CHICAGO – The Inspired Home Show and the International Housewares Association (IHA), the global sponsors and organizers of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (GIA) program, have awarded five international retailers as 2024 GIA Global Honorees for Retail Excellence. The Global Honorees are:
- Eastern Europe – Potten & Pannen – Stanek, Czech Republic
- France – Maison Empereur
- Germany– Kustermann
- Netherlands – Kookx
- United Kingdom – Divertimenti
The global GIA jury, consisting of four retail/visual merchandising experts and seven editors and publishers of co-sponsoring housewares trade publications from around the world, including first-time judge Lenise Willis of Gifts & Decorative Accessories, selected the GIA Global Honorees from the winners previously chosen in their respective countries by the national GIA sponsors. In addition, the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising was awarded to Loeb AG of Switzerland, and the GIA Digital Commerce Award for Excellence in Online Retailing was awarded to Divertimenti of the United Kingdom.
In addition to the 2024 Global Honorees, the 2023 GIA Top Window award winners were honored at the GIA awards dinner that took place at Radisson Blu in Chicago.
The GIA program was created by IHA and The Inspired Home Show to foster innovation and excellence in home and housewares retailing throughout the world. Since the launch of the program in 2000, there have been more than 550 GIA retail award winners, from 55 countries on six continents.
The competition is structured on a two-tier level, national and global, evaluating retailers within the following categories:
- Overall mission statement, vision and strategy
- Store design and layout
- Visual merchandising, displays and window displays
- Marketing, advertising and promotions
- Customer service and staff training
- Innovation
Co-sponsoring the country-specific GIA award programs with IHA are housewares trade publications worldwide, which sponsor national GIA programs in their respective countries. This year, 32 national GIA winners from 31 countries were selected by the co-sponsoring trade publications with targeted distribution in over 50 countries on five continents. All winners were automatically entered in the global competition for the Inspired Home Show in Chicago.
The GIA winners of 2023-2024 are recognized and prominently featured at the Inspired Home Show. A festive GIA awards dinner was held at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel. In addition, introducing the national GIA winners to visitors and exhibitors of the Inspired Home Show, there is a special GIA display in the Grand Concourse Lobby. Both GIA national winners and Global Honorees are also recognized in an online gallery.
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