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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.

Discovering Design: Meet Kela

Get acquainted with the people behind KELA and other companies offering stylish products that will appear at the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show in Discover Design. Today we are speaking with Gabriele Heib, head of international sales and Kurt Lang, co-owner and managing director of KELA. Keck & Lang GmbH was founded in 1903 and can look back on a long…

Healthy Living Begins at Home

IHA chats with Chris Bissig, Manager, Concept and Brand Development at GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky to get a preview of his upcoming Healthy Living Begins at Home presentation at the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show. The Innovation Theater will feature 21 presentations over four days covering topics ranging from new product development to the smart home. Chris…

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…

Trends: Gift Giving – It’s the Thought That Counts

From wedding registries to gift baskets, gifting gives back to kitchenware and housewares retailers all year long. The tradition of giving other people presents drives sales during the all-important fourth quarter and retailers spend their year plotting a strategy to stock and merchandise the products that their customers will want to give to others. But what makes a good…

Stats: Older Customers are Happier Customers. In Some States.

Although much ado is made about the millennial generation’s potential influence on retail, Americans above the age of 55 are a key consumer group to retailers. The Baby Boomers have the money and many have the leisure time to get involved with hobbies, like taking cooking classes, which might lead them to buy new cookware, or DIY classes that might lead them to pick up a new…

Innovation Theater Lineup at 2017 International Home + Housewares Show

The purchasing desires and habits of Boomers, Millennials and GenXers and the differences in how and why men and women shop for home goods are some of the topics trend analysts will address during sessions in the Innovation Theater at the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show, March 18 - 21 at Chicago’s McCormick Place complex. Four programs outlining age and gender…

IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) Winners Announced

The International Home + Housewares Show and International Housewares Association (IHA), the global sponsors and organizers of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) program, today announced the national gia winners of 2016-2017 – including 28 outstanding home and housewares retailers from 27 countries around the globe. The gia program was created by the IHA and…

January Currency Outlook

In their January Currency Outlook, Tempus, an exchange rate and global payments company, provides a 2016 review and a look at what's ahead. The View Section of the Report details the following: US$ strength to be tested with change of the guard...A strong economy and policy divergence meets Donald Trump € Euro could be re-shaped, if not debunked...European leadership…

The Latin American Small Appliances Markets

Daniela Strebl, Regional Director Small Appliances Latin America for GfK Retail and Technology Chile Ltda., tells us about her company and her upcoming presentation on the Latin American Small Appliances Market: Opportunities and Challenges. GfK, founded in 1934 in Germany, is one of the largest global marketing research companies. With more than 13,000 employees in…