By Vicki Matranga
Design Programs Coordinator
Since 2013, Perry James is president of U.S hardlines at The NPD Group, the category which encompasses the automotive aftermarket, home, office supplies and toys businesses. In an earlier role, he was president of the home and office supplies division which he successfully launched in 2007. James is responsible for all aspects of business management, including marketing, sales, and client and product development. He provides executive-level guidance, industry analysis, and overall strategic value to clients who are engaged in the consumer and commercial side of the office supplies and home industries.
James has been with The NPD Group for 20 years. In that time, he has also worked in the company’s fashion business. Before joining NPD, he was with AC Nielsen. James holds an M.B.A. from New York University and a B.S. from the University of Connecticut.
Perry, what is the most exciting or rewarding part of your work? What fuels your inspiration?
Working for The NPD Group, I find that providing our manufacturer and retailer partners with insights to help them win and grow is the most rewarding part of my job. I always find it exciting to hear success stories from our clients on how they were able to use insights from NPD to answer their most pressing business issues, helping them grow or mitigate risks. It’s especially exciting to hear stories about how our consumer insights have helped companies develop new innovations to meet the needs and wants of their customers.
In the past few years, what has changed most in your business? How has your company met these challenges in the way you do your work?
Certainly the shift in how consumers behave has been dramatic. Think of how retailing has changed in just the past 10, five, or even three years. The omnipresence of technology in our lives and how it has revolutionized the way we communicate to consumers, the way consumers consume information, how they shop, what they buy, and where they buy.
We are quickly evolving the way we do business ourselves, with new data collection methodologies and deliverables that harness rapidly advancing technologies and constant connectivity. It’s a very exciting time and we are doing all we can to stay ahead of these changes. We are now providing consumer and retailer forecasting, market basket insights, promotional evaluation, as well as velocity and distribution information, all layered with our industry expertise.
Why did you choose to speak at the International Home + Housewares Show?
The opportunity to speak at this Show allows us to solidify our brand name in one of the core industries we track at NPD. We are committed to the home and housewares industries, and there is no better forum for reaching out to our customer base than this Show. Speaking at the International Home + Housewares Show gives us an opportunity to provide insights to a wide group of attendees, and we hope to help them experience a more productive and successful Show.
Factors and Disrupters: The Changing Retail Landscape
Innovation Theater
Lakeside Center, Room E350
March 6, Sunday, 2:30 pm – 3:20 pm
Tell us what you will be speaking about and how and this topic is important for Show audiences.
The topic “Factors and Disrupters: The Changing Retail Landscape” is important because today’s retail environment is constantly changing and evolving, making it increasingly challenging to keep up and compete successfully. The way we do business today is very different than even a year ago, thanks to developments in the online world, social media, and their effects on consumer behavior.
What are you looking forward to most from speaking at the Innovation Theater?
I look forward to getting questions and feedback from the audience. I always learn something from the folks in the industry when I speak at the Innovation Theater, insights that help us get better at what we do.
What do you see as consumers’ biggest concerns regarding housewares products?
Kitchen Electrics: As the modern kitchen evolves, consumers are looking for products that keep pace with a multi-functional household: products that combine chopping and mixing, innovations that can produce hot beverages and cold, and cookers that can be used to make soup, brisket, bread, or dessert. But multi-functionality is only one variable in a consumer equation that combines footprint, price, and aesthetics. Balancing these priorities in a landscape of unprecedented choice is the primary challenge consumers have in small kitchen electrics, as well as their great opportunity.
Floorcare: Time, there just isn’t enough of it. In a world of daily routines that we are constantly trying to streamline, making products more efficient and smarter is key to creating more time for the consumer to do more important things. While home automation is just taking off in the floor care industry, robotic vacuums are already adding this technology with the ability to clean “on the go”. So not only are robotic vacuums making your life easier by doing the job for you, without lifting a finger (except the one to press a button on your phone) you can now come home from work every day to a clean house.
Housewares/Non-electrics: Consumers are picky. Today’s retail landscape offers countless choices, and since many housewares in the non-electric space don’t offer a tangible value proposition, this makes fighting for their dollars even harder. Over the past few years consumers have gravitated to products that either make life simpler, healthier or serve some social agenda. As a result, consumers are very discerning. When they finally do make a purchase, they want the right price, along with on-trend design, and they are not willing to settle.
What are some of today’s trends or issues that new product development professionals and/or retailers face in the housewares market?
Kitchen Electrics: Connecting appliances to experience will be important as our culture shifts values from craving stuff to craving lifestyle. Can our kitchens help us to be healthier, and more engaged? Can they help us socialize, learn, and express our interests and values? Casting new innovations against a scene that consumers can relate to emotionally as a reflection of themselves will be one of the more powerful ways to bring new items to market.
Floorcare: When it comes to household floor care cleaning, innovation and convenience are driving growth in many categories – from advancements in battery power, resulting in more cordless products, to the multi-functionality that is blurring the lines of many floor care categories. (Why buy a both a hand and a stick vacuum when you can buy a multi-functional stick vacuum that includes a hand vacuum?) New innovations are revolutionizing the floor care industry, which has resulted in positive growth for consecutive years. Staying ahead of the trends AND the competition is critical in order to win in this ultra-competitive industry.
Housewares/Non-electrics: As mentioned above, products that make our lives simpler, healthier, and socially responsible are the trends du jour. Non-electrics have not had the same success with this as those in electrics categories. Manufacturers and retailers must partner with one another to publicize the benefits of existing products that fit these trends. For example, nearly half of all housewares consumers use paper plates to entertain. If each household in the U.S. used only one 12-inch paper plate per year, all of those plates would circle the earth nearly five times. That’s a social agenda that is real, and that the millennial consumer, especially, can latch on to. The key here is awareness and education. These products need to be marketed in new ways, to attract the new consumer.
Thank you, Perry. You’ve offered some really thought-provoking questions here. It will be fascinating to see how you thread the data for your interpretations. Your perspectives will enlighten listeners who work in many of our Show’s product categories. Be sure to attend Perry’s presentation on Sunday, March 6 at 2:30 pm in the Innovation Theater, Lakeside Center E350.
To learn more about NPD, visit www.npd.com. Contact Perry James at:
Perry James
President, Hardlines,
The NPD Group, Inc.
900 West Shore Road
Port Washington, NY 11050
845-206-7281
perry.james@npd.com
The four days of the 2016 International Home + Housewares Show will be packed with events and education. To help you plan your valuable time at the Show, we introduce you to the speakers and the 21 exciting presentations that will take place in the Innovation Theater in the Lakeside Center. Gain cutting edge insights that you can apply to your work. All programs are audio-recorded and will be available at www.housewares.org after the Show.
