IHA to offer retailers one-stop discovery and purchasing from world-class brands 365 days a year!
ROSEMONT, IL (Jan. 27, 2021)—The International Housewares Association is partnering with Brandwise to offer a robust, year-round e-commerce opportunity for its members and buyers, IHA announced today. The platform, Connect COMMERCE, will integrate with Connect 365 and help meet the desire of retailers to both discover new products and purchase them directly online.
Connect 365 is an enhanced and expanded version of IHA’s online marketplace Housewares Connect 365. Connect Commerce is an e-commerce market that will enable retailers to place orders for many of the products found on Connect 365 and will give them access to manufacturer-trained salespeople who have local knowledge of retailers’ regions and possibly their stores. The Brandwise Ecosystem, which will power Connect COMMERCE, processes over three million wholesale orders every year and includes access to more than 290,000 retailers.
“We are excited to offer this new e-commerce service to our members and the retail community,” said Derek Miller, IHA president. “For more than a decade, Housewares Connect 365 has been IHA’s online marketplace assisting buyers in finding new products and suppliers. Adding Connect COMMERCE expands the updated platform’s functionality, marrying the robust search and discovery capabilities of the new Connect 365 site with the ability to complete transactions immediately online.”
“As we have had strong partnerships with IHA members for years, establishing this platform is a natural extension of that business,” said Todd Litzman, Brandwise co-founder and CEO. “The current landscape demands new ways for the industry to connect. Partnering with IHA creates an opportunity for all industry stakeholders as it will bring together retailers, suppliers and salespeople in a single, fully featured online marketplace.”
Connect 365 will be introduced to the industry during Connect SPRING, IHA’s virtual event March 16-26. The online marketplace features exhibitors in The Inspired Home Show 2021 and will offer visitors an updated user interface, enhanced functionality and refined search capabilities to browse companies, brands and products.
Specific information on Connect COMMERCE is available at TheInspiredHomeShow.com/Connect/Connect-Commerce. Further information on Connect 365 and Connect SPRING is available on The Inspired Home Show’s website at TheInspiredHomeShow.com/Connect.
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The International Housewares Association is the 81-year-old voice of the housewares industry, which accounted for (US)$364.2 billion at retail worldwide in 2017 ($91.6 billion at retail in the U.S.). The not-for-profit, full-service association sponsors the world’s premier exposition of products for the home, The Inspired Home Show, IHA’s Global Home + Housewares Market, and offers its 1,600 member companies a wide range of services, including industry and government advocacy, export assistance, State-of-the-Industry reports, point-of-sale and consumer panel data through Housewares MarketWatch, executive management peer groups, a unique Web-based community at www.housewares.org, group buying discounts on business solutions services and direct-to-consumer engagement through TheInspiredHome.com.
About Brandwise
Brandwise was born from its founders’ need for a better way to process orders. Twenty-three years later, the company is internationally recognized and trusted with managing a vast portion of the business activity in the gift, housewares and home décor industries. The Brandwise mission is to empower and simplify the order process by providing sales creation and enablement technology to manage and grow its clients’ businesses and the collective future of the industry.
