By Moe Lastfogel Director of Sales and Marketing for The Retail Observer ![]() Happy Holidays to all of our readers, supporters and friends. This has been what seems to have been a great year for both retailer and manufacturer alike. As I have had the opportunity to speak with both as I travel from shows to buy fairs and to showrooms, I keep hearing the word “up”. Business is up, percentages are up, volume is up, customer counts are up and so on. This year, many if not all of the shows touted larger attendances than in years past. Design Construction Week had a huge draw with the combined shows this year. In 2016 at KBIS, we are sponsoring the new Outdoor Products Area which will showcase the latest in outdoor kitchen and living design trends, as well as display new outdoor products from more than 15 brands. Located in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the pavilion will also offer expanded programming for attendees including panels and demonstrations. This category has blown “up” and is one you should seriously consider taking a look at and adding to your product mix. I’m looking forward to seeing the turnout for the event next year. As we, The Retail Observer, look forward to a new year we are also looking “up”. We plan to feature brand new manufacturers, shows and products to help you grow your business and keep you abreast of the latest in industry news. We are also looking to include plumbing, lighting and decorative hardware as well as the other categories we already showcase in our magazine. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you over the course of the 2016 show and buy fair season and I can’t wait to hear what tales you have to share of your business successes in 2015. Have a great holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Happy Retailing, Moe Lastfogel [email protected]
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By Moe Lastfogel Director of Sales and Marketing for The Retail Observer ![]() Wow, IFA. One word can describe this event, and that word is HUGE!!! This was our second year visiting IFA in Berlin and what a show. IFA is now the world’s leading trade fair for the home appliances industry and continues to be a trendsetting show. Overall, the total number of visitors rose to 245,000 this year and 1,645 exhibitors displayed their new products - you can read more about the show in this month’s issue. As a media partner, we were invited to many pre-show press events with both large and small manufacturers from all over the world. Companies that are already in North America, ones that are coming and others that are thinking about making the jump overseas. We were delighted by what we found at exhibit booths as small as 5’x10’ to entire halls just for one manufacturer. New technologies are definitely on their way and I was very excited to see these as future opportunities for Independents to have larger more specialized product offerings to present to their customers. For example, we saw new WiFi enabled devices with beautiful digital displays, redesigns from many manufacturers and collaborations between well known designers and manufacturers. I can’t go into too much detail as some of these products were prototypes and I have been sworn to secrecy. But I can promise you that as these exciting, new products hit the market we will keep you updated. Our “What’s Hot” section is a great place to see what products we find at shows like IFA and beyond. Happy Retailing, Moe Lastfogel [email protected] |
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December 2021
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