The Gift & Home Channel

By Courtney M. Paschal -- Casual Living, 3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

In January, Dallas Market Center made an agreement with The Gift & Home Channel to serve as its official marketing partner.

GHC is the world’s first Internet television channel and online community dedicated solely to educating, guiding and sharing tips for and among specialty retailers.

“This is not like sitting in on a seminar,” said Ray Gaulke, president of The Gift & Home Channel. “This is YouTube and MySpace for the B-to-B segment.”

Its Web site, giftandhomechannel.com, offers retailers online options such as streaming video from other retailers discussing topics such as visual merchandising and employee retention, blogs, live video from recent trade shows, resource information and more. With new content uploaded every week, the video library currently features more than 150 segments.

“We’re hopeful that down the road retailers will be submitting their own content in terms of blogs and forums,” Gaulk said.

In order to access the site, registration is required. Once provided with a user name and password, anything on the site is accessible to retailers.

Also partnering with GHC is the Gift and Home Trade Association, Gifts & Decorative Accessories, sister publication to Casual Living, Country Business and GiftShop magazines.

“Our partnership with The Gift and Home Channel gives our buyers another important resource to help grow their business,” said Jane R. Robertson, senior vice president of marketing, Dallas Market Center. “We strive to find innovative ways to cater to them and are excited about all The Gift and Home Channel has to offer.”