April 3,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Special Events on April 4, 2012
The Spirit of Life dinner at High Point Furniture Market has sold out of seats.
The fundraiser in support of City of Hope will take place April 22 at Grandover resort in Greensboro, N.C.
Organizers have begun a waiting list for tickets. As seats become available, they will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis.
April 3,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on April 4, 2012
Movie-goers might notice contemporary home furnishings vendor Phillips Collection's award-winning seat belt chairs in the hit movie The Hunger Games.
Eight green seat belt dining chairs surrounded an ultra-modern dining table in the penthouse training apartment depicted in the film.
Company President and CEO, Mark Phillips, shared, "It goes without saying that this is unbelievable exposure for Phillips Collection," said President and CEO Mark Phillips. "What is most exciting is how many of our customers and fans have called in letting us know they saw the movie and immediately noticed our chairs."
The Hunger Games brought in $155 million on the opening weekend, the third-biggest opening in movie history for a non-sequel.
The chairs were purchased by set designer Margaret Hungerford, whose firm is based in North Carolina. Other movie sets she's furnished include ones for Minority Report and Contagion.
Phillips Collection offers the seat belt chair in a variety of sizes, colors and materials.
April 3,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Rugs on April 4, 2012
Rug vendor Rugs America Corp. will return to
High Point Furniture Market after a five-year absence for this month's show.
The Farmingdale, N.Y.-based company will exhibit in 1,500-square-foot showroom, space G373, of the
International Home Furnishings Center. Rugs America is creating a spring-themed ambience with light wood floors and special fixtures to highlight its latest introductions, said Aaron Hakimian, president.
"We are thrilled to be back in High Point," said Hakimian. "The IHFC is a great building and there's no question that High Point is a key destination for furniture stores and large home furnishings buyers to shop for rugs. We're right where we need to be."
At market, Rugs America will be adding new models to many of its core collections in a range of styles and price points.
"We have invested heavily in a number of collections," said Hakimian. "We have a massive data base of designs, representing all of the key style directions in the marketplace."
In addition, Rugs America offers retailers the ability to create their own exclusive designs to match popular upholstery groupings on their store floors.
"They can come up with their own designs to complement their best-selling sofas," he said. "It allows them to offer the consumer a complete package."
In recent years, as more and more furniture stores add rugs to their product assortments, High Point has emerged as a key hub for the rug industry, according to Hakimian.
"There's no better place to display and make available rugs than furniture stores," he said. "They're the one setting where consumers can see how everything fits together--furniture, accents and rugs. To reach the many retailers who are entering into or expanding their rug business, we need to be in High Point. That's where the action is."
April 3,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Technology on April 4, 2012
Vanguard Furniture and Viewit Technologies have partnered to create "The Virtual Design Center," a 3-D in-store shopping experience.
The program brings 3-D segments seen on television to furniture showrooms, a technology not readily available to the average retailer or design professional. Vanguard teamed with Viewit's Technologies/3Dream.net on a pilot project to bring the sales potential of 3D to the design professional and consumer level. The Virtual Design Center is a whole-room 3D shopping experience created to help guide the home furnishings shopper in deciding what will look best in their home. Flooring, window treatments, lighting, area rugs and paint colors join furniture in the searchable 3Dream database of products to work with.
The focus of the Virtual Design Center is the 3D Room Designer tool, an online design platform that uses real-world products and materials in a virtual 3D space. At this month's High Point Furniture Market in Vanguard's showroom, 301 N. Hamilton St., a series of newly introduced Vanguard products will be represented in 3D to demonstrate the concept, and visitors will be invited to share their thoughts and interest.
"This market we're very excited to explore what technologies are available and which will be the best for our clients," said Dixon Mitchell, president of Vanguard Furniture. "The Virtual Design Center concept is a natural extension to our 'Make it yours' personalized programs for upholstery and case goods. The ability to see it all (before deciding), is a unique approach to home furnishings. We want to help our resellers create the all-important emotional attachment to the entire room and feel that technology is the best way to make that connection."
Margi Kyle, a.k.a "The Designing Doctor," will be presenting in the Vanguard showroom Monday, April 23 8 a.m.; and again at 5 p.m. She will speak to the importance of technology for designers and retailers, and the impact that 3D and other new technologies will have on the industry--now and in the future. Design professionals and retailers are invited to attend. No RSVP is required but seating is limited.
In addition, Viewit will demonstrate the latest features of its online 3D platform, 3Dream.net, during the High Point Furniture Market in the Atrium of the Furniture Plaza Building (at bottom of escalators), as well as in the Vanguard Furniture showroom.
April 2,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Technology on April 3, 2012
SuperCat Solutions and
Upward Technologies have partnered to integrate a robust barcode-based showroom order-scanning solution with an iPad-based road-sales app.
The new agreement enables SuperCat to provide total integration of a proven showroom solution, a leading sales extranet portal, and its iPad-based sales app, eCat.
"We want to offer our clients the best of all worlds," said Steve Thrasher, president of SuperCat Solutions, developer of the eCat sales presentation and order taking tool for road sales reps. "We've already integrated eCat and the well established FurnishWEB sales and product information portal. Our collaboration with Upward Technologies will enable manufacturers to let sales reps use eCat to efficiently take orders at trade shows while at the same time ensuring reliability and a good experience for customers and reps. Orders scanned into eCat will wirelessly sync with a showroom server to provide robust order processing and real time sales reporting for management, making eCat an all around tool for both the road and showroom."
OrderXpert from Upward Technologies, a company that has offered showroom order scanning solutions for the home furnishings industry for more than ten years, is a full featured, server-based showroom order entry solution. eCat, developed by SuperCat Solutions, provides an iPad-based sales presentation and order taking tool specifically designed to meet the needs of companies and sales representatives who sell a visual product on the road for the home furnishings, lighting, and gift industries. FurnishWEB is a manufacturer portal for the home furnishings industry, enabling manufacturers to share product and order information with their retail and design customers, sales reps, and staff over a secure Web site.
"Companies already using eCat will be able to begin running OrderXpert in their showroom in a matter of minutes and use the same eCat iPad app they are familiar with, saving substantial setup and training time while providing critical showroom specific features," said Matt Ridge, owner of Upward Technologies. "Additionally, our OrderXpert customers can now implement iPads in their showrooms without losing the features they need. Showrooms can even mix handheld scanners with iPads to give their sales associates the flexibility to use the tools that best suit their needs."
The benefits of the SuperCat Solutions and Upward Technologies collaboration include:
* Data is maintained in a single location greatly reducing maintenance cost.
* iPads already used by reps on the road can be mixed with hand-held barcode scanners used by staff that do not have iPads. All devices talk to the same server.
* To keep order entry fast and simple, complex rules-based Market discounts and promotions can be hosted on the server rather than on the OrderXpert hand-held device.
* Server based printing is generally faster and more reliable than printing directly from iPads.
* Because Internet connectivity can be notoriously unreliable during trade shows, OrderXpert and eCat work over a local network instead of requiring an Internet connection.
* The OrderXpert support team attends all the major Markets to offer on-site tech support.
* OrderXpert offers a rich variety of reports that enable companies to track sales progress throughout Market.
* Multiple backups are kept on the server and on the iPads to ensure data security.
"Collaboration with companies like Upward Technologies and FurnishWEB that are specialists in their fields and have spent many years developing a great product, enables us to offer the very best solutions to our clients," Thrasher said. "Partnerships help each of us to focus and become better at our primary businesses. For SuperCat, that means we can devote full attention to the continued development of eCat as the best, most reliable, and easiest to use sales app on the Market."