Salone del Mobile 2019
Amazing Milan: discover the highlights of the Salone del Mobile 2019
This year’s inspiring Salone del Mobile in Milan has drawn to a close! During Design Week, the entire city of Milan lives and breathes interior design. For six whole days, the city is transformed into a major art and culture festival, a true feast for the eyes. We were definitely impressed! Our stylists Imke and Marloes headed into the city to visit the trendiest hotspots and catch a glimpse of the latest trends and highlights.
In this blog, we take you with us to the city and the furniture fair and show you what caught our eye in Milan:
from left to right | DUTCH INVERTUALS, ARPER, AND MASTERLY
There’s no escaping the circle in Milan! It’s the ultimate symbol of unity, perfection, and eternity. Rounded shapes are also in abundance, creating a sense of completeness that softens and relaxes any interior. There is an explosion of beautiful colour combinations, with lots of warm earthy shades, such as reddish-brown, terracotta, and dusty rose. And there’s no avoiding patterns and prints, such as the wallpaper designed by Melissa Peen at Masterly. Her latest range of wallpaper is inspired by the painter Rembrandt van Rijn.
Gucci
The Italian brand Gucci opened a pop-up store in the centre of Milan for the duration of the Salone del Mobile.
Gucci’s new interior collection reflects the eclectic, romantic style of the fashion house, and includes prints, bold colours, and lots of references to flora and fauna. It comprises beautiful porcelain dinnerware, rugs with fringing, embroidered velvet cushions in the shape of animals, and shell-shaped armchairs inspired by 1950s Hollywood.
from left to right | GUCCI, VITRA, AND DEDON
What makes an interior authentic? Not the large sofas, chairs, or trendy dining tables, but the small personal items, such as a work of art, framed photographs, and souvenirs from an unforgettable trip. Items purchased not only for aesthetic reasons but also for emotional reasons result in a rich collage of materials and styles that are personal and infused with an eccentric charm. This delightful house exudes a passion for craftsmanship and textiles.
from left to right | MAARTEN BAAS AND CARLOS AMORALES
Experience it! And last but certainly not least, we were filled with wonder at the exhibition of the designer Maarten Baas in Ventura Centrale and let’s not forget the exhibition displaying the work of Carlos Amorales. Hordes of black butterflies of various sizes and species cover the grand staircase, mirrors, walls, and doors of the Milan-based Fondazione Adolfo Pini. We had to queue for an hour and a half, but it was worth it!
VLOG: Marloes & Imke in Milan
Our stylists Imke and Marloes took a trip to Milan to attend the Salone del Mobile furniture fair. During Milan’s Design Week, the entire city lives and breathes interior design. For six whole days, the city is transformed into a major art and culture festival, a true feast for the eyes.
In this video, we take you with us to the city and the furniture fair and show you what caught our eye during Milan Design Week.
[/av_textblock]
BTS: Not afraid of colours
NOT AFRAID OF COLOURS!
Seen in Milan sneak peek
Our stylists Imke and Marloes went full-on trend spotter at the Salone del Mobile in Milan to find out the top autumn trends for 2019. On the lookout for the latest trend colours, materials, and patterns, they spent four days at the fair in, and throughout Milan.
Afterwards, they immediately started working on their impressions of the trends, which we would love to present to you!
It’s turned into a beautiful collage; the autumn trends of 2019 are a mix of bold colours in daring style settings. The products of this trend are functional and timeless! We’re getting back to a colourful base!
Check out the sneak peek of NOT AFRAID OF COLOURS and get a head-start on purchasing for the future autumn trends.
Stylingvlog 3 Imke & Marloes
Vlog #3 by stylists Imke & Marloes
TICA Trends & Trade was given a summery makeover by our very own stylists Imke and Marloes! The big trend for this summer is Colourbomb, which can be found at various locations in the cash & carry’s.
This vlog gives you a glimpse behind the scenes, showing you exactly how the styling process goes. From painting to shopping, building, and the beautiful end result. Check out the vlog and find inspiration for ways of styling your shop and window displays!
Turnover-boosting tips
Every shop owner is always aiming for more and better. At TICA Trends & Trade, we’re also always on the lookout for improvements that we could make, and we often take a moment to think about how we can improve and maintain customer satisfaction and boost our turnover.
We’ve come up with a few essential tips to give your turnover boost – you won’t want to miss them!
Attention please: here come a few essential tips!
