This is the 4th trade show I've done, having previously exhibited at London Edge and Pulse. Pulse and Top Drawer are both run by the same company, Clarion Events. I have to say the show was very well organised and looked professional.
How much does a trade show cost?
I'd been in two minds with whether to do the show. Leading up to Christmas one of the organisers was pressuring me a bit to book, that in the end I decided not to do it. I wouldn't say I hadn't had a good experience at Pulse, I covered my costs, but had got caught out on other things (more on that to come). Doing trade shows is a lot of money, I paid £1400 including VAT for a 3sq m stand. You pay by the square foot and the minimum stand is 3 Sq M. I was really unsure about doing this show but after having a successful period leading up to Christmas and discussing it with family over the festive period, I decided to go for it. My attitude in business that 'if you don't give it a go you'll never know' won over. I phoned up the company in the first week of January and was still able to book the space they had originally offered me.
On top of the stand cost you then get emails about how you want to fit your stand (which costs money), if you want to hire furniture (which costs money) and if you want lighting (which costs money). In the end I opted to spend £50 on a strip light as I didn't have lights when I did Pulse and quite a few buyers mentioned my stall was quite dark.
The negative side of trade shows
The most annoying thing with doing trade shows is that your business details get shared with EVERYONE! I was shocked when I did Pulse last year how many people randomly phoned me up trying to sell me stuff. Which is why I brought a business phone. This time was no different and as soon as I'd signed on the dotted line the phone calls and emails started. I received enquiries from companies wanting to build a website for me, enquiring if I wanted to trade at other trade shows, whether I could meet them at the show to discuss moving my business forward and just offering me a range of other services. The weirdest one was from someone who wanted to share a stall at a market with me, and they made glass bottles, not in anyway similar to what I do or who my customers are.
The biggest thing to be careful of are companies who say they are working on behalf of the trade show. I got caught out on this really badly when I did Pulse. A company phoned me up and said the director of the show had chosen my stand as one of the top 10 from the whole of Pulse and was going to do an editorial about me. They would cover half the printing costs if I covered the other half (which was about £150). To add to this I had to write the editorial myself or get someone else to write it which would cost more money. Unfortunately I fell for it, I was quite naive having not done many trade shows, and was flattered that my company had been chosen in the top ten. I paid my money and it was only after I had done this I received a call from Pulse asking how the show had gone when I mentioned this editorial to them, and they told me it was a scam. I couldn't get my money back and so just had to forget about it. This is not uncommon for companies to say they are working on behalf of trade shows, I've spoken to other exhibitors who this has also happened to. Rather then take the risk this time I just said no to any offers.
Setting up my Stand
A week before the show one of the organisers phoned me to say the person on the stand next to me had cancelled, and did I want an extra 2 1/2 sq m for free. I of course said yes.
Set up for trade shows is always on the Saturday. We packed the car up and drove into Earls Court. I hadn't paid for any extras in my stand so just had the walls and carpet (and the light I mentioned earlier). Furniture wise we took a large plastic garden table which we covered with one of our cupcake table clothes so no one could tell it was a cheap table, a plastic shelving unit, and a small folding camping table which we covered with a black cloth.
Trade shows are very strict about how you attach things to the wall. We used 2 cheap plastic table clothes covered in cup cakes as wall hangings (to give the perception of a feature wall) which we attached with market clips. We also hung our wholesale banner from the wall. I'd just had a rolling banner made of one of the photos from our photo shoot which I think really tied our whole stand together. So here are some pictures so you can see what the finished stand looked like:
The Show
Top Drawer opened on the Sunday and unusually for a trade show was busier on the Monday. Normally it's the other way around. Charles came to help me out on the Sunday so I had a good nose round the show. Top Drawer is split into sections. There's fashion, well being, children, gift, and home. It was lovely walking through the well being area and there were lots of nice smells.
Our first order of the day was from a small boutique, they asked if they could have exclusivity for their town. As I'd never heard of where they were from and was so desperate to take an order I said "yeah, that will be no problem." Afterwards I went for a wonder around the show and when I got back Charles was very excited that he'd taken an order. Of course it was for the same town! Thankfully we've since sorted it out and will be full filling both orders.
Generally it can be a bit boring at a trade show, compared to conventions when you never stop, there can often be long periods where nothing happens. Thank god for my Ipad! I was able to work on the website and check out my new stockists at the same time.
Monday is when you normally have the bigger department stores, and I managed to take two very nice orders from two large chains of shops. One of which was the biggest order I have ever taken (400 rings!)
Tuesday was quieter and was the day when you were more likely to have people try and sell you things then the other way around. I was approached by several photographers, a PR company and several companies trying to get me to book their shows (retail and trade).
The show closed at 5pm and I started to break down the stall, Charles came to meet me about 6pm and we carried everything across to the car park (otherwise we would have had to wait till 8pm to be able to bring the car into Earl's Court). Overall I took the same number of orders daily, the bigger orders were written on Monday and smallest on Tuesday. Previously when I did Pulse a lot of the buyers only brought the minimum order, but this time only one company brought the minimum order. I had two repeat customers (who brought from me at pulse) and the rest were new stockists.
After, I can say it was a huge success. I'm not sure if I'd do it again as it was a lot of money and now I have made those contacts hopefully they'll make repeat orders without having to be at another trade show.
Now I'll be making up the orders and hopefully getting them all dispatched within 2 weeks before I do my next trade show, London Edge, at the beginning of Feb. Watch out for a post about that coming soon.
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