How To Use Trade Shows

Trade Shows and Wholesale Sourcing

If you are looking at starting a wholesale business or growing your existing business then trade shows are one worthy way of reaching potential buyers and wholesale traders.

Let’s take a look at how to use trade shows for your wholesale business. Is it a really worthy investment and how to get better results from Trade shows.

Even if you are not putting up a stall, it pays to visit wholesale trade shows which happen throughtout the year so that you know what is selling hot and who is selling them. Wholesale trade shows are particularly popular in jewelry, crafts, gifts, fashion items, furniture and electronics.

Wholesale buyers now a days are becoming savvy traders and they are keen to look at multiple choices before they sign any agreement. Gone are the days when setting up a store front or a stockroom and waiting for the buyers to find you would work.

Most buyers today are ready to travel to far off countries and attend trade shows all through the year.

Exhibiting in a trade show might be an intimidating idea in the beginning but be assured there are multiple agencies and consultants to help you set up your exhibit the first time and every time. You need to tackle your trade show booth with real trading confidence.

How to choose and apply for a trade show

There are variety of trade shows all over the world each meant for a specific trade segment, and there are many directories like Wholesale Central www.wholesalecentral.com/tradeshowcal.htm , The Wholesaler UK www.thewholesaler.co.uk and Wholesale Forums www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk which help you decide and choose.

Plan ahead of time, in most cases you need to search for the right shows almost a year in advance, and apply for it. Applications may be mostly straight forward where the organizer will collect the required data about your business and if you are related to the show, they will approve you and ask you to make the advance payment.

With the number of participants and exhibitors increasing every year, the setting up procedure also has become very easy now a days.

Each Trade show has an organizing committee which looks after your booking, setup, travel and accommodation if needed, moving goods and merchandise into their country, setting up the exhibit booth and the infrastructure in your booth like power, internet, office supplies, facsimile, telephone connection, etc.

There are also external consultants like ‘Exhibit Wholesale’ www.exhibitwholesale.com and ‘Exhibit and Trade show Consultants’ www.exhibitandtradeshow.com who assist you on how to use trade shows for wholesale merchandising.

Pre-show Promotion:

Once you apply and start planning for your exhibit, a bit of pre-show promotion helps in bringing in the right crowd to your stall.

You might inform your existing customers and prospective customers living in that country or near by and send them special passes for the trade show. Plan for some Special Discounts or Trade-show Specials so that the customers have a motivation to attend the exhibition.

Booth Design:

Booths and Trade show stalls come in various sizes. If you are attempting for the first time, it is preferred to take the minimum size stall and see how it works out. Make sure you are not at the far end of the show floor plan.

Ask in advance about all the facilities that the organizers provide during the show. Design your booth in accordance with the rules of the show, and try to emulate the theme of your company inside the booth, in terms of background color, wall designs and logo.

Trade Show marketing:

This is about what you should do when you are at the show. Arrive at the show in advance, and check if your shipments have all arrived for the show.

Plan for extra trade brochures so that you do not run out of it before the show ends. Most shows have specific hours for invited traders and business guests, and other hours for general public. Make sure you are always present in your stall when you are expecting potential customers.

Be polite and try to differentiate the real customers from the window shoppers. Maybe you can have another table inside the booth where you can take interested people and continue the discussions there. Try to understand the customer sentiments and collect more business ideas for the future.

Trade shows are one place where you get to meet many types of wholesale customers and it pays to stay in touch with their needs.

Role of PR firms in Trade shows:

If you are new to Trade Show exhibitions or if the Trade show is happening in a foreign country, it is better to employ a PR firm like ‘Exhibit Design Consultants, Inc.’ www.exhibitd.com who take care of the pre-show promotion and booth design. They are experts who understand the customers better.

They efficiently plan and assist you on how to use trade shows for your business. Even experienced businesses use PR firms so that they come up with better ideas to attract the potential customers and win over the deals.

PR firms may also delegate one of their people who can stand with you in the stall and help you to promote your products.

Trade shows may scare you off at first, but it is the best way to reach many new customers at the same place. Since they have become popular, Trade shows are the only way to grow your wholesale business and plan for future at the same time.

Wholesale traders need to plan ahead and keep a tab on the growing customer demands. Once you visit or attend trade shows regularly, you will know how to use trade shows to grow your business.

Here are some other Wholesale Sourcing sites that I have found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Sourcing-3.com.

Using Trade shows
Using Trade shows