The Summer Las Vegas Market was a smashing success, with growth in buyer attendance across all categories, including furniture, decor and gift. The 2013 Summer Market registered a 31% gain in buyer attendance over last year’s Summer Market, with thousands of new-to-market buyers representing all 50 states and 60+ countries. Las Vegas Market continues to grow its home furnishings buyer base with a 13% increase in furniture buyers, further establishing this market as the leading home furnishings market in the West. The ongoing expansion and realignment of gift and home décor exhibitors resulted in exponential growth in buyer traffic, with a 67.3% increase in home décor buyers and an 82.5 % increase in gift attendees visiting the revamped Building C, and a hugely positive reaction among exhibitors. Building C featured more than 50 new gift and home décor showrooms and an estimated 1,150 new lines added since Winter 2012.
BUILDING C EXPANSION: GIFT AND HOME DÉCOR
“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.”
Key elements of Building C’s transformation into an unrivaled gift and home décor showcase for the western states included the Summer 2013 launch of the new directional c-ONE cross-category presentation with leading home décor and specialty tabletop brands; expansion of better home décor showrooms onto two floors – C3 and C4; and the debut of the dynamic new “Lifestyle Collection” of fashion-forward resources on C10. In addition, this Summer related temporary exhibits were repositioned onto three floors – C5 for home-related categories, C10 for trend-forward merchandise and C11 for gift-relevant categories – to facilitate synergies between temporary exhibits and permanent showrooms on adjacent floors.
Vendors gave the Summer Market rave reviews, citing enhanced resources, increased cross-category sales and marketing opportunities and overall momentum for a dominant west coast marketplace. Barbara Knight, president of Just Got 2 Have It!, one of the anchors of the C10 Lifestyle Collection premiere, commented, “I think this industry is going towards an east coast/west coast orientation. We’ve had nice traffic and I’m looking forward to growing the west coast business. I think the buyers are going to come once they know what’s happening here. I wanted to be the first one in and I’m very excited to be a part of it.”
One of the Summer Market’s most eagerly anticipated highlights was the debut of c-ONE, a new cross-category presentation featuring a collection of leading home décor and specialty tabletop brands to the Las Vegas Market. “We’ve had good traffic and there are lots of people new to Las Vegas writing orders,” said Susan Gravely, owner of VIETRI. “We feel excitement from people that Las Vegas is being reinvigorated. It’s the new buzzword in our industry, and there is lots of excitement for the market.”
According to 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, “Las Vegas is bigger, better, easier for customers to shop for product. We’ve had great traffic and order writing from both current customers and new customers. This Market has turned around in big way.”
Buyers immediately recognized the transformation. “We were pleasantly surprised to see so many new, great showrooms and resources,” said Jack Bhasin, president of Aahs. “The merchandising and presentations we saw were refreshing at a time when other markets are shrinking, and we were able to find many resources and vendors that we have not seen at other shows in years.”
“Coming out of such a strong Summer Market, we are focusing on building momentum for the Winter 2014 Market, running January 26-30, with our primary short-term objective being continued increases in both the quality and quantity of resources and attendance.” Belshaw explained. “Looking ahead to the Summer 2014 Market, which runs July 28 to August 1, 2014, we will be launching new categories such as kitchen products and enriching the presentation of better goods to further strengthen Las Vegas Market’s position as the must-attend western marketplace for gift and home décor.”
FURNITURE CONTINUES TO BE STRONG, ADDS BUYERS AND EXHIBITORS
Las Vegas Market continues to see significant momentum in the furniture segment of the market with over 700,000 square feet of new space added in the past year, resulting in 96% 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.
“This market has been an incredible success for Christopher Guy,” said Paul Watson, president, Christopher Guy-Americas. “We exceeded our sales goals by over 200% and we look forward to the 2014 Las Vegas Winter Market. We are thrilled by the strong order-writing, particularly from new, international accounts predominantly from Canada and South America. Las Vegas Market is no longer a regional market and is proving itself as the leading International West Coast marketplace.”
Buyers representing the top 100 retailers, the design industry and small to mid-size retailers were out in force at the Summer Market, and were writing orders.
“Traffic has been really solid and we are writing orders,” added Len Burke, Sr. VP sales and marketing, Klaussner. “We see all of the majors here as well as west coast customers and even major east coast customers. We are seeing the right people.”
Las Vegas Market is a leading home furnishings and gift marketplace in the western U.S., presenting 2,000+ gift and home furnishings resources in an unrivaled market destination. Las Vegas Market features thousands of gift, furniture and home décor lines, allowing for cross-category commerce among these industries. The Winter 2014 Las Vegas Market runs January 26-30, 2014 at World Market Center Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com.
About Las Vegas Market and International Market Centers, L.P. Las Vegas Market is an international furnishings showcase that combines style, inspiration and productivity in an unrivaled, world-class destination. Situated on World Market Center Las Vegas’ state-of-the-art campus, Las Vegas Market features a comprehensive array of new product from thousands of leading manufacturers and lines in gift, furniture, mattress, lighting, decorative accessories, floor coverings, home textiles and more – delivering Today’s Total Home & Gift Marketplace. Retailers and designers can shop product offerings from trend-setters in all gift and home furnishings categories as well as benefit from complimentary educational, networking and hospitality events. With two markets each year, Las Vegas Market is the only major home furnishings and gift market in the western U.S. offering a unique cross-section of suppliers and buyers spanning these industries. For more information, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com. Find us on Facebook and Twitter.
Las Vegas Market is produced by International Market Centers, L.P. (IMC), the world’s largest operator of premier showroom space for the furnishings, home décor and gift industries. International Market Centers owns and operates 11.5 million square feet of world-class exhibition space in High Point, N.C. and Las Vegas. IMC’s mission is to build and operate an innovative, sustainable, profitable and scalable platform for the furnishings, home décor and gift industries. For more information on IMC, visit http://imcenters.com/.
