Dallas Showroom of the Year Winners Announced

DALLAS – June 21, 2014 – Dallas Market Center and Residential Lighting magazine recently announced the winners of the fifth annual Showroom of the Year awards during the Dallas International Lighting Market. The event, hosted in Trade Mart Loft 4, recognized the most prestigious lighting retailers in North America.

The judges of this year’s Showroom of the Year awards included: Linda Cahan, visual merchandising expert from Cahan and Co. Retail Design Consulting; Leslie Carothers, social media guru and CEO of The Kaleidoscope Partnership; and Brian Moran, small business consultant and founder/CEO of Brian Moran & Associates. The winners are:

Revenue Under $2 million – Living Lighting on King, Toronto, Ontario
Living Lighting on King was last year’s winner in the Under $2 Million category and also earned a specialty award the previous year. This 4,500-square-foot showroom opened in 2005 and describes itself as a fashionably styled boutique with some of the most creative merchandising in the industry. The approach to merchandising is to create concepts instead of vignettes, resulting in award-winning displays. The staff, called Lighting Ninjas, are passionate about creating a memorable shopping experience for customers.

Revenue Under $5 million – Dulles Electric, Sterling, Virginia
Dulles Electric opened in 2008. At 12,000 square feet, it’s the Mid-Atlantic’s largest lighting showroom. It has the nation’s largest Schonbek crystal gallery, is the exclusive Swarovski lighting dealer in the greater D.C. area and also has the D.C. region’s only Visual Comfort gallery. Staff members are ALA-trained Lighting Specialists and the three in-house lighting designers each have more than 15 years of experience. Dulles launched a new website in September 2013 that enables customers to shop online and view inventory resulting in a 44 percent increase in web traffic. The showroom also features a state-of-the-art experience center featuring a whole-house dimming system and other lighting applications.

Revenue $5 Million and Over – Yale Appliance + Lighting, Boston, Massachusetts
Yale Appliance + Lighting, which has been open since 1923, has 30,000 overall square feet with half devoted to lighting. The store recognizes that buyers are emotionally invested when it comes to lighting and puts it in real-life environments with appropriate music or sounds to accompany the displays. It has more than 7,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Houzz combined, and its appliance and lighting blogs reached 1.5 million people in 2013. Yale’s resource Center contains more than 25 Buying Guides that have been read by more than 50,000 people and educate clients on different product categories before they buy. To Yale, customer retention is key. A survey follows every customer interaction with a scale of 1 to 5. Any grade lower than 5 receives follow-up attention from management.

Outstanding Merchandising Display – Design Lighting, Surrey, BC, Canada
Design Lighting, a 26,000-square-foot showroom, opened in 2009. Its motto is “Uniquely placed to capture the individual’s eye.” The showroom takes a design-oriented approach to merchandising to help customers imagine fixtures in their own homes, offering comfortable atmospheres for clients to view lighting, which is updated frequently to stay current. Home decor products dress up the showroom and enable customers to make design choices in one stop, and Design Lighting is the only showroom in British Columbia that offers a completely interactive home and outdoor landscape lighting setting. Located in a separate room, the landscaping center shows outdoor product in a night sky environment to illuminate various landscaped areas.

Exceptional Community Involvement – Accent Lighting, Lake Oswego, Oregon
Accent Lighting has been family-operated since 1996 and is approximately 5,000 square feet. The store makes giving back part of its business. A lighting consultant volunteers at two community colleges, presenting lectures to interior design students on lighting applications and trends, and many employees contribute both time and money to charities the store is involved with. Charities supported include: Equine Rescue of Bend, OR, run 100 percent by volunteers and donations, which cares for more than 100 abused, neglected and orphaned horses; Ronald McDonald House charities of Oregon and Southwest Washington, which provides a home away from home for families with seriously ill children; and Lake Oswego High School, where the store supports the Dance Team and girls Lacrosse Team every year.

Social Media Star – Progressive Lighting, Atlanta, Georgia
Progressive Lighting is a 24,000-square-foot store opened in 2008. It engages customers via social media, not just to drive sales but to create community. Its Facebook and Twitter are used to educate customers on the everyday facets of lighting, lighting hardware, installation and lighting design. They are creating a community forum to share success stories and hurdles. The store provides helpful links to how-to resources for do-it-yourselfers and information about government legislation and is assembling a series of educational eBooks on a variety of topics that will be available to users free of charge. Progressive also uses social media to promote employees’ personal victories and to share community efforts, like giving back to charities.

About Dallas Market Center
Founded in 1957, Dallas Market Center is the world’s most complete wholesale marketplace. Within its marketplace of more than five million square feet, retailers from around the globe source products ranging from home furnishings, gifts, decorative accessories and lighting to textiles, fashion accessories and men’s, western, women’s and children’s apparel. With more than 50 markets each year attended by more than 200,000 retail buyers from all 50 states and 85 countries, Dallas Market Center offers hundreds of events and seminars geared toward helping retailers expand business and increase profits. The Dallas Market Center website is available at dallasmarketcenter.com.

About Residential Lighting
Founded in December 1992 by Vance Publishing Corp. and acquired in April 2009 by Scranton Gillette Communications, Residential Lighting has been serving the lighting showroom market for more than 20 years as the only consistent monthly print publication in the industry and the only audited magazine for residential lighting.

SOURCE: Dallas Market Center