by Numbers include retailer and designer accounts as well as majors and international buyers
HIGH POINT — Buyer registrations at the fall High Point Market were up across various segments of the industry compared to the spring market based on numbers released by the High Point Market Authority at its board meeting Wednesday.
Based on registrations for October, the number of buying companies, which includes retailers and designers, was up 2% from April, with 60% of those being designers and 40% being retailers.
Registrations were up 5% among the Top 300 retail accounts, which includes traditional brick-and-mortar stores and pure-play e-commerce accounts.
International registrations, which also includes a mix of designers and retailers — again representing a 60/40 split — were up 3% from April.
The number of overall exhibitors also was up 8% compared to last April.
Of the way the HPMA tracks registrations, HPMA President and CEO Tammy Covington Nagem said that for many years officials tracked the numbers year over year.
“I have not figured out the cadence since Covid,” she told board members. “It feels like there are these incremental increases so it feels like I should be comparing to last market versus a year ago. I think we will get back on this pattern because many of our buyers may come just once a year — in the spring or in the fall — so that’s why we always compared it to a year ago, but today I am still comparing it to last market until we start to figure out what this cadence is going to be.”
She said that the response she has heard out in the market in general has been overwhelmingly positive. Most exhibitors interviewed at market by Home News Now have agreed, even though many also said that they felt attendance was down compared to last October.
“People felt like people were back, they were hungry for new introductions and while there might still be some surpluses (in inventory), I think people were looking for something new,” she told Home News Now. “That is why they felt like they needed to come to market.”
At the meeting, the HPMA also thanked outgoing board Chair and CEO of Rock House Farm Alex Shuford III, who has served in the role for two years, for his service and welcomed Christi Barbour, a founder of Barbour Spangle Design in High Point, as the new incoming chair. She is the first woman and the first interior designer in the industry to serve in the chairperson’s role.
