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IHA’s blog features informative posts written to keep the housewares industry educated and informed about key strategic issues and IHA member services.

Export 101: Understanding Pricing

Pricing: Where to Begin Developing an export pricing strategy is one of the most important and complicated aspects of selling overseas. There are many factors to take into consideration when setting prices including your company’s export objectives, market dynamics, costs associated with exporting the product, and sales strategy. When considering your company’s export…

Global Retail Intelligence – August

To follow is a brief review of retail news from around the world: August 28 – Nordic Retailer, H&M Launches New Store, Arket The first Arket store that features fashion and home products opened in London on Regent Street and the company has launched the online store. Additional store openings are planned for Copenhagen, Brussels and Munich. From Business…

Looking for Local

Local retailers seek local products. That’s the theme across the nation as specialty retailers, many of whom also find they benefit from customers looking to shop at local businesses, try to return the favor with nearby producers. “We always focus on finding local products,” says Dan Saklad, owner of, along with wife Diana, Whisk in Cary, N.C. “We are local, so we do…

Hardware Store Update from the Japan DIY Industry Association

Information provided by the Japan DIY Industry Association shows remarkable development in the sales and number of DIY stores/home centers in Japan since the first DIY store was opened in the country over 40 years ago. There are now over 4,500 DIY stores/home centers in Japan with annual general proceeds reaching 3.95 trillion yen. Annual general proceeds & number of DIY…

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…