Refurbished housewares products, satisfying the insatiable consumer, North American housewares trends, restaurant delivery, grocery shopping and the future of home cooking are some of the topics to be covered during presentations in the Inspiration Theater at The Inspired Home Show 2024, Sunday to Tuesday, March 17-19 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Complex.
Inspiration Theater sessions will explore such topics as omni-channel marketing strategies, supply chain insights; intellectual property law; merchandising best practices and global consumer and retail trends. Sessions are open to all Show attendees and exhibitors. The Inspiration Theater continues its commitment of bringing relevant, topical and actionable content to the Show at a time when the housewares industry wants and needs such information, direction and inspiration. With the Show’s consolidation to the North and South buildings, the theater is now located in Room S101a in the South Building.
The Inspiration Theater will present 14 sessions during the Show. Sessions begin each day at 9 a.m. and run until 4 p.m., with breaks at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. for the Keynote sessions.
Six programs in the lineup focus on consumer trends.
- Refurbished Housewares Products: Unlocking New Markets, Not Cannibalizing Sales, Chris Lubick, Verdi Commerce, Sunday, March 17, 9 a.m.— Refurbished products can enable brands to reach new customers and create incredible value when marketed effectively. The first step towards doing so is acknowledging two simple facts about refurbished goods: First, refurbished electronics consumer behavior has shifted dramatically over the last decade; refurbished goods are now in high demand, specifically by Gen Zs and Millennials. Second, remanufacturing and remarketing returns rather than contributing to landfills makes a tremendously positive impact on the environment, an impact that every brand’s and retailer’s stakeholders are demanding more than ever. Learn how brands must rethink how they value refurbished goods, and in doing so, help accelerate the circular economy.
- How Influencers, AI and Amazon Are Shaping the Home & Housewares Category in 2024 and Beyond, John LeBaron, Pattern, Sunday, 11 a.m.— Take a deep dive into the world of how generative AI, social commerce and the ever-growing world of Amazon are reshaping the industry. Pattern, the industry’s leading e-commerce accelerator (and Amazon’s largest marketplace seller), maintains a data lake of more than 300 trillion data points and enables the active brand endorsements of 100,000+ creators. Learn what’s possible when you transform data into real-time generative AI, craft targeted influencer strategies and harness Amazon’s ecosystem to propel unprecedented growth.
- Learning to Listen: Satisfying the Insatiable Consumer, Tom Mirabile, Springboard Futures, Sunday, 12:10 p.m. – This encapsulated review of the new 2024 Value Equation Index™* reveals an ever-changing kaleidoscope of the demands, desires and sometimes conflicting expectations of today’s consumer. They want maximum experience with minimal effort; expect products with strong durability and flexible technology; and demand privacy and insist on transparency. Staying in step with these shifting definitions of value means learning to listen in new ways. This session explores the latest intelligence on what will matter most to consumers through 2024 and beyond, including unique comparisons of the industry’s perceptions of consumer opinion and the true opinions of consumers. *The 2024 Value Equation Index™ is a collaborative research project of IHA, Springboard Futures, Project Partners Network and The Trend Curve.
- The Future is InSight, Dawn Evans, IHA; Tom Mirabile, Springboard Futures; Moderated by Peter Giannetti, HomePage News, Monday, March 18, 9 a.m.— Powerful trends go beyond color, style, materials and even technology to connect suppliers and retailers with consumers. They inspire meaningful innovation, compelling new solutions and enhanced experiences. The logic sounds simple, but evaluating trends successfully can be challenging and time consuming. The HomePage News InSight® Trend Index features emerging and enduring trends curated across global markets and presented through an expanding collection of informative and inspiring portfolios. Each delivers fresh intelligence on the lifestyles, products and market shifts driving consumer engagement and demand. Learn about the trends of 2024: Which will grow? What will slow? And which are poised to steal the show. The new 2024-25 InSight season is set to launch in April.
- North American Housewares Market Trends: Identifying Opportunities for Growth in Canada & Mexico, Pam Wood and Renee Badioloa, Circana Mexico & Canada, Tuesday, March 19, 9 a.m.— North American marketing is a unique challenge because each country has its own unique needs. Post-pandemic recovery and macroeconomic trends have resulted in distinctive market trends and consumer needs across Canada and Mexico. This presentation will review the housewares trends in Canada and Mexico from 2023, the lessons learned and provide perspective on growth opportunities for 2024.
- Restaurant Delivery, Grocery Shopping & The Future of Home Cooking, Nick Stene and Catalina Flores, Euromonitor International, Tuesday, 12:10 p.m. – Delivery and take-out from restaurants skyrocketed through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued with solid growth into 2023. Meanwhile, smart dishwasher usage data points to a more frequent wash use under the latest hybrid home-working regime. Use and abuse trends are visible for in-home dining and eating on-the-go, and it is pointing to an ever-rising need for material innovation and better sustainability via durability. Revenues from grocery for food and drink reveal that meal preparation activities within U.S. homes are also proving robust, with food sales growing again in 2023 beyond inflation. This presentation will analyze and overlap data from the consumer foodservice industry and grocery food shopping sector, with the industry performance in homewares and cookware.
The full Inspiration Theater lineup is available in the full Show schedule.