Retail Observer

SEPTEMBER 2015 RETAILOBSERVER.COM 47 N ationwide Marketing Group held their summer PrimeTime! Conference at the Venetian/Palazzo Las Vegas August 2-5, 2015. Dave Bilas, CEO, and Jeff Knock, CCO, kicked off their newly announced roles by sharing the show attendance exceeded 3,900 people. The show held over 1,200 member companies and 175 + vendors. Occupying 185,000 square feet of show space, the traffic was heavy at this largely attended show. Nationwide was pleased to share their membership growth this year. Dave Bilas said the group has 3,800 + members representing more than 11,000 storefronts. The theme "Game Changer: Prepare For Share" is a continuation of the group's strategy to help their independent retailers gain the most share possible in their marketplace. Industry shifts are enabling the group's retailers to capture more share than ever before. Jeff Knock reported that 2015 was strong across all categories. "Regarding home appliances, overall, the industry is up about 3% YTD with contract/builder driving momentum ( + 7.5%). The retail industry is up slightly and Nationwide is performing on par with the industry YTD," Knock said that furniture store bedding sales "were up 6.6% through May, with Nationwide running double digit increases in both furniture & bedding." When it comes to CE, Knock said, "4K and Premium TV remain a focus and driving factor for our business. We're pleased with both our ASP and 4K mix outpacing the industry by + $161 and 4% respectively. Audio remains an area of focus for us given the opportunity ahead in wireless multizone-audio with only 2% of HH penetration in this category." Tom Hickman, EVP of CE & distribution, reported that the biggest change in their CE space is the introduction of HTSN. "The ability and the vision of this alliance is to enable members (from either group) to tap resources they may never have been able to do separately. HTSA and NMG have been operating for a number of years separately, but we also realize it's going to require another level of scale to really be able to provide more quality services. Additionally, best in class idea sharing, just-in-time inventories, meeting integrators' needs, and for us to have very successful and profitable members so they are able to deliver world experience to the customers will thrive with this new partnership. From the HTSA side, they garner our immediate scale and unbeatable marketing assets. On the NMG side, we garner world-class experience from the best of the best integrators, as well as access some world-class brands that SEN didn't have access to before. I felt we needed to refocus and recommit to the Specialty Electronics Nationwide group, and the benefits of this alliance essentially drove our rebranding of the organization, as Home Technology Specialists of Nationwide. Because at the end of the day, our members are the home technology specialists." Some of the newest web service initiatives included the announcement of the continuing growth of the group's Just Say Yes! initiative, described by EVP of Member Services Frank Sandtner, Nationwide's Thriving GAME-CHANGING STRATEGY: Prepare For Share

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