A Visitor’s Guide to Trade Fairs

Tips & Traps

Michelle Lee, executive director of party plan group Carter Lane Homewares, is another advocate of being focused and organised. She also advises comfortable shoes and clothes, and a light handbag equipped only with notebook, pens, plenty of business cards, and up-to-date credit cards.

"If you’re new to the industry and a first-timer at the fair, you do need to give yourself time to see everything, to get a feeling for what’s going on, but don’t start buying straight away," she advises.

Lee suggests that if you’re going for the first time, don’t take a friend, likening the situation to the danger of doing the food shopping when you are hungry. "They can sway you away from your focus and you do need to keep your target market and your core range in mind once you start buying. You also need to forget your own personal taste—you’re a business, not a consumer. Go direct to the suppliers that are right for what you do and do the essentials first.

"Then if you have the time, look for new products. Use the show to source the things your customers expect to find in your store, and then the unusual extras you want to try out and buy on that basis.

"Look for items that are really different and unusual, and try not to get trapped by fashion items that can end up as ‘knock-off’ copies in cheaper stores."

Lee says you should never buy a product you have had to think twice about and make sure you remember that price and value for money are two different things.

"You need to know what your customer wants and what your competitors are doing and selling, and you need to have integrity about what you sell.

"When the delivery arrives, don’t be bullied into accepting shoddy products from the supplier. If it isn’t what you ordered and you aren’t happy, send it back. It’s your business that will suffer."