise provides the unique ability to display statistically relevant industry trends based on their aggregated data structure and substantial national client base. Data reported in the individual market indices include:

* percentage of total order count year-over-year
* average order size
* total revenue percent year-over-year
* unique buyer percentage year-over-year
* trending of suppliers within the index, up, down and nominal change

The Territory Index by market includes much of the same data but presents out-of-territory vs. in-territory sales.

The Index will be released twice annually after each of the major markets where a relevant sampling of data is available. This list currently includes Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, High Point and Los Angles.

The Index is free for vendors and sales agencies who are both GHTA members and Brandwise clients. For those who only fall into one category a special price of $250 is available. For more information on the Index, how to subscribe, and additional pricing details please visit the GHTA website at www.giftandhome.org/cms/Home/Show_Index.php, or contact Brandwise at (877) 435-3225, ext 2 or visit either www.brandwise.com or www.bwconnect.com .

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.