Inspiration Magazine: Innovation

Useful tips and resources prepared by business, industry and design experts to help retailers grow their businesses!

Introducing Anne Kong: gia’s New Expert Juror

The IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) program is guided by a wealth of housewares industry and retail expertise: the national gia sponsors are the leading professional housewares trade publications in their own countries and adding credibility to the program, the four expert jurors are internationally recognized experts in visual merchandising, store design and marketing. The…

Making Old New Again

Isn’t it remarkable how the past is always with us? How objects, textures and things that were part of that past still surround us, but rather than haunt, they offer a feeling of comfort, security and warmth. Not many of us live in homes or apartments with exposed walls of aged bricks, nor do we walk on floors covered with ancient timber, yet when we enter a shop or café or bar…

Living the Dream

If Patricia Velez embarks on a new venture, her passion is the project’s driving force. Inspiring others has also always been paramount to her, and so her latest incarnation—as the founder and CEO of Ambiente Living —has meant bringing these two facets of her approach to life and work together. There are now 30 Ambiente Gourmet stores in Colombia and two Ambiente Living…

A Picture Worth a Few Hundred Words – One Prop Does It All

Wouldn’t it be just wonderful if that was true! Imagine putting a decorative prop in your window and being able to leave it there almost all year —and still get a positive reaction from the shoppers on the street after all that exposure. Not easy—but it can be done. The Jumbo shop, the 2015 gia Global Honoree from Turkey, is an excellent example for how it can be and was…

Introducing the 2016 gia Global Honorees

Of the 25 national gia Global Innovation Award winners of 2015-2016, five stores were selected the most innovative, outstanding retailers on the planet. We check out what makes them so unique and outstanding. The top five stores declared gia Global Innovation Honorees in 2016 were: Lakehouse from Canada, Illums Bolighus from Denmark, Kitchen Shop from Malaysia, K’OOK! from…

gia – Honoring Retail Excellence and Innovation

Every March in Chicago, the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) are hosted by the International Housewares Association. The gia awards, which have been dubbed the Oscars of the housewares retail industry, bring together 25 of the world’s most innovative retailers, all having been voted as the best in their country. The IHA Global Innovation Awards program was created to…

Community – the New “C”

It takes more than the two “C”s caught between the “S”s to spell SUCCESS in retail today. It used to be about COMFORT and CUSTOMER CONVENIENCE. It always was somewhat about COST CONTROL. Lately it has been about COMMUNITY SPACES and CONSERVATION—though by going “green” you are serving the community as well. Let’s talk about COMMUNITY SPACES. Anybody who lives in or near New…

Chicago Retail Gem

In a character-filled, old, sunny warehouse in Lincoln Park on the north side of Chicago, there’s a business that is edgy, worldly, and well… positively chic. “ Jayson Home has a warm, sensual, textured feel,” says Creative Director Caroline Scheeler. “It's the kind of store that friends meet up at, and hang out, while they’re shopping. While our store, our brand, is ever…

A PICTURE WORTH A FEW HUNDRED WORDS: Ladders & Step Ladders

Ladders in retail displays... Step right up! That is what ladders are for. Not only do they make it possible for you to access something that may be out of reach, they also allow you to go from one level to the next with assurance of new views at each level. Think about it for a moment! How many different types of ladders do you already have in your store? You may have the…