Inspiration Magazine

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

Inspiring and Expressing Colors: Defining the Essential Trends

by Michelle Hespe Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and world-renowned color guru, speaks to Inspiration Magazine about how retailers can learn to spot emerging color trends, understand color “moods” and grasp how best to use them to their brand’s advantage. Leatrice has just released her 10th book on color — The Complete Color…

Top Retail Trends for Consumer Engagement

by Michelle Hespe At the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, the four Expert Jurors of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) – Wolfgang Gruschwitz, Scott Kohno, Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen and Anne Kong – revealed the “Top Retail Trends for Consumer Engagement.” The key message from the Expert Jurors was: “Nothing is more important than engaging with…

The Fresh Face of Retail

by Michelle Hespe We speak to Anne Kong, expert juror from the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia), about fresh trends in sustainable retailing. When brands like Apple make big changes in their approach to retail and branding, you know there’s change a-foot. In Apple’s new stores, the products are still the main drawcard, but the clever place-making is what makes people…

Connected Souls: Housewares Industry Trends by Trend Bible

by Jenna Galley, Insight Editor, Trend Bible Trend Bible is a home and interiors-dedicated forecasting agency working with leading international brands to help them understand the future of their market. They forecast future trends in the behavior of consumers in a two-to-five year timeframe and analyze how this will impact the home environment. A deep connection with the…

Trending Today: Hydration

by Michelle Hespe At the 2018 International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, the hydration trend will be spotlighted in a new pre-Show event featuring an innovative range of approaches to water bottles and hydration, created by companies actively helping people to protect the planet by reducing plastic waste. In an era where people are more aware than ever that we need…

The Emotional Retail Game

by Michelle Hespe There are many convoluted dimensions when it comes to creating a special retail experience, and while Wolfgang Gruschwitz believes that the emotional dimension is the key to enticing a consumer into purchasing products, today it’s also about understanding a customer’s lifestyle choices in order to create a strong story for your brand, and a #PerfectStore.…

Emotive Retailing

Retail is not just about selling things—it’s about emotionally engaging potential customers, bringing them into your story and helping to make their dreams come true, explains retail expert and gia judge, Wolfgang Gruschwitz. The point of sale is, of course, the aim of a retailer. However, just as the journey is often more important and fulfilling than the destination, the…

Making a Mark: Create & Captivate on Social Media

Michelle Hespe speaks to Melissa Maker about growing your brand’s presence through five easy ‘social’ steps that you can take right now. As a retailer, you know that brand is everything. If you don’t have a great brand story, potential customers won’t stop, listen and look at what you are offering, and the sales won’t happen. It’s that simple. So how can you be heard…

Bound to Inspire

Seven years after launching popular housewares brand, StoreBound, the company’s forward-thinking CEO, Evan Dash chats with Michelle Hespe. Evan Dash meets me at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago with a big smile and the firm, friendly handshake he is known for. It’s been a decade since he left Macy’s, where he was the Senior VP for Home, and it’s been seven…