#1: Let’s start straight away with our top tip: maximize the average sales amount! Work out what it would mean for you if every customer spent two euros more. That’s a big chunk of extra turnover over the course of a year!
How can you do it? By encouraging impulse buying, for example. This can easily be done by placing a rack close to the till containing attractive jewellery or other accessories, for example. You don’t have to go searching for another wholesaler for this; you can simply buy jewellery from TICA Concept Store.
#2: Make your shop irresistible for a specific target group. Do this by targeting a specific target group, for instance ‘young thirty-plussers’ such as mothers of children at primary school. Find out where they spend their time and target that location! A good time and place to hand out flyers could be Monday lunchtimes outside the school playground. Link an attractive promotion to the flyer and draw attention to your shop!
#3: Employ a ‘runner’ at specific times. This is someone who is only job is topping up the product supply – empty shelves when your shop is full of customers will cripple your turnover. At appropriate times, you can invest in someone who refills the empty shelves as fast as the products disappear.
#4: An opportunity they won’t want to miss: the ‘last chance’ rack! When a customer realizes that an item is almost sold out, there is an extra stimulus to buy one. Women in particular are susceptible to this kind of encouragement and will want to have an item if it is selling well. For women like us, that’s the proof that an item is indispensable!
#5: Improve your shop’s brand familiarity. More customers means more turnover, of course. Utilize a range of social media channels and use hashtags with words that are related to the products you sell or to the target group you want to address. Spread the word to get your name known – in other words, to get more turnover!
#6: Working on the loyalty of existing customers is also very important, as well as acquiring new ones. A successful tip for this is using personal messages! An attractive way of doing it is to hang labels on the products giving a personal message from the shop owner. Create a card with your company name and a personal message and attach it to every item (or every item sold). This tag will create more empathy with your company and will make people feel good!
#7: Organize a pop-up sale. If you want to tempt your customers with discounts and draw in more people in a specific week – a quiet period, for instance – then a pop-up sale is a good idea: a sale that lasts no more than a day and draws attention to specific items (or to your entire range).
#8: Check your point-of-sale materials again. Do they project the right image? Are they focusing on the right target group? Is there a clear ‘call to action’? The right communication materials generate higher turnover.
#9: As well as encouraging turnover, your communication materials present an image of how friendly your shop is. Make sure the communication materials are friendly and interesting and generate enthusiasm in order to give your customers the desired feeling and make sure that they come back again!
#10: Let your customers touch the products. When a customer comes to a physical shop, it means that they want to see and feel the products. Otherwise they could simply make their purchases online. Make sure that the products are easy to get at and get rid of those ‘please do not touch’ signs immediately!
To be continued…
Liefs, Layla
Lifestyle X Fashion, lets party ♥
Stress-free holiday shopping
With the festive season fast approaching, most people are scrambling to find a unique gift for the whole family, the perfect Christmas decorations for a stylish home, beautiful table decorations, and much more!
November and December are notoriously busy months.
In addition to getting their homes in tip-top shape for Christmas guests, many people spend weeks trying to put together the perfect festive outfit. Will it be glitter, velvet, or casual this festive season?
Keep your customers on their toes
One thing’s for sure: November and December are the busiest and most expensive months of the year. Consumers are, well, consumed with shopping. And that’s something we can use to our advantage.
To encourage your customers to keep buying, it’s important to keep them on their toes. Think of ways to decorate your shop to inspire more sales and design festive product combos that don’t take up too much precious space.
LifestyleXFashion X-mas
Add a festive touch to your shop with the help of beautiful images and simple tips and tricks. Inspire your customers to find the perfect accessories for their party outfit while they’re out shopping for festive table accessories
Lifestyle X Fashion 2.0
Lifestyle X Fashion
Lifestyle and fashion are the perfect complementary combination. Looking for tips on lifestyle items in combination with fashion items? Read our previous article with tips >>here<<
more tips: it’s so easy
How do you present lifestyle and fashion items in such a way as to tempt your customers?
Our stylist Imke has gone exploring on your behalf and has put together some great displays to help you get inspired!
Check out the best combinations of Lifestyle X Fashion, use them in your shop, and boost your turnover. Extra fashion items make perfect gifts – ideal with Christmas just around the corner!
Purchasing tip: make sure the colours and materials of the fashion items match the styles you offer in your shop. That way, they will fit in seamlessly and can easily be incorporated into existing displays!