talking shop
Meet the gia stars of 2019 E
very year, the International Housewares Association (IHA) and the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago
(which sees a name change for next year’s event to The Inspired Home Show, IHA’s Global Home+ Housewares Market), run an international awards programme for housewares retailers. Called the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) for Retail Excellence, the scheme was created to foster innovation and excellence in home and housewares retailing throughout the world. The competition is structured on a two-tier
level: national and global. Retailers are evaluated on their overall mission statement; vision and strategy; store design and layout; visual merchandising, displays and window displays; marketing, advertising and promotions; and customer service and staff training. This year, 30 national gia winners from 29 countries were selected (including UK’s Potters Cookshop at Hockley in Essex and Ireland’s Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven at Leighlinbridge in Co. Carlow). All were automatically entered in the global tier of the competition. The global gia jury, consisting of four
retail/visual merchandising experts (pictured below) and seven editors and publishers of co- sponsoring housewares trade publications from around the world, then selected five gia Global Honorees - and their names were announced
The 2019 gia Retail Global Honorees
A whistle-stop tour of the world’s top housewares shops, as voted by the judging panel of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) 2019 programme
during the Show, which was held at McCormick Place in Chicago from March 2 to March 5. The top five are: Jumbled (from Australia), Bahne (from Denmark), S-Kultur (from Germany), Futako Tamagawa TSUTAYA ELECTRICS (from Japan) and Porland (from Turkey).
In addition, one national winner was selected for the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising and one national winner was selected for the gia Digital Commerce Award for Excellence in Online Retailing. These accolades were received by La Cuisine (from
the Netherlands) and 9design (from Poland) respectively.
Since the launch of gia in 2000, there have
been over 430 gia retail award winners from 47 countries on six continents. Both gia national winners and Global
Honorees are recognised and prominently featured at the Show. A festive awards dinner is held during the exhibition. In addition, there is a special gia display in the Hall of Global Innovation in the Lakeside Center Lobby, introducing the national gia winners to visitors and exhibitors - and large gia winner banners span the walkway connecting the Lakeside Center to the Grand Concourse.
• For more information about the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) programme, visit
Housewares.org/Show/gia-Retail.
The 2019 gia expert jurors (l-r): Anne Kong, an educator and designer specialising in visual merchandising, exhibition design and special events; Scott Kohno of Retail Element LLC, an expert in retail marketing and the creation of retail environments that build corporate brands; Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen, ceo and founder of CleverBinder: a mobile productivity app that connects retailers and their customers via software solutions; Wolfgang Gruschwitz of Gruschwitz GmbH, which offers design and architectural services across four categories: Retail, Health, Business and Life.
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housewareslive.net •
HousewaresLive.net
• In 2020, ‘The Inspired Home Show, IHA’s Global Home + Housewares Market,’ will be held from March 14 to March 17 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Attendee registration and Show information is available at both
www.TheInspiredHomeShow.com and
www.Housewares.org.
•
twitter.com/Housewaresnews
July/August 2019
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