The return of the Housewares Design Awards after a brief hiatus serves up a reminder of how fast things change in this business.

You could ask a dozen people and get a dozen answers as to when a business turnaround actually becomes a turnaround. It is a question many are asking about J.C. Penney these days.

There are plenty of companies that still sentimentally wish they didn’t need to navigate the disruption to generations of reliable retailing routine ignited so stealthily by Amazon more than 20 years ago. And there are sure to be mixed reactions among some housewares vendors and retailers to news that Amazon was anointed the 2016 HomeWorld Business Retailer of the Year.

The housewares business thrives as a business that creates simple solutions to everyday problems. And the business is reminded from time to time it is well-positioned to provide the ointment for problems that reach uncomfortable levels beyond your ordinary dirty floors, wrinkled clothes, cluttered closets or stuck-on eggs. Someone’s bad fortune can be good for business.

It's understandable that some veteran tabletop marketers and merchants might wince whenever their business is mentioned in the same breath as the general housewares business.

It can be a challenging exercise to distill from the thousands of products at the International Home + Housewares Show the trends that will translate to retail prosperity in the coming months.

The crowded winter trade show season culminated for many with the recent International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago. The commitment of many in the industry to support several trade shows throughout the year, when time and margin are at such a premium, validates the importance to vendors in an ultra-competitive arena to optimize face-time with potential retail customers.

With the spotlight on resurgent American-made housewares in recent years, one might miss the “Made in Europe” renewal gaining momentum across the Atlantic.

Day one of the rebranded and reorganized International Home + Housewares Show is in the books, and exhibitors should have a feel by now if some of the changes are working in their favor.

Moving from omnichannel retailing theory to an omnipresent retailing reality starts with an adjustment in focus from the process to the consumer. Instead of all consumer roads leading to your brand, think of it as all of your roads leading to the consumer.

In chronicling those in the foreground of today’s housewares news, we shouldn’t lose sight of the valuable contributions by people behind the scenes whose names are unlikely to appear in HomeWorld text and headlines. One such name is Judy Colitz.

Here we are, flush into the busy first-quarter trade show season and trying to forecast the business climate over the next several months, talking about the weather again.

I have to admit I was surprised when I first read more than a year ago about a movie in the works inspired by the rags-to-riches story of Miracle Mop inventor and TV shopping icon Joy Mangano.

Upon hearing news of Newell Rubbermaid’s pending acquisition of Jarden Corp., I was reminded of a conversation some 20 years ago with a housewares CEO who predicted a consequence of Walmart’s surging national clout and the resulting vendor consolidation.

As this industry approaches 2016 with as much resolve that it can muster from recent HomeWorld headlines, it is also a time to reflect on headlines that have shaded our lives the past year on a much deeper level than the neutral tones in the latest home product color forecasts.

Holiday shopping season is in full swing, which means the holiday shipping season is in full swing. Couriers are working overtime to keep pace with mounting e-commerce deliveries. While that seems like jolly news for online retailers, the Grinch is lurking in the form of skyrocketing costs to get each online order to its intended doorstep faster and cheaper.

November 27. The Day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. It wasn’t long ago that Black Friday stood unchallenged and unflappable as the make-or-break epicenter of the annual retail calendar. Then this thing called the Internet made getting great deals 24/7 a lot easier than waking up at three in the morning and standing in the dark and cold with a horde of frantic shoppers still digesting their pumpkin pie.

The recent Chief Housewares Executive SuperSession (CHESS) conference presented by the IHA served up a diverse program of presentations to enlighten and inspire industry leaders. One particularly intriguing session detailed the growing crowdfunding opportunity for housewares companies.

With retailers already promoting like it’s the weekend before Christmas, it’s hard to look past the next three months. But now is actually when the first half of 2016 should start coming into focus, especially for tabletop and furniture companies at the New York and High Point markets.

The holiday season must be approaching, because retailers are adding items to their wish lists. I don’t mean the products expected to be big sellers during the fourth quarter. I’m referring to new demands by retailers to their suppliers for fees, price allowances and other hands-tying arrangements.

The success of off-price retailing isn’t a new story. But it’s no longer the dirty little secret it once was to a housewares industry that wouldn’t dare discuss dealings with off-price stores for fear of rankling so-called mainstream customers.

After all the fanfare early this year heralding the arrival of the age of “smart” housewares, we’ve reached a turning point as the surging wave of app-driven, smartphone-synced household solutions begins to hit mainstream retail.

In the 2015 HomeWorld Players issue, our editors weigh in on people in the housewares business to watch in the coming months. It can be a challenge each year to identify just 20 individuals from so many worthy prospects representing suppliers, retailers and others connected to an industry of such wide scope.

Amazon’s first Prime Day last month, with its promise to surpass Black Friday activity, demonstrated the polarizing nature of an e-commerce platform that can be both powerfully productive and disruptive.

Two recent conversations stand out when it comes to how some in the housewares industry share a cynical view of the evolving role of retail buyers.

