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RETAIL: International Home Decor Park hopes to replace trade fairs as a business-to-business platform.

First gold. Then interior decoration and automobiles. And now home decor. Looks like exclusive theme shopping destinations are the way to go.

The International Home Decor Park (IHDP), set to throw open doors this September just off the Noida expressway from Delhi, is not just another theme store.

It is a business-to-business (or B2B, if net-speak is clearer) concept, operating more as a permanent trade fair for bulk buyers to strike deals with bulk suppliers.

The brain child of Aditya Gupta, a carpet exporter and director, IHDP, the park's specific aim is to showcase Indian handicrafts and home decor products for the benefit of foreign buyers.

Built over 3,50,000 sq ft, it is equipped with a service centre, travel desk, testing laboratories and a multi-cuisine restaurant.

"The idea came to me about three years back when meeting so many different buyers all in one day was becoming a big headache," says Gupta.

So he thought of setting up a one-stop shop for himself and others facing the same problem. Even the domestic home decor market is in boom, after all.

Gupta expects the park to attract around 5,000 buyers from across the world. As for sellers, IHDP expects to bring together 100 top home deco exporters from India under one roof to smoothen business transactions.

Some of the vendors that have already confirmed participation are Extra Weave, Special Merchandising, Arisia, Champ Carpets.

"We want to create an interface between buyers and exporters," says Gupta, who laments that lack of proper showcasing facilities has kept India's share of the global home decor market down to a mere 2 per cent.

It's a nightmare hunting for products in the maze of suppliers in the country, and yet, he estimates that there are about 60-70 buyers scouring Delhi for supplies at any given moment. "The park will provide them the one-stop shop for all their needs."

What about trade fairs?

Too expensive and too tedious, in Gupta's estimation, two things IHDP promises not to be.