Your markets are expensive. Any which way you look at it, whether you're going to exhibit there
you're going to attend there, it's expensive. A lot of times the hotels will charge you double or
triple. Rental cars will cost more. And so that's another reason why you want to be able to make
sure you use your time at the market as efficiently and as effectively as possible
Hi, this is Anita, the Global Trade Gal. Today I want to talk a little bit about trade shows
In particular, I want to talk about the North Carolina High Point Furniture Market
I've been attending this market for, gee, I don't know, it's been at least 25 years now
And I usually attend each October and each April. I've watched the market change. And a lot of
things that people have told me that the market has changed has been a few things. And I want to
talk a little bit about trade shows in general and how I've seen that maybe some of the markets
have changed over the time and why it's important that you choose the right trade show to attend
If you're looking to be able to find vendors or products or other things like that
there's no doubt that the High Point Furniture Market is the largest furniture market in the
world. And just to give us some type of perspective for this, the market really
lasts about five days. And it actually lasts longer than that because there's certain buyers
that come in earlier and there's certain people that might try to stay a little bit later. But
usually most people don't stay later. Most people come in earlier. What's really changed about this
market is that a lot of my customers have told me that it used to be that they would ride a lot of
sales at the market. They would ride a lot of orders and they could go back from the market
and they would say, oh, we've sold this X amount of dollars. But it seems like now these days
a lot of the markets have become more like a marketing market, not necessarily a sales market
And I find that this is really quite an interesting phenomenon because many, whether
I've been in markets throughout Asia, I've been in markets in the United States or Europe or other
parts of the world, a lot of the vendors are telling me that they don't necessarily write
as many orders at the market as they used to. But instead, the people will come in
they'll look at the products, they'll say, yes, we like this, we like that. Yes, we like this
And that they will then go home and then they will place the order
You know, this could be like the overall change in the way business has been that right now people
are used to buying and selling on the Internet. They're used to looking to things on the Internet
And so maybe they just don't want to be forced into having to make a decision right there
The other reason could simply be that the high point market, it's such a huge market
that people want to come in, they want to look, they want to see what they can see. They don't
necessarily want to place the order right there at that time. Yes, there are people that are
placing orders, but there are a lot of people that are deciding they're going to place the order later
Just to give you some perspective, the high point furniture market has about 12 million square feet
of exhibitor space. But this is spread out through, you know, basically a couple city blocks
So you need to be able to go from building to building, from place to place to be able to see
all the people that you need to see. They estimate that over 75,000 people attend the market
each fall and each spring. You know, whether or not this is the exact number, whether it's more
or less, it's really, really hard to tell. I know that in the past the markets used to seem to be
much busier. And are they less busy? I don't know. Or more people just attending the markets once a
year because they feel like maybe they don't need to go twice a year. They can see things online
They can check things on the internet. They don't have to go in person. They don't have to spend
their time and effort to be able to go there. One thing I did notice about this last market from all
the other markets that I've attended, you know, usually, you know, the weekends were, you know
really quite very, very busy. And Monday, you know, things were kind of a little slower. And
then Tuesday, you know, things would be even slower than that. But this time I was shocked
when I got on the bus at my hotel and the bus was almost full and it was on a Monday and Tuesday the
bus was almost full. So, you know, maybe people too are kind of changing the way that, you know
when they travel to the market, maybe they're deciding they don't want to give up their weekend
They don't want to, they want to spend time with their family and they're going to come on Mondays
and Tuesdays and, and even on into Wednesday. I think to wherever trade show you're looking to
attend, it's important that you understand something about that trade show. And especially
if you are deciding that you want to maybe, you know, attend the trade show as, as a vendor
you really need to understand that trade show and understand a lot of things about the trade
show itself. You know, I've attended a lot of different trade shows. And the one thing that
I've seen is I feel like trade shows are becoming less and less important in many ways. And one of
the reasons why I feel that way is just because of the sense, the way the internet is that people
are used to being able again, to buy and sell and to see things online. I don't think that trade
shows will completely disappear. I think that they'll always be like, especially for the high
point furniture market, because furniture is such a big item that, you know, people many times want
to come in and see the quality. But then once the buyer, you know, sort of understands your quality
they understand the look, they understand the finish, they may feel more comfortable, be able
