American consumers are searching for ways to customize their homes with housewares products that let them create personalized items, décor and dining experiences. Many are interested in products that help them express their own individuality, such as specialty craft beverages, smart home appliances that can be customized to their personal needs, and specialty cookware that allows them to re-create restaurant-quality meals or ethnic foods and flavors. Products highlighting these and other top trends will be displayed at the 2019 International Home + Housewares Show March 2-5 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
“Consumers are trying to create their own look, their own individuality,” said Joe Derochowski, Home Industry Analyst- Market Research, The NPD Group Inc. The consumer’s desire for ‘distinction’ is one of the major movements identified by trend research company Trend One in its Mega Trends 2021 Report. “Consumers are increasingly searching for personalization of products, services and experiences. What’s more, people are also increasingly projecting themselves as a brand and curating their own identity via social media.The creation and possession of highly individualized products and experiences is becoming a new status symbol and gives consumers the feeling of living uniquely,” the report highlights.
According to the Forbes 2019 Cookware Trend Report, consumers want options to personalize their cookware or tableware collections as they enjoy a variety of different culinary cuisines: From cast iron to non-stick, consumers will be looking for cookware pieces that meet their individual needs while showing off their style in the kitchen. As consumers search for ways to express their own personalities, the specialty craft and beverage market has also grown in popularity. In fact, 65 percent of restaurants responding to the National Restaurant Association’s annual What’s Hot Survey said craft, artisan and locally produced spirits is the No. 1 alcoholic beverage trend for 2019.
To help retail buyers identify the latest products in the specialty beverage ware category, the Housewares Show will also offer the ‘Trending Today Preview: A Marketplace for Specialty Beverages & Accessories,’ which will be held on March 2, 2019 before the show. Trending Today will feature 60 exhibitors highlighting various types of craft beverage trends including coffee, beer, cocktails, tea and water, along with specialty glassware, accessories and kits or appliances for making craft beer and cocktails.
Consumers Dine Out ‘At Home,’ Want Healthier Meals
Eighty-two percent of meals Americans eat are prepared at home, a much higher percentage than a decade ago, according to The NPD Group Inc. As reported, restaurant dining has declined. The average American ate out 185 times in 2018 compared to 216 times a year in 2000. ‘A changing workforce, the ease of online shopping and a boom in streaming entertainment has made the home the most popular place to eat out in America,’ states the report. Those consumers interested in changing their behaviors to live healthier are looking for more fruits and vegetables, more homemade meals, less processed foods and more exercise, all of which lead to a greater need for the housewares industry’s products, explains NPD’s Derochowski.
Make Cooking Convenient and Expanding Palates
Cooking at home is also more convenient today because of the availability of premade meals and online grocery delivery. Market research company Mintel predicts “elevated convenience” will be one of the biggest food and drink trends for 2019. This trend focuses on a new wave of shortcuts such as individual meal kits sold at retail, foodservice-inspired packaged beverages, and a new generation of prepared meals, sauces and sides that emulate the flavors and formats of restaurant meals. An increase in healthy eating, as well as an interest in personalization, is fueling this trend, according to Mintel.
Highlighting the ease and convenience of nonstick cooking, Fissler is introducing its new fry pan line called Adamant Comfort. This line features an unusually tough but smooth nonstick sealing that allows for use of metal spoons and spatulas. Along with eating healthier, consumers have developed an even greater interest in global cuisine. Better Homes & Garden’s survey found that 80 percent of Millennials like to cook new regional or ethnic foods, and 40 percent are cooking more regional and ethnic dishes than they were two years ago.
Getting Smart in the Kitchen
As smart technology expands in the housewares category, smart home products, particularly assisted-cooking items, help consumers create restaurant quality results at home. They also allow consumers to explore new cuisines and make trying new foods/recipes less intimidating.The global smart home category, which was estimated at $24.1 billion in 2016, is expected to reach $53.45 billion by 2022, according to Zion Market Research. Artificial intelligence and voice control for assisted cooking, as well as replenishment and home delivery,are huge trends in the smart homemarket, according to Carley Knobloch, a smart home expert.
Coloring the Home Orange and Blue
Bold, bright colors are expected to be popular in 2019. Pantone’s 2019 Color of the Year, Living Coral, is described as an animating and life-affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energizes and enlivens with a softer edge. The Etsy Trend Guide believes burnt orange will be popular in 2019. Pots and skillets are expected to shed darker hues in favor of more colorful colors, according to the Forbes 2019 Cookware Trend Report. But while Pantone and Etsy anticipate orange will brighten the horizon in 2019, other industry experts anticipate blue will take center stage. Navy is emerging as a new neutral color offering an alternative to all-white kitchens, according to Delish.com. Le Creuset has launched Indigo, its new line of enameled cast iron cookware and Dutch ovens. The color is described as a rich, deep hue that is a timeless ‘true blue’ and bold neutral.
