We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve officially made it through another winter show season! We featured our 2021 Spring/Summer and Fall/Holiday collections this year in Dallas, Atlanta, and finally, Las Vegas. We were excited to be able to meet and greet everyone after a long and unsure year in 2020.

The Las Vegas Winter Market that was originally scheduled for February was moved to April 11-15. We wanted to take some time to do a recap for anyone who wasn’t able to attend one of our shows this year. Our President, Chuck Fraelich, and our Senior Vice President of Sales, Thom Petrouski, sat down with us to recap the show.

Q: It’s been such a long year and it’s great to see the world picking up again! How was the turnout for the Las Vegas Winter Market?

Chuck: It was the second of two smaller events, and it was very well attended. We experienced a larger attendance of retailers than originally expected. I think this was in part due to the vaccine distribution picking up and people getting more comfortable with travel. Typically, this is more of a regional show for the West and Northwest, but we had over 30 states order with us at the market - as far east as New York. California is one of the states that just started opening up, so people around those areas are getting out more. Customers are just happy to be out, happy to interact with vendors, and happy to get inventory. It was such a positive and uplifting experience.

Thom: I thought it was a GREAT show! Going in and not really knowing who was going to be there in April - the turnout was really good. The feedback from our retailers has been pretty consistent- they’ve all come back from 2020 fourth quarter and into the new year with STRONG sales. My favorite thing about this show was honestly just getting to see our retailers and seeing how thrilled they were with tag’s new product launches.

Q: Tell us about the new showroom! How does it differ from the previous one?

Chuck: We were only able to have two shows in our previous space because we outgrew it pretty quickly; it was too tight. The new showroom is 3300 square feet. We are really happy about our ability to grow into this new space. We’re in building C on the sixth floor (Suite #C-676) within the Ivystone showroom.

Thom: The layout, location, and space - the last showroom was a really tight squeeze. The new tag showroom layout has a lot of front-aisle visibility. Customers loved it, the tag staff, ie. Myself, Chuck, and Colleen McNicholas couldn’t be more pleased with the location. The visual team did a great job planning the flow of the showroom so the retailers could easily understand the story of our collections. In a regular post-pandemic market, the space will be filled with people because it’s right by the kitchen where they’ll serve breakfast in the morning along with cocktails and hors-d’oeuvres in the afternoon. I anticipate we will pick up new tag customers as they begin to browse the line.

Q: It sounds like attendance was great, but how about sales? Did you notice that people were buying and writing orders, or just window shopping?

Chuck: A lot of the customers didn’t want to finish their fall/holiday orders online or on the road if they knew they were attending the Las Vegas event. This is because they wanted to work with Thom and our sales reps and actually be able to touch and interact with our products in person. Fall/Holiday was definitely the priority, but we would see customers rounding out their orders with At Once Spring/Summer product if the inventory was available. Thirty-five percent of our customers at the show were new customers, which is a really important data point for us.

Thom: Among all of our shows this season, our sales have been right on par with last year, which is really strong. You know, people need goods, people want goods, and tag has goods. We saw more out of territory customers writing at this show than expected, some coming from as far as Illinois and New York. Our average order amount is up at the shows too, showing that people are loving what tag has to offer.

Q: It’s great to hear that sales were strong at the Vegas Show. What was the most popular product line? Was it the same through the Atlanta and Dallas shows?

Thom: The majority of the shows this time of year are for customers who are looking to get their Early Buy orders in. Our Fall/Holiday Early Buy has been a strong category for sales so far this year, specifically our new selection of bells, which are an easy sell. Bells, bells, bells; everybody loves our bells! I also found that we had a lot of engagement with our Kitchen + Cloth collection. The way we had this collection set- it was in a prominent location that stopped people and the setup helped to engage customers to touch, interact, and write orders.

Q: So, if you had to pick a favorite collection, which would it be and why?

Chuck: For Spring/Summer, I really do enjoy the Honey Bee collection. It is a staple look and feel, with some great components and products. From a business perspective, Honey Bee has been such a strong collection for us. And for Fall/Holiday, how can you not love Winter Sketches? It is another top seller for tag and the artwork that goes into this collection is really incredible. Another category I love and that I feel we don’t get a ton of credit for is our baskets. Our baskets are strong, of great quality, and at a really good price point. Additionally, I love our Stinson stoneware, which is now part of the Counter Culture collection. It’s one of my favorites.

Thom: I love it all. Haha! But in all seriousness, my personal favorite is Joy to the World. I love the art behind it, I love the simplicity of it, and I love the fact that it can easily transition and pair with our other holiday themes. There are some key items that sell really well - like the 20-ounce mugs with the stencil on top and the platters are great with the wax-resist details. I really make an effort to focus on that collection.