Lou Sagar is a recognized trend innovator in home interiors, and the lifestyle product industries. As the founder of ZONA, the distinctive specialty home and lifestyle retailer, Lou built a showcase emporium for his pioneering development of lifestyle merchandising. In 1980, he opened his flagship store in the Soho area of New York, anticipating the emergence of Soho as an international destination for art and design. During a span of 17 years, he built a world-class lifestyle brand with nine retail locations and substantial wholesale operations distributing private label home furnishings, and lifestyle products throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.

An accomplished author and speaker, Lou Sagar is widely regarded for his trend-setting home and lifestyle book Zona Home published in 1998 by Harper Collins. In 2003, he acted as the executive editor for “The Artful Home” Series published by Guild Publishing.

In 1998, he sold his company to a private investment group.

Since 1998, Lou has become widely respected as a premier brand and online merchandising consultant. His strong business acumen compliments his hands on experience in specialty retailing, business, and product development. For the past eight years, Lou has complimented his merchant mindset, with a deep immersion in web-based technologies, and social networking science. He enjoys working with clients to apply viral online marketing tools to strengthen the engagement his clients have with customers, members, and fans.

In 2006, Lou began to work with social networks with a focus on the emergence of social commerce, and hyperlocal news delivery. He has worked as a senior consultant on a variety of assignments with a diverse mix of clients including, Etsy, Zappos, eBay, AOL, The Uniform Project, Dean&Deluca, Eileen Fisher, ABC Carpet and Home, Frette, to name a few.

Lou often serves consultatively as a business agent to entrepreneurial start-ups to assist with brand position, business plan preparations, market trend research, and investor presentations.