Bulletin, a wholesale marketplace connecting over 3,000 independent brands with more than 26,000 retailers, has been acquired by Emerald Holding, the owner and organizer of NY NOW, the wholesale market for retail where brands, buyers and designers gather to connect and discover. All Bulletin employees will join Emerald as part of the acquisition, including co-founders Alana Branston and Ali Kriegsman. Retail TouchPoints and its event, the Retail Innovation Conference & Expo, are also part of the Emerald portfolio of brands.
Both Bulletin co-founders will continue to lead the future growth of Bulletin in their new roles. Branston will become Group VP, Gift and Home, while Kriegsman will take on the role of VP, Strategy, Gift and Home.
The Bulletin marketplace supports independent brands like Piecework Puzzles, Apotheke, Golde, Kitsch and Brightland, and powers wholesale discovery and order management for online-only retailers like Fast AF and Flip, as well as a diverse pool of brick-and-mortar stores like Prelude & Dawn, Onatah General Store, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Friends NYC and thousands more.
The acquisition of Bulletin aims to elevate the experience for wholesale buyers to help them discover a broader array of innovative brands and makers through a fusion of in-person and ecommerce offerings, creating a 24/7 platform for brands and retailers to connect and transact with each other. The merger also will infuse the NY NOW Gift and Home Show with Bulletin’s entrepreneurial spirit, industry expertise and extensive customer base of brands and retailers. The union of these two platforms aims to provide small businesses access to a solution that allows them to fuel innovation and design and provide buyers with year-round inspiration and discovery.
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“NY NOW is experiencing a period of transformation and revival,” said Karalynn Sprouse, EVP, Emerald in a statement. “The combination of Bulletin and NY NOW not only provides us with a dynamic platform that delivers year-round discovery and engagement, but Alana, Ali and the Bulletin team’s thought leadership, forward-looking perspectives and extensive network of makers, designers, influencers and media will serve as new pathways of expression and creativity. In addition, this union reconfirms our unwavering commitment to NY NOW, especially as our 100th anniversary of being the preeminent resource for the gift and home industry grows near.”
The NY NOW Summer Market will be hosted Aug. 14 through 17 at the Javits Center in Manhattan. The event will offer retailers a first look at the gift industry’s hottest debuts, high-end designs and must-have wares from hip and sleek to eco-chic and artisan-made to gourmet.
