COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Leading retail industry trade association Global Market Development Center (GMDC)|Retail Tomorrow recently hosted its 2019 General Merchandise Conference in Denver. The event brought together retailers, wholesalers, suppliers and service/solution companies for an exclusive preview of the latest non-food products and insights into how to adapt to consumers’ evolving needs, grow and maximize revenue.

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Suppliers displayed more than 250 new and innovative General Merchandise (GM) products and merchandising concepts at the conference’s Product Showcase. Retail and wholesale executives in attendance had the opportunity to review and evaluate products and select the entries they found most likely to generate strong consumer interest and opportunities for growth within GM categories. Products that are easily displayable, allowing for positioning at different locations at different times within retail stores, were among the conference’s most popular. The Top 10 products in the Showcase as determined by retailer and wholesaler votes were:

1. Triangle Home Fashions: Holiday Decorative Pillow Collection (Gold Award). Triangle Home Fashions designs and manufactures high-quality, well-designed bedding, window coverings, shower curtains, decorative pillows, and outdoor cushions and pillows, plus home accessories.
2. Enjoy It: Word Art Phone Pockets (Silver Award). Enjoy It is a manufacturing, distribution and internet retailing company that specializes in custom lifestyle art products. The Phone Pocket is a one-size-fits-all, peel-and-stick credit card, money and ID holder.
3. Wild Sports: Licensed NFL, NCAA, MLB, and NHL Cornhole Games (Bronze Award). Wild Sports is a manufacturer and leading provider of licensed tailgating and outdoor games as well as home and office products.
4. Great Scrape: The Great Scrape. The Great Scrape is an all-natural wood grill scraper and cleaning tool that quickly develops custom grooves to uniquely fit barbecue grill grates.
5. Up With Paper: Up With Paper Pop-Up Greeting Cards. The original pop-up greeting card company, Up With Paper has been best known for more than 30 years for its innovative, three-dimensional greeting cards featuring intricate designs, premium artwork and unexpected pop-ups.
6. Gia’s Kitchen: 12-Pack Holiday Foil Containers. Gia’s Kitchen holiday foil containers are designed for baking, storage and gift-giving.
7. Waddington North America: Licensed NFL Tableware. Waddington North America (WNA) is a Novolex company and offers a broad range of upscale and casual serviceware and premium disposable tableware.
8. The Dunk Collection: Dirty Dunk. The Dunk Collection provides high-quality, basketball-inspired products to combat the mundane chores of laundry, trash and bathing.
9. Sun-Staches: Lil’ Characters. Seen on ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank,” Sun-Staches and its innovative spin on sunglasses has secured licenses with Disney, Marvel, DC Comics, Nickelodeon, Universal, Pokémon and more.
10. Sophistiplate: Single-Use Tableware. Devoted to the art of entertaining, Sophistiplate elevates the single-use tableware category with premium patterns, colors and finishes.

“Our General Merchandise Conference provides the perfect opportunity to showcase what’s next in retail. It connects retailers and suppliers to insights and trends that will inform retail decision-makers of what is driving disruption and how to not only remain relevant but grow,” said Patrick Spear, president and chief executive officer of GMDC|Retail Tomorrow. “Over the course of five days, GMDC|Retail Tomorrow curated more than 5,800 networking meetings, connecting nearly 50 retailers with more than 200 suppliers in an effort to position them to grow their businesses and differentiate themselves from their competitors.”

For a recap of the 2019 GM Conference, see Innovations Magazine. The 2020 General Merchandise Conference is set for June 4-9 in Orlando, Florida.

GMDC|Retail Tomorrow’s inaugural Selfcare Summit, the only industry gathering focused exclusively on the consumerization of health care, will be held October 3-7 in Indianapolis. For more information, please visit www.selfcaresummit.org.