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Smart Home: Keeping Connected

Michelle Hespe meets Carley Knobloch (or Carley K, like her blog is called), a digital lifestyle expert, to chat about the Internet of Things and the smart home. As a retailer, you need to embrace this new wave of technology or risk falling behind your competitors. A couple of years ago, most people hadn’t heard of Internet of Things (IoT) or the smart home. Even 12 months ago…

Generations of Inspiration

Michelle Hespe speaks to Patricia Lockhart, owner and director of Uruguay’s award-winning retail store, Bazar La Iberica and its focus on generations of inspiration. Achieving 100 years in business is something worth talking about. But Bazar La Iberica, a family-run retailer operating in a country with only 3 million inhabitants (half of which live on very low income) has…

Discovering Design: Stelton

Forming a Design Brand More than 50 years ago, two friends, Stellan and Carton, merged their first names to form Stelton, which became one of Denmark’s best-known design brands. Niels Stellan Høm and Carton Madelaire partnered to start a trading company in 1960. After marketing sports shoes and furniture, they learned about a small factory in Fårevejle, Denmark, Danish…

Recycling and Display Props

By Martin M. Pegler Props, I would imagine, is short for “properties” and “properties” can be anything that adds something to a scene, a setting, a display. If we were to look around us, we would see we are standing in the center of a field of display props: from the furniture in the room, the plants, the unused rolls of wallpaper, the tableware, the collection of pots and…

A Cut Above

The Chopping Block is Chicago's largest recreational cooking school and gourmet retail store, and yet so much more to so many people. From cooking demonstrations for newbies flexing their cooking wings to hands-on cooking classes where good home cooks can advance from their comfort zone, The Chopping Block is out to get everyone cooking confidently. And for those who love…

And The Melody Lingers On

By: Martin M. Pegler Imagine it is almost Christmas and the store is filled with happy holiday shoppers. Do I hear music playing? YES!! And probably the music in retail stores is music of the season—like “White Christmas”—or “I’ll be Home For Christmas” or maybe even some Christmas carols. Why the music and why these familiar melodies? Because music “soothes the soul,” is…

Rebellious Energy SS18

Looking ahead to 2018, there are several shifts in consumer mood that are driving trends in design for the home. One major influence in housewares trends, is a growing consumer desire to seek out newness and do things differently. This rebellious attitude is influencing a much bolder and futuristic aesthetic within the home, particularly for the Spring Summer…

Incorporating Technology Into Your Independent Homewares Retail Mix

Technology is no longer isolated to tech-heads and gadget nerds. There are a large range of products that integrate technology into your décor, going by the category name - fashtronics . These design-focused objects integrate technology for function – not for technology’s sake. Fashtronics is a growing category in home décor. Examples of this fashtronics trend include…

Understanding Influencers

The tools of the trade for retailers have irrevocably changed. Today, it’s not good enough to sell great products and have great staff. Today, social commentary is word of mouth, and influencers can provide a route to gaining more traction in a world where the union of technology and social media is king. Let’s start with the basics and work our way up to a more complex…