September 23,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Casual Furniture on September 24, 2010
The International Casual Furnishings Association honored outstanding product and individuals at this week's International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market.
The Apollo Awards recognize retail excellence in the sales and marketing of outdoor furnishings.
Finalists must demonstrate outstanding accomplishments and commitment to customer service. Winners in two categories, single store and multi-store, were selected through an online ballot.
Outdoor Elegance, of LaVerne, Calif., was the single store winner. Yard Art Patio & Fireplace, with four stores in and around Irving, Texas, was the multi-store category winner.
The Design Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., recognize products for their overall design, as well as their marketability, innovation, color, construction and imaginative use of materials. Category winners included:
* Cast Metal: Varenne barstool from Venemans Roger Thomas Collection.
* Complementary Casual Products: cushion storage chest by Povl Eskildsen for Gloster.
* Fabric: French Twist Collection from Shuford Mills/Outdura.
* Outdoor Lighting: Phatty conversation table lamp by Andy Morter for Shady Lady.
* Outdoor Rugs/Carpeting/Flooring: Peacock Ocean Aqua outdoor rug, from Sawgrass Mills/The HammockSource.
* Rattan/Wicker/Woven Materials: Gigi lounge from JANUS et Cie.
* Resin/Fiberglass: Brio MPG cushion sectional by William Vanderminden for Telescope Casual Furniture.
* Shade Products: Plantation MAX parasol by Dougan Clarke for TUUCI.
* Tubular Materials: color glass dining table from Telescope Casual Furniture.
* Wood Furniture: Topaz stackable carver by Ciani Design for Jensen Leisure.
* Wrought Iron/Wrought Aluminum: Amelie dual spring rocking loveseat by Shaun Sweeney for Woodard.
The Topaz stackable carver by Ciani Design for Jensen Leisure took the Lillian B. Winchester "Best of Show" award, which was selected from among the 11 category winners listed above.
Lifetime Achievement awards to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the casual furniture industry and to their individual communities included:
* Larry Shaw (1928-2009): Shaw was co-founder with William Lyon of the Lyon-Shaw wrought iron outdoor furniture company in 1969.
* Ron Ball: Ball is a sales representative for O.W. Lee in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Georgia and for Windham Castings in Texas and Oklahoma.
One manufacturer was honored in each of eight categories for the design and quality of their products, along with their merchandising, customer service, ethics, communications and trade relations. Winners were:
* Tropitone in the Tubular Materials Furniture category.
* O.W. Lee Company, Wrought Iron/Aluminum.
* Laneventure, Rattan/Wicker/Woven Materials.
* Gloster, Wood Casual.
* Treasure Garden, Shade Products.
* Lady, Outdoor Lighting.
* Ancient Mosaic Studios, Complementary Casual Products.
* Gensun Casual Living, Cast Metal.
Manufacturer of the Year
From among the eight category winners listed above, O.W. Lee was selected "Manufacturer of the Year."
Bryon Echols was the inaugural winner of a new award, Sales Representative of the Year. Echols, Echols Enterprises Inc., is a sales representative for Classic Cushions & Umbrellas, Lloyd/Flanders and Meadowcraft.
In addition, ICFA elected new officers and directors at its annual membership meeting held during the Casual show.
Rory Rehmert of Pride Family Brands was elected chairman. Vice chairman is Eric Parsons, Gloster Furniture.
Directors elected to one-year terms on the ICFA Executive Committee include Dudley Flanders, Lloyd/Flanders Inds.; Jim Schultz of Patios Plus; and Butch Wallace, Yard Art Patio and Fireplace.
Elected to three-year terms on the ICFA Board were Margaret Chang, Treasure Garden; Joseph Cilio, Alfresco Home; Dudley Flanders, Lloyd/Flanders Inds.; Petey Fleischut, Casual Marketplace; Greg Johnson, JDG Sales; Terri Lee Rogers, O.W. Lee Company; Greg Martin, Kolo Collection; Doug Sanicola, Outdoor Elegance; Jim Schultz, Patios Plus; and Ward Usmar, TUUCI.
September 23,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Technology on September 24, 2010
Keynote Competitive Research announced this week what it calls the first smartphone mobile commerce index.
The Keynote Mobile Commerce Index is a weekly performance ranking of leading and up-and-coming U.S. retail mobile Web sites being accessed using popular wireless device profiles, including the Apple iPhone.
Internet Retailer is featuring the new weekly Index on its site under an exclusive arrangement with Keynote. The new mobile commerce Index underscores the critical issue of mobile site performance and establishes, for the first time, and in a very public way, performance benchmarks across a representative sampling of large and not-so-large mobile Web sites.
Walmart's mobile site led the Index for the week of Sept. 13 with a perfect score of 1,000 points, an average load time of 3.18 seconds and an availability of 99.37 percent.
The Index shows the average response times and success rates for downloading the homepage of selected mobile commerce sites on popular smartphones using Keynotes commercially available mobile performance monitoring solution, Mobile Application Perspective. The response times and success rates are then combined to provide an overall score. The m-commerce sites that appear in the Index were selected to provide a benchmark for companies to compare their mobile site performance against a representative sampling of e-retailers.
To compile the weekly index, Keynote gathers data from across the top US mobile carriers by emulating popular smartphone profiles such as the Apple iPhone, Motorola Droid, and BlackBerry Curve. Each week Keynote calculates the average response time (load time) and reliability (success rate) for each of the sites. Response Time is the average time in seconds it took to download the Web site to the mobile phone. Success Rate is the percentage of time the Web site successfully downloaded the complete content to the mobile phone.
September 23,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Aggregated Content in Case Goods on September 24, 2010
from http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r3205375131&f=10761
After closing Thursday due to flooding, some of Ashley Furniture's employees in Arcadia, Wis., and Whitehall, Wis., return to work Friday.
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September 22,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Aggregated Content in economic news on September 23, 2010
from http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?z3200362705&z=1000247453
Consumer confidence may be down, but discretionary spending is up, according to American Express Business Insights, which has started its series of Q2 2010 Business Insights Spend Trends reports.
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September 22,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Aggregated Content in Upholstery on September 23, 2010
from http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r3201612396&f=10761
The White House will have two new additions to its furniture collection when the delivery arrives in Washington this week and they were both hand crafted right by Kittinger Furniture.
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