Jan 17, 2017

Record-breaking new, international buyer increase at Atlanta winter market

The Atlanta January Market closed its eight-day run with an expansive global customer base, record-breaking new-buyer registrations and international attendance increases — all achieved in the face of weather impediments around the U.S. — marking its 60th-anniversary staging, according to Jeffrey L. Portman, Sr., vice chairman, president and chief operating officer.

“Atlanta’s January advances produced a climate of resurgent business optimism and vitality in the first and largest show of the U.S. winter market season and set the precedent for a radically redefined and reimagined AmericasMart July Market experience,” Portman added.

The January Market registered the vast majority of America’s celebrated Top 100 retailers, together with designers, specifiers, online merchants, independent retailers, trend setters, tastemakers and high-profile buying groups from every U.S. state and 81 nations worldwide.

“The buying power and global brands doing business here in January set the new bar for market performance — here and everywhere,” said Kim Higgins, AmericasMart Gift & Home Furnishings Advisory Board chairman and founder and principal of 225 Unlimited. “Customer confidence was strong and sustained across every category and floor.  The buyers were here, ready to buy, and they bought big.”

A few scenes from AmericasMart, taken by the Gift Shop magazine team while on-site, are below. For even more photos from AmericasMart, visit Gift Shop’s social media accounts: Facebook | Instagram.