Daily News

From Home Furnishing Business

Las Vegas Market Continues Expansion and Refinements

May 1, 2014  by in Las Vegas, Market   

Key highlights for the summer Las Vegas Market include sustained growth in permanent and temporary furniture, gift and home décor resources, as well as category expansion and density building and a new Sunday-Thursday date pattern.

“Las Vegas Market is continuing to enhance and refine the market experience for both buyers and suppliers as we enter the second year of a three-phase strategic plan to establish ourselves as the leading cross-category market serving the furniture, home decor and gift industries,” said Scott Eckman, chief marketing & strategy officer, International Market Centers. “For July, we expect to continue the gains we’ve made over the past 18 months by expanding the depth and breadth of furniture, gift and home décor offerings and by continuing our sharp upward trajectory in attendance.

New resources and expanded showrooms are projected in virtually every category of Las Vegas Market’s furniture, gift and home décor offerings, with record numbers of new gift and home décor vendors continuing to amass across the campus. The market’s gift and home décor resources have experienced dramatic growth since 2013, through expansion of existing resources as well as addition of new categories, such as specialty tabletop, lifestyle merchandise, fashion accessories and artisanal crafts.  Expansions and new additions to both permanent and temporary presentations are expected bring more than 100 new resources to market this summer.

Las Vegas Market continues to serve as the only major furniture market in the Western United States and the largest bedding market in the country.  Growth in furniture resources at the Market continues with the recent additions of Ace Bayou; Amisco; Barcalounger; CDI; Chairtech; Copeland Furniture; Cristo Rey; Décor-Rest; England, a La-Z-Boy Company; Huntington; LH Imports; Natuzzi; Oios Metals; Palatial; Tvilum; Vaughan; and Violino.

Las Vegas Market further reinforces its position as a key national bedding market with the following new additions in the mattress and bedding category: Blu Sleep; Dreams Sleep; Easy Rest; Natura; Prana Sleep; Softide; Spaldin Sleep; and Wolf Beddin.

The furniture and bedding floors at the Las Vegas Market hit 96 percent occupancy at the recent Winter 2014 market, including completely sold out home furnishings temporaries on the second floor of Building B.

Temporary exhibit offerings are expanding once again at the Summer Las Vegas Market, with addition of two new categories – FIRST, which spotlights first time to market products, providing buyers with the opportunity to find fresh, creative and unique resources across all categories; and COUTURE, which offers a unique presentation of artist/designer/maker products, specially created to offer one of a kind selections for immediate delivery.

At the same time, temporary categories – FASHION, GIFT, GLOBAL and MADE –are being combined to create a more seamless shopping experience for buyers.  The GLOBAL segment has been combined with MADE, to focus on domestic and international handcrafted, artisanal and designer-created products, including ceramics, pottery, home décor, letterpress, apparel, jewelry and fairly traded products as well as a juried collection of merchandise; and the FASHION assortment of lifestyle-oriented merchandise is being combined with the GIFT collection to offer a variety of unique and interesting specialty items including garden, plush, toy, seasonal, decorative gifts, spa, souvenir, inspirational, resort specialty, jewelry, accessories and apparel.

With these changes, Las Vegas Market will offer retailers access to 14 unique temporary exhibits: HOME, GALLERY, TEXTILES, STYLE and VERANDA on floor C5; COUTURE, GIFT, FIRST, GOURMET, MADE, TREND, VINTAGE and CARRY! on floor C11; and Home Furnishings on floor B2.

Beyond product resources, the Las Vegas Market also hosts a dynamic series of complimentary educational programming that addresses topics such as in-store marketing, display and merchandising, social media and mobile marketing. Special programs on tap include Ahead of the Curve, an exclusive preview of the hottest new  and trends in home furnishings hosted by a star-studded designer panel; the annual Gift for Life fundraising party; First Look, a fast track presentation to the hottest new home furnishings and gift products being introduced at market; and Design Camp, a two-day “designer boot camp” hosted by celebrity interior designers and entrepreneurs Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis.

July marks the first Summer Las Vegas Market to feature a Sunday to Thursday date pattern. The Sunday-to-Thursday date shift, which was successfully introduced in January 2014 at the winter Las Vegas Market, better serves retailers’ needs for a weekend shopping day and also accommodates Friday travel plans.