Feb 7, 2013

Gift+Home at Las Vegas Market Posts A Successful Winter Market

By several pivotal measurements – a significant increase in attendance and overall order writing, as well as an influx of new showroom tenants and temporary exhibitors – the Winter GIFT+HOME at Las Vegas Market, January 28-February 1, 2013, was the most successful market since its launch for all participants. With the first in a planned series of strategic moves debuting this January, including re-merchandising gift and home floors in Building C to enhance category representation and launching new floors and categories, Las Vegas has begun to secure its position as the leading market for gift & home décor in the Western U.S.

“Excitement and optimism at market were palpable, with buyers and suppliers buzzing about the transformational changes introduced this winter,” said Dorothy Belshaw, president of Gift & Home Décor, International Market Centers. “We recorded an unparalleled 25 percent gain in gift and home décor buyer attendance, with select categories, such as textiles and home decor, posting increases of up to 30 and 40 percent, respectively. These year-over-year increases are directly correlated to the specialty home décor collections introduced on B3 and C3, and occupancy growth on gift floors during the past two markets. A combination of thoughtful resource expansion and targeted and compelling communication with prospective attendees enabled us to enrich both the exhibitor and buyer constituencies in tandem.”

Winter market highlights included the debut of C3 and its concentration of 20+ better home décor resources. “We came to C3 from Building A because we definitely needed more space, with the success we have had here with the West Coast market,” said Chris Hyun, president of Leftbank Art. “We saw an opportunity to expand on C3 and to be with great companies, in great surroundings and to build a great community. The World Market Center delivers a western states audience plus Mexico and Canada, and gives us market share we don’t see elsewhere.”

“My expectations were fully surpassed,” added Todd Sawvelle, president and creative director of Couture Lamps. ” It was a remarkable show – delivering more contacts/leads and orders than all of our previous markets – combined – since opening my business 18 months ago. 99 percent of the orders were from new customers across the West – including California (both Southern and Northern), Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii. We also saw surprisingly strong attendance from Mexico – an equal mix of interior designers, design firms, design stores, and specialty furniture retailers. The Las Vegas Market did a terrific job with C3 – in a relatively short span of time. With continued expansion of the luxury, lifestyle-driven home décor category – Las Vegas Market will succeed in becoming the only home for home decor in the West.”

“The response to our continued concentration of better home décor resources has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Belshaw. “As a result we have accelerated our plans to convert C4 into additional showrooms for better home décor, and will relocate our home-focused temporary exhibitors to C5 for the Summer market.”

The reorganization and categorization of temporary exhibitors this Winter also resulted in improved layout and traffic flow, and buyers from all 50 states and 74 countries were spotted in the aisles.

“The market did an absolutely awesome job this year! I found so much merchandise, and I love the fact that you have added so many new vendors to Building C,” said Teresa Grant, owner of Sidney Floral & Gift Shop, (Sidney, NE). “The majority of my suppliers were in Building C. I buy floral, gift and home decor and found so much for the shop this year.”

According to exhibitor Dan Leach of Accessories Now, “We’re glad to be able to catch a market that is going up and that is going forward not backward. I see a huge amount of my customers here and there is potential to meet larger buyers that I wouldn’t see in other markets. We think we can grow our business with the growth of the building.”

Re-merchandising of gift showrooms, combined with the addition of several new market-leading tenants, brought dynamism and excitement to floors C6, C7, C8 and C9. In line with these gains in depth, breadth, and quality of resources, the market also experienced a surge in gift and home attendance levels and geographic reach. Both permanent tenants and temporary exhibitors noted an increased number of buyers from throughout the western United States, as well as from South America and Canada.

“Overall, the traffic is better than we anticipated, and we have far surpassed the number of orders I thought we would write,” said Dan Loughman, president and CEO of Roman. “We’ve had a great response, and we’ve regained some former customers who hadn’t been seeing us at some of the other markets. We’ve seen buyers from California, Washington, Oregon, Nebraska and Kansas, as well as from throughout western and mountain states.”

“This has been a phenomenal show. We sold to 42 states this show, which is up from 29 states last time,” enthused Jackie Moon, principal of Next Step Reps. “This is our third time here and we have expanded each market. Las Vegas is my only presence in the western states, and I have exceeded my goals every show. It is the best market west of the Mississippi today.”

GIFT+HOME at Las Vegas Market is a leading gift and home décor marketplace in the western U.S., presenting 800+ gift and home décor resources in an unrivaled market destination. Las Vegas Market features thousands of furniture, gift and home décor lines, allowing for cross-category commerce among the gift, furniture, home décor and accessory industries. The Summer 2013 Las Vegas Market runs July 29-August 2, 2013, at World Market Center Las Vegas. For more information, visit GiftandHomeLV.com.