From air fryers to deep tissue massage guns, predicting the next hot trend is tricky business. While we can’t tell you what will be on every 2023 Christmas list, we can give you insights into the technology to efficiently manage everything from supply chains to business processes to inventory and fulfillment once you identify your next best sellers. Data-driven efficiency has always been critical to success, now it’s the competitive advantage that lets you delight customers while maintaining margins. In this session, learn how technology can help you gain a more holistic view of your business. You’ll understand how to establish a better baseline for inventory and supply chain, know which KPIs to track, and demystify complex business models for sustained, long term success. You’ll also hear some real-life customer examples and the difference it made.

Trend and economic forecasters agree that the current financial climate will cause consumers to spend more time at home again, including for dining and entertaining. This time, the pent-up longing for newness and adventure will be amplified. That hunger for something fresh is poised to translate into a demand for new tastes, tools, and techniques in the kitchen and on the table. This shift presents housewares manufacturers and retailers with unique opportunities for innovation, engagement, and growth. Consumer insight expert Leigh Ann Schwarzkopf will examine the latest food and flavor forecasts. She will cover everything from ingredients, cuisine, and nutritional trends, and on through new directions for sweets, savories, and beverages too. Retailers and manufacturers alike will benefit from new understandings and inspirations for content and product that will entice an insatiable consumer.

We learned in 2020 that most of what we “knew” about forecasting was both flawed and highly vulnerable to shocks. In 2021, we learned our thinking around the purpose of stores was equally incomplete. Then 2022 was the year that taught very harsh lessons in margin and balance sheet management – the pain of giving in to commercial “FOMO” and failing to pass cost through in good time reverberates still in 2023. In this presentation, Euromonitor International provides an overview of the scale of pressure faced in 2022, the responses that made the biggest difference, sharing how related consumer behaviors have changed in the last couple of years, and how that is translating into the home furnishings and cookware industries. Attendees will leave with pragmatic sector benchmarks, and they will see how rapidly the sector is pivoting to prepare for the next harsh lesson.

Beth Goldstein, Industry Analyst at the NPD Group, examines how pandemic-related consumer behaviors and priorities are impacting the U.S. travel goods market. Learn about the categories, brands, channels and items driving growth and/or declines. Goldstein will leverage NPD’s latest retail and consumer data to provide cross-industry context to these results, and she will include her outlook for 2023 and beyond so you can identify areas of opportunity for your business.

Fran Groesbeck will lead a panel discussion (panelists TBD) to provide an overview on PFAS chemicals used to make a wide range of housewares products, and what those across the industry need to know about new legislation requirements related to PFAS and how to adapt.

Learn about how Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly program is helping shift customer demand to more sustainable products. Amazon, in this sponsored session, will provide updates on program impact, an overview of new features driving demand to products in the program, and an update on new ways to qualify. Attendees also will also hear about the future direction of the program, and how sustainable brands can qualify for exciting new promotional opportunities.

We are past the lockdown life, gone through much of our revenge spending, and now are living in inflationary times, where will there be growth opportunities? In this presentation/discussion, NPD will provide a forecast for 2023 and talk about growth opportunities by taking a look back in history at our behaviors during past challenging economic times, and review current trends inside and outside of the Home and Housewares industry.

The topics covered will include the export supply chain, export documentation, managing export trade compliance, overview of export regulations, Incoterms, export licensing, license exceptions, export case studies, recordkeeping, electronic export information and other government agencies involved in the export process. For those considering export sales for the first time, this session offers a broad scan of what and how to address export compliance; for seasoned exporters, a thorough compliance cross-check.

Retail is not dead…mediocre retail is dead. How to create successful customer experiences. Customers have NOT canceled retail. What customers are looking for today. The gia Expert Jurors Wolfgang Gruschwitz, Scott Kohno and Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen report from their experiences and share new ideas around the world of retail concepts.