A veteran housewares vendor, after reading HomeWorld’s annual “Made In The USA” issue last year, recounted the story of a wrench inventor who set up U.S. production based on an exclusive agreement with Sears, only to be pushed aside after Sears sourced a lower-priced knockoff from China.

What do the following have in common? Air cleaners. Juicers. Humidifiers. Rice cookers. Bath scales. Water filters. Kitchen scales. Home Spa. Grain Mills. What might seem to some as disparate housewares products have come together in the HomeWorld Business Health & Wellness Report.

After a winter that seemed would never end fades deep into the background, the housewares race is heating up as the all-important second half nears. There is no turning back at this point. But a recap of some of the first-half developments that set the pace for 2015 provides some guidance.

The first quarter numbers are in, and many retailers treaded water during the period despite a wave of economic optimism heading into the year. It’s always convenient to chalk up weak sales to lousy weather, and this past winter provided plenty of inclement excuses. The disappointing Q1 reports reveal another common thread— sales lost at sea, so to speak, because of the West Coast port slowdown.

Welcome to the 14th annual HomeWorld Business Retail Champion edition (May 11, 2015), featuring the first two-time selection: Costco, which also was recognized for its housewares merchandising innovation in 2003.

The National Hardware Show is set to celebrate its 70th anniversary this week in Las Vegas, and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic.

It is a natural convergence when you consider how home fashion connects tabletop and furniture design. But you wouldn’t think to connect these categories to website design.

It all started with scaffolding on the Washington Monument. Ron Johnson, then chief home merchant at Target, sponsor of the Washington Monument restoration during the late 1990’s, and architect Michael Graves, who had designed the monument’s restoration shroud, hatched an idea to bring Graves’ post-modern, whimsical style of design to Target’s customers.

Gauging trends remains an inexact science despite all the analytics and insights available to help vendors and retailers decide what’s hot and what’s not.

Welcome to day three of the 2015 International Home + Housewares Show.

“It’s Smart.” That’s the slogan under which the IHA will rebrand the International Home + Housewares Show beginning with the 2016 show.

You knew it was too good to last, right? Gas prices are on the rise after falling to six-year lows. Business optimists (there are far fewer these days) will tell you the price of gas as of this writing was still more than a dollar a gallon lower than it was the same time a year earlier. They will remind you how it wasn’t long ago that the housewares business was bracing for the fallout from potential $5-a-gallon fill-ups.

The Housewares Show will culminate what for many in this business has been a busy, compressed winter trade show schedule. The big question at every trade show big and small this year— and every year— ultimately boils down to “What’s new?”

The final numbers are in for 2014, and a holiday rally helped bring some respectability to a year that started with a thud. Last year’s overall retail growth may have been marginal, and December sales underwhelmed. But the 4% year-over-year holiday gain reported by NRF, if it’s on the money, provided a bit of a tailwind heading into the planning period for the back-half of 2015.

As I cleaned up from the holidays, I uncovered a couple of forgotten gift cards… from 2009. It had me wondering how much gifted debit goes unused.

The adage “everything old is new again” never gets old in the retail business. So it should come as little surprise that JC Penney continues to trumpet its return to an emphasis on private brands as the key to its long-term revival.

The math used to calculate retail success before most people actually went shopping this past holiday season seemed a little mystifying— like the common core— and at times contradictory depending on who was doing the calculation.

You might think the recent Consumer Electronics Show preview would have been an unlikely setting to find new housewares opportunity. Not so, if you set your sights outside the box.

The recent New York Tabletop Market provided an interesting contrast in moods. Vendors reported strong buyer attendance and enthusiasm over a full plate of new designs for 2015, while at the same time many lamented how difficult it has been to gain traction at retail this year.

When a former Navy SEAL who survived a suicide bomb attack on his barracks in Iraq talks about how to lead through perseverance, people should listen. Eric Greitens, speaking at the annual Chief Housewares Executive SuperSession, offered a compelling lesson in leadership that should resonate with any industry professional.

The fourth quarter is here. This year’s retail performance in many respects is now in the hands of the consumer. A prominent industry trend watcher reminded me during a recent meeting how the measure of shopping delight has changed during the past several years. It has evolved, he said, from bragging about the product you bought to bragging about how little you paid for it to bragging about where you’ve discovered it.

Not a day seems to go by that a member of our team isn’t asked to assess the mounting impact of e-commerce on the housewares market, so it seemed like a good time to include with this year's Forecast survey some questions exploring the status of online shopping with shoppers.

A milestone business anniversary often is an occasion that encourages reflective celebration in an otherwise competitive pressure cooker with little room or time for such sentimentality. So with that, please indulge me while I wax a little sentimental about HomeWorld’s quarter century of covering the housewares industry.

With all the recent focus on Millennials, it is important to understand that serving the needs of one generational group does not necessarily dictate an effective marketing strategy. Today’s path to purchase in housewares is carved often by a cross-generational intersection of influences.

Everyone is watching to see who the winners will be as the housewares schedule prepares for its annual stretch drive toward the holiday showdown. And with that, we bring you HomeWorld’s Players issue, our annual projection of people to watch in housewares during the next several months.