Fall 2019 Hardlines Strategies

MARKET PREVIEW

App Advice With the tap of a finger, the entire Blish-Mize Buying Market experience can be in your hand. The Market app is available for free through the App Store or Google Play and can turn your smartphone into a hub of information for your Market visit. The app is designed to guide and organize customers at the show with programs that can help plan a schedule, get in touch with a Blish-Mize employee or find a particular product on the show floor. Customers can register for the Fall Buying Market through the app as well as online beforehand. The entire Buying Market schedule is also available on the app, so customers won’t miss their favorite educational speaker or product demonstration. The app also allows customers to get in touch with Blish-Mize employees and set up meetings during the Market.

Hardware House Blish-Mize’s private-label program Hardware House offers products across multiple categories, including plumbing fixtures, lighting options, ceiling fans, faucets, bath hardware, vanities and vanity tops, cabinet hardware and locksets. The 2019 Fall Buying Market will be the showcase for new lines of faucets and lighting fixtures, says Frank Barnes, executive national accounts manager with Hardware House. The faucet lineup includes new finishes on the fixtures, while the lighting options will include a renewed emphasis on LED products, Barnes says. Each Hardware House item is covered by the Blish-Mize manufacturer’s warranty. There are thousands of items currently available, and Blish-Mize is continuing its work of adding even more products. Learn more about Hardware House’s newest offerings in the story on Page 42.

Point the Way Blish-Mize and Distribution America are bringing a new service to Blish-Mize customers. Pointy, a software company devoted to helping brick-and-mortar retail businesses enhance their efforts in driving online traffic to in-store sales, is making its service available to Blish-Mize customers for a special rate. Pointy allows retailers to quickly and easily populate a website dedicated to their business with products being purchased in their store. By using a Pointy box that attaches to a barcode scanner, this Pointy page shows what products are being bought in the store. This page is then designed to move a store’s web presence higher up the results on search engines like Google. The site is automatically populated, meaning no time or energy is taken from employees. Pointy also offers a money-back guarantee.

The Blish-Mize Market app allows customers to access Market information and Blish-Mize staff.

The show floor will have new exhibitors and well-known manufacturers with new lineups to show Blish-Mize customers. Buying starts Sept. 19 with the MVP Savings Event.

20 Fall 2019 • Hardlines Strategies