Designer Collections

Before starting up, having had no experience in the fashion or gift industry at all, I looked at fashion as well as gift trade fairs in regards of location, cost, minimum square foot, exhibitors and target audience. Shortly after I received application packs for Pure Womenswear, Home&Gift, Topdrawer etc…eager to believe all the sales pitches, one brochure looked and sounded better than the next; I wanted to try them all.
Realistically I knew I would receive my first complete sample collection by end of June. Thus I thought it would be good to create some pressure and booked my first fair, the Home and Gift fair in Harrogate. Sure enough I received my bags a week before the fair.
In that week I organised a photo shoot with my friend, had my brochure printed, and made my catalogues, gave all my bags names, and printed my price list until 2 am before the day of the fair…stressful…but in a positive way.

My experience at Home&Gift

…after having slaved away for weekends on end to make the cubicles and wall for the stand it was great to finally see the result when the lights went on and the exhibitions start was announced. I felt truly excited, the first step has been made to make my business ‘real’.

In the morning I received a lot of interest and positive feedback for my handbags, people were very friendly and it was very easy to start conversation understanding what they are selling and at what price points. Most people were actually staying for a few days and did not make an immediate decision to make an order but I felt they were genuinely interested.

When it was quite it was nice to chat with other exhibitors who were all very friendly and had some great tips. It was great as I was on my own and fellow exhibitors were very reliable to look after my stand while I went to get food, calling me on my mobile if someone came back to place an order.

Of course there were also a lot of exhibitors who were complaining and said how bad the fair was…but I know that people always like saying how much better things used to be…this did not distract me…I was loving it.

Throughout the four days fair I received a lot of positive feedback, some great contacts, more orders than expected and after deducting all my costs I made a small profit.

…a few weeks on…

My experience at Topdrawer Autumn

There are a lot of people as soon as the shows open, I did not expect this and am not quite ready. In the first half an hour I am writing two orders…good thing my boyfriend is there to help…
Most people are only staying one day. Some people place an order in such a hurry I wonder if those buying decisions are thought through.
In general there seem to be a lot of people researching for a retail outlet they might start, online shops and party businesses. Most online shops don’t buy from you in advance but instead use your images and once someone orders something they pay you the wholesale price and shipping and you have to process payment and do the shipping. The question is how much will they sell, if they spent as much on advertising as on stock it surely won’t be much.

At the end of the three days fair I received quite a few orders (albeit all minimum) but I realise having an order doesn’t mean getting paid and shipping the order. Three shops just did not react to my pro-forma invoices and my phone calls.

Before doing my next fair I will include a cancellation clause in my terms and conditions giving shops 7 days to cancel the order, otherwise they will have to pay a 40% cancellation fee.

All in all I do believe that exhibitions are important if you want to sell to shops, it’s not the only way but it’s probably the fastest way to get a number of customers.
It is important not to believe everything you are told, event organisers are making a lot of money with those exhibitions. I will continue going to trade fairs and in the end will choose the trade fairs, which worked well for me the year before. But I will also try other avenues.