to actually buy it online than to have to see it, you know, 100% in person. So when I first started
going to the high point market, you know, it was essential because of, you know, the internet
people weren't used to the internet. And so they really had to go to the market in order to see
the products and to know exactly what they were buying. They also needed to have, you know, reps
and other people come to visit them so they could understand more of, you know, who they were buying
from. You know, today, I think that, you know, we, again, the internet has changed the world, we have
become more, you know, it's become easier for people that want people to buy things online
without ever having seen them. Yes, and people are buying furniture and other things online. So
it's not like this is not already happening, because it is happening. So I think no matter
what, if you're looking to attend the trade show as an exhibitor, first of all, you need to
understand the trade show, and you need to decide if it is the right thing for you to be able to do
Most of my customers that are successful at the high point market are people who've been there
for a long time. They are what I would call very deep in the market, because they also have very
good space, that they have a very good location. People know where they are, they come in, they see
them, they become a destination, they stop in, and they see them because they know that they want to
you know, that they want to see them, that they're like, yes, I need to go see them, see what they
have, I'm going to, you know, pop in to see them. You know, starting out new, I think it's going to take
a long time, or it's going to take some time for you to get established, for you to be able to
get the right spot, for you to get the right location, because, you know, people that have the
good locations have fought for that location usually for quite a long time. So it takes time for you to
really get the location that maybe you feel you want, or you deserve, or your brand wants, your
brand deserves, and you're going to have to pay a lot of money probably for that correct location
If you're going there to buy or to look for products, then you really need to go with a plan
and this is especially true for a market like the High Point Furniture Market. You know, some markets
is in a big hall, and you can basically just say, I'm going to walk, you know, the A line, the B
the C, the D, and you can just, you know, walk down, and you can kind of see the people, and maybe you
don't have to have so much of a plan, but you can kind of, you know, walk around and to see. But even
you know, some of the major trade shows I've been to, like the Canton Fair in China, when the Canton
Fair used to be one of the major trade shows, you sort of had to know, you know, what you were
looking for, because it was just such a huge, I don't need to really go by and see all the people
that are selling hammers and tools and other things like that. You know, I needed to go to
this specific section where I felt like they'd have the products or the things that I needed to
buy or wanted to buy or wanted to look at. So you really, as a buyer, no matter what market you're
going to, you should come in with some kind of plan. You should have an idea of who's showing
there, and you know, who you want to see, and there should be some kind of plan for that. Because the
last thing you want to be doing, especially if it's a major market, is going from one end of it
to another, because you know, you want to see this person here, and oh, I miss seeing this other
person. I've got to go back here. You're going to be wasting not only a lot of time, but you're also
going to be wasting a lot of expense. And that's the last thing that I want to talk about, is generally
the expense. Your markets are expensive. Any which way you look at it, whether you're going to exhibit
there, you're going to attend there, it's expensive. A lot of times the hotels will charge you
double or triple the amount that they normally charge. You're going to pay more. Rental cars will
cost more. And so that's another reason why you want to be able to make sure you use your time
at the market as efficiently and as effectively as possible. So going back a bit to my original
question, do I kind of think markets are dead? No, I don't think trade shows or markets are dead, but
I do think that, you know, people are willing to be able to look at things and check things out
online. So this again goes to the importance of having a good online presence. If you'd like to
read more about the High Point Furniture Market, we've written a blog which is called About the
North Carolina High Point Furniture Market. And if you're interested in this, we have some of the
statistics of the market. We also have a chart that compares the amount of square footage between
the High Point Furniture Market and some other major markets in Europe, such as the Mason and
Objects Show, which is in France, the Ambiente Show, which is in Germany, the Cologne Furniture Show
and the Milan Furniture Fair. And when you look at the square footage that those shows have compared
to the High Point Furniture Market, you can see why we say that the High Point Furniture Market
is really the major furniture market in the world, because it really has a lot more exhibitor square
footage space than any of those other markets. Thank you so much for listening. We hope that
you've enjoyed this podcast. And if you can, take time to subscribe. We'd love to have you be part
of our community where we talk about all things to do with global trade. If you're interested to find
out more about Mindoro and how we can help you if you're looking for furniture and other things
check out our website. And we'd also like to thank Rico for helping put together these podcasts
together. Without him and the rest of the team, this would not be possible. Thank you so much
Thank you