2019 International Home + Housewares Show: Key Highlights
New Exhibitor Preview, to be held just before the show features 90 new-to-the-Show exhibitors. Another opportunity is the Trending Today Preview, run concurrently with the New Exhibitor Preview. For 2019, the Trending Today Preview will focus on the specialty beverage movement, highlighting the various types of craft beverage trends, including coffee, beer, cocktails and water, along with specialty glassware and accessories, craft beer & cocktail kits and more. Also water filtration is a big part of the specialty coffee culture.
The Discover Design Expo, located in the North Building, features design and trend leaders of the latest in high design from Europe and around the world. Exhibitors cover all the categories at the show.
Located in the Clean + Contain Expo, the Inventors Corner brings the raw edge of creativity to the Show. The Inventors Corner Pavilion features 60 booths showcasing new housewares innovations and just-ready-for-market inventions.
The keynote sessions of the show offers expert updates on key consumer and lifestyle trends.Lee Eiseman of Pantone will give two presentations, where she will be revealing Pantone’s 2020 color palettes in an engaging, highly visual program that demonstrates the strongest trends in color and styling families. Her other session, will further delve into the philosophy of color and how it affects retail and consumers’ purchasing habits. Tom Mirabile, IHA’s and the industry’s trend expert, will explore the consumer and retail shifts that are reshaping the home and housewares industry. Representing Euromonitor International, Erika Sirimanne discusses how hyper connectivity is impacting consumer behavior and how digital disruption is transforming housewares retailing across the globe.
Major Attraction: Innovation at the Show
One key reason for international buyers to visit the Show is to find innovative new products and brands to differentiate their product offering and concepts. The Show has become ‘the place to find innovation and as a result special programs highlighting innovation is the major attraction this time. Special programs include:
Inventors Corner: Located in the Clean + Contain Expo, the Inventors Corner brings the raw edge of creativity to the Show. The Inventors Corner Pavilion features 60 booths showcasing new housewares innovations and just-ready-for-market inventions. The Inventors Corner has become a major spotlight destination to the media, shopping networks, manufacturers, major retailers, catalogs, chain stores, branding experts and distributors worldwide,hoping to lock in deals with the featured inventors and introduce their new products to the marketplace.
Inventors Revue: The Inventors Corner also features the Inventors Revue, where startup marketers present their creations to a panel of experts and seasoned inventors offer presentations on how to succeed as an inventor.
IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) for Product Design: The IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) for product design honor exhibitors’ latest creations and cutting-edge innovations with award recognition.Innovative products will be judged by a panel of experts that includes designers, retailers and news media.
IHA Student Design Competition: Sponsored by IHA, design students create concepts for housewares products. This global competition is recognized by design professionals for its contribution to education. The competition is judged by designers and managers at housewares companies who select the winning projects from an international field of submissions.
Sessions
More than 20 sessions will be offered in the Innovation Theater over the four days of the Show and cover other topics including consumer lifestyle trends, the Smart Home and connected products and retail merchandising.
On March 2, Jeff Mau, Director, Experience Strategy at Digitas, and Tod Szewczyk, Vice President and Director, Emerging Technology and Innovation at Leo Burnett Group, will open the Innovation Theater schedule with “Designing for Relevance in the Attention Economy.” Consumers are bombarded with media messages 24/7. In this session, Mau and Szewczyk will offer perspectives on how brands can design their products and experience to capture consumers’ attention and trust.
Other sessions exploring Digital Marketing and Omnichannel retailing include:
Leverage Trends to Trigger Transactions: Motivate Shoppers to Buy Your Products by Brian E. Gracon, Ph.D, President, Brian Gracon& Associates. In this session, Gracon will explain the changes in shopper buying habits, what suppliers and retailers can do about them and how to apply the strategies being used by many apocalypse-proof companies.
Omnichannel Impact on Housewares: Havoc or Opportunity? by Peter Greene, Consumer Electronics Practice Director, Numerator. In this session, Greenewill offer an overview of where consumers are spending outside of traditional retailers, the shopper segments that are shifting online and what the Omnichannel path to purchase looks like for the electrics, non-electrics and cleaning categories.
Alexa, How Do I Promote My Housewares Brand Online?by Frances Skipper, Partner, 451 Agency. In this session, Skipper will moderate a panel of housewares industry professionals, including an expert on the complexities of selling through Amazon, discussing the digital marketing strategies that are most effective in boosting the bottom line and helpinga brand stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Jump Start Your Digital Commerce: Understanding Today’s Customer Journey by Teri Pucin, Sr., consultant, FitForCommerce. In this session, Pucin will cover the current commerce landscape, how to use customer journey mapping to design differentiated experiences across all customer-facing channels and how suppliers can get started, including a comprehensive understanding for today’s selling channels (website, mobile, marketplaces, social channels, etc.) and a framework of technologies to consider.
The 2019 Show will feature more than 2,200 exhibitors from around the globe showcasing their new products throughout five expos and 60,000 total attendees. Showbadge registration is available at www.housewares.org.Further information about all of the Innovation Theater programs is available at http://www.housewares.org/show/innovation-theater.
