No more bare walls at Barewalls

Barewalls Interactive Art Inc. has gotten a new owner who plans to double the number of products on offer. "We are telling our _suppliers we want to carry everything they have," says Steven Gardner, vice president of sales and marketing. That will push Barewalls’ inventory from 150,000 prints to 300,000.

Online poster and art retailer Barewalls was acquired in July by Missouri Molding and Glass Co., a St. Genevieve, Mo., framing and arts products company that is one of its chief vendors. As a result, Barewalls is now headed up by Margaret Nohr, owner of Missouri Molding. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Missouri Molding is Barewalls’ long-standing _fulfillment vendor. All of Barewalls’ _remaining operations and fulfillment will be relocated from Montreal to Missouri, Gardner says.

In addition to beefing up the inventory, Barewalls is adding more popular culture prints to appeal to a younger audience and _adding framing to its list of customer services. "Our primary customers are women ages 18 to 34 and we want to expand that to include both men and women 14 to 34," Gardner says. "We will be adding a lot of popular culture content."

With new ownership and an expanded merchandise strategy, Barewalls expects to grow its web sales between 12% and 18% this year, Gardner says.