The Las Vegas Market has expanded its Retail Relations team, adding 30 full-time members to its staff.

The team is expected to generate significant increases in buyer attendance for the July 27-31 market.

“This substantial expansion of our Retail Relations workforce is part of our three-year strategic growth plan and reflects International Market Center’s commitment to increase Las Vegas Market buyer attendance at a level commensurate to our recent dramatic resource expansion,” said Scott Eckman, IMC’s chief marketing and strategy officer. “As the leading furniture, home décor and gift destination in the western United States, Las Vegas Market has developed a comprehensive customer outreach program designed to attract new and qualified buyers.”

Las Vegas Market officials say similar efforts by Retail Relations personnel in 2013 fueled triple-digit growth in buyer registrations for last year’s summer market.

The market’s Retail Relations call center has made more than 14,000 calls to date for the summer market and registered 4,200 new and returning gift and home décor buyers from 47 states so far. The call center has enlarged its buyer database to encompass more than 175,000 prospective retail attendees, and the newly-expanded Retail Relations team plans to contact more than 90,000 buyers, and to register more than 10,000 attendees, prior to the summer market. The in-house call center is one element of a multi-faceted buyer acquisition strategy for Las Vegas Market.

Increases in buyer registration and attendance at recent markets are being fueled by the dramatic growth in gift, furniture and home décor product categories at Las Vegas Market, which features 850,000 square feet of expanded showrooms, as well as the addition of new resources and categories, such as specialty tabletop, lifestyle merchandise, fashion accessories and artisanal crafts.