Subscribe Now!

Events Calendar

Online Product Catalogs

Manufacturers Directory

Product Update Pages

eBabyShop newsletter

Baby Shop Flipbook

Trade Show Tips

By Michael Tesler

Most retailers attend trade shows that serve an important and ongoing role in merchandising their stores. Many stores do well over 50% of their shopping and buying at these shows. For some they are their only source of new lines and a major source of market information.

Considering the importance, we are surprised by the lack of preparation we see from otherwise well organized and well run retailers. We recently worked with start ups attending their first shows and reviewed a host of issues and approaches with them. We anticipate many readers will disagree with our approach and we are "cool" with that. There is not a single right or wrong way to do this (as in most things retail); the important thing is that there is a plan (a way).

We preach "control", control of your time, control over what you are looking at, control over when you look and most importantly what and when you buy. Major shows such as MAGIC or NY, Chicago and Atlanta require several days. Whatever the total time, approximately half should be devoted to walking the floor end to end with an open mind and no schedule, no appointments and no sitting down except for breaks. Generally you should be looking for items…stores sell and customers buy items. Sales reps sell lines. In the generic, uninspiring world of retail in 2005, the smaller stores that are winning are those that find unique items that work for consumers. Search them out!! In the first walk through, react on instinct (there is a great new best seller by Malcolm Gladwell called "Blink" that is about the power of instinctive reaction), but do not buy, and do not allow reps to use up your valuable time with "hype" or questions about your store, etc. Just grab line sheets and underline and note the item or items that caught you eye. If you can quickly get price and delivery dates, do so, but do it standing up and without sitting and "doing their line justice". You do not owe justice to their lines, you owe it to your store. As good as this item looks, there may be a similar item 20 booths later with a better price and delivery. Accumulate winning items in this manner until you have done the entire floor. With that accomplished you then will have a better sense of the market and the upcoming season. You then can consider which items overlap, which fit your image and price structure, which you need to reconsider and which you must buy. The next step would be to go back to those lines you want to buy and gather more information and see more items (if applicable). Only sit down where it is required and only make appointments where necessary. The more you shop like your customers do, the more suitable your purchases will be for them. We do not advocate writing orders at shows. Of course vendors want you to and offer you "Show Specials" etc. You should be buying items that work for your stores, not deals. Every item ultimately purchased should be something bought by the retailer and none should be sold to them by the vendor. Better decisions and allocation of dollars and merchandising takes place when you are separated from sales professionals.

Be aware that every vendor is different and there are different rules that apply in each booth you stop at. Leverage is the most significant influence on how a booth will work. Many "hot" lines have "attitude" and will only talk to you if you have an appointment and others will be so happy to see you and will be willing to do anything for you. It is important to always remind yourself that you are buying merchandise and not people. Those nice, friendly people are often so because they have plenty of time because no one wants their product. They will do anything because you have all the leverage (they have merchandise they can't sell!). The product you want the most will usually be the hardest to get and the hardest people to deal with (they have all the leverage). Consequently this requires flexibility on the buyer's part, but you should flex for the right reason. . . for special items for the store.

Some other tips:

• Wear comfortable shoes
  
• Check coats, etc. and carry as few extraneous items as possible
  
• Always ask for discounts, quantity discounts, "dating", etc. You will never find out if you do not ask, and the worst you can get is a no.
  
• After each couple of rows, throw away materials you have collected that you don't need.
  
• Develop quick but polite ways to extricate yourself from aggressive salespeople.
  
• If you know you won't buy it, "GET OUT" of the booth.
  
• If it is a choice between being stuck and being rude. . . be rude! Your time is your most valuable commodity at a show and you need to conserve it to find the right stuff.
  
• Create codes and symbols so that when you are going back over piles of line sheets you have the information that you need.
  
• If you have the time, check out seminars and speakers in advance and build the ones of interest into your schedule. You do not need to attend all, but often there are valuable subjects reviewed that can open you up to new products, approaches and ideas, and also they can offer interesting topics to bring back to discuss with your staff.
  
• During breaks and if you attend show events there can be opportunities to network and interact with other stores' owners. Frequently, relationships develop with what we call "neutral competitors" – stores in the same business but in distant market areas. This represents a significant ongoing opportunity for information sharing and can be one of the most important benefits Trade Shows give to small stores.
  
• Always ask vendors if they ever have off-price goods and tell them if you do business with them that you expect to be included (you can always say no later).

Final Point – Don't just go to Trade Shows; go with a plan of attack and your store will reap the benefits.

Additional Tips

• Bring bottled water and eye drops. You'd be surprised at how dehydrated one becomes at a large show.
  
• Wear comfortable shoes, but we were told that the hard core reps and owners of lines assess you by your feet and jewelry when you enter their booth.
  
• Being professional, polite, and persistent is of utmost importance. Ask to enter the booth if the rep is blocking the entrance.
  
• Bring a camera but always ask permission before taking a picture.
  
• When walking up and down the aisles, walk slowly and look to see!!!
  
• Bring good energy. Avoid phone calls home or to the office if you think the call may distract you from accomplishing your "mission".
  
• Many lines hire people just to work a booth for the show. They do not have any true knowledge about the product they are representing. Don't waste time with these people. You will come to learn who they are if they have to go to someone else to get a question answered. If this happens walk out and come back later when the person with the knowledge is available.
  
• I saw this wonderful martini glass. It sat in a carafe filled with ice. I asked the rep if the glass would drip water on one's lap when the ice melted. He answered that he did not know and has never been asked that question. The lesson here is that when deciding what to buy, use yourself to experience what your customer would experience. I imagined myself at a dinner party lifting the glass and having water drip all over my new silk dress. The more intimate you become with your merchandise, the better you can sell it when it reaches your store.
  
• After walking a few aisles, we could actually "feel" when a product excited us and we were energized. There were aisles where our energy plummeted and we thought it was us being tired. But it wasn't us, it was the lack of seeing anything that engaged us. On becoming a buyer, depend and develop your intuitive sense about products that excite you. If you are excited your customers will be too.
  
• We lugged home 50 pounds of catalogs and line sheets, all of which we wanted. Bring extra bags. We were lucky that some vendors had bags that we took. If we didn't have these bags we would have had to buy some.
  
• We wrote one order at the show. It was for bath salts with our private label on them that we are going to hand out at our opening. We decided to place the order at the show to talk about artwork. Since we were novices at writing orders and were very nervous, we arrived at this particular booth first thing in the morning when it was quiet. There weren't as many people hovering around watching and listening to us and we got the undivided attention that we needed for this first order. Just an aside, what we thought was a rep happened to be the owner of the company—and liked us gleegals so much that he took the order without a credit card and said we could use him as a future credit reference!!
  

Michael Tesler, President Retail Concepts www.RetailConcepts.com