Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Las Vegas Reports 31% Increase in Buyer Registrations
August 9,
2013 by in Las Vegas, Market 
Thousands of new-to-market buyers represented all 50 states and 60-plus countries. That included a 13 percent increase in furniture buyers. The ongoing expansion and realignment of gift and home décor exhibitors resulted in exponential growth in buyer traffic, with a 67.3 percent increase in home décor buyers; and an 82.5 percent increase in gift attendees visiting the revamped Building C. Building C featured more than 50 new gift and home décor showrooms and an estimated 1,150 new lines added since Winter 2012.
“We are delighted to have been able to aggregate resources and attendance as quickly as we have, and to deliver such a strong market for both buyers and suppliers,” said Dorothy Belshaw, president of Gift & Home Décor, International Market Centers. “Large increases in buyer attendance, as well as substantial numbers of new permanent showrooms and temporary exhibitors, sustain our repositioning of Las Vegas Market as the leading gift and home furnishings destination in the western United States.”
“Las Vegas is bigger, better, easier for customers to shop for product," said Satya Tiwari , president of Surya, which debuted a new 30,000-square-foot showroom on the newly launched C4 collection of better home décor resources. "We’ve had great traffic and order writing from both current customers and new customers. This Market has turned around in big way.”
In the furniture category, Las Vegas Market had more than 700,000 square feet of new space added in the past year, resulting in 96 percent of the furniture space now leased.
“Overall, our furniture exhibitors were very pleased; they saw more accounts than in past summer markets and they are clearly doing more business here,” said Tom Mitchell , president of home furnishings for International Market Centers. “We see this improving trend in our leasing as well; more furniture companies are showing in Las Vegas and many are expanding.”
With the addition of many higher-end, design-oriented brands at Las Vegas Market, the show was able to attract a greater number of designers and high-end retailers in search of fashion-forward products.