Inspiration Magazine

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

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…

Change & Challenge in the Economy of Expectations

Tom Mirabile, the IHA’s lifestyle trend forecaster and the senior vice president, Global Trend and Design, at Lifetime Brands, Inc., was joined at his annual International Home + Housewares Show keynote presentation by Peter Giannetti, editor-in-chief of HomeWorld Business and Gourmet Insider, and Susan Yashinsky, vice president of innovation trends at Sphere Trending. The…

Put a Smile in Your Display

by Martin M. Pegler What is a smile? Is it the enigmatic look on the face of the Mona Lisa that is called the Da Vinci smile? OR, is it that sudden expression of relief or pleasure or satisfaction that turns a dark, frowning visage into a sunny, glowing face that exudes a sense of hope?? There have been hundreds of songs written about SMILES, from the sad but lovely one by…

gia – Celebration of Retail Excellence and Innovation

Every March in Chicago, the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) are hosted by the International Housewares Association. The gia awards, “the Oscars® of the housewares industry”, bring together 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 celebrate excellence and innovation in…

Sweetly Connected

by Michelle Hespe We catch up with Paul Lowe, otherwise known as “Sweet Paul” to talk about how he injects emotion into his website, magazine, blog and online retail business. Many people have the dream of doing what they love as a living, but Paul Lowe – aka Sweet Paul – literally takes the cake. Sweet Paul has made a living off the things he loves — cooking, baking…