Traveling the trade show circuit is essential for independent retailers seeking to keep up with the latest trends.
While business may have been challenging over the past couple of years for many small stores, merchants continue to invest in shows where they can find new vendors to lure shoppers.
“Trade shows are our lifeblood,” said Mike Zack, owner of three stores in the Dallas metropolitan area. “It’s the first thing I learned from my father: You make money when you buy something, not when you sell it — if you buy it right.”
David Rubenstein, owner of Rubensteins in New Orleans, said: “If you can pick up just one new line a season, it can make a big difference.”
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As a result, stores are not planning to cut back on their trade show travel budgets in 2011.
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Zack, who owns Circa 2000, a high-end men’s store, as well as Hangers, a men’s shirt store, and Shop, a new upscale outlet, said he will travel to New York in January for MRket and Project, followed by the Chicago Collective at the end of the month and then Las Vegas shows such as MAGIC, Project, ENK, MRket and Off-Price in mid-February.
“I’m like a little kid when I go to trade shows,” he said. “I can’t wait to see new things. You never know when you’re going to find the thing to make your season. That’s why I go to so many. It’s a lot of work, but it’s an integral part of our job. You’ve got to do your homework.”
In addition to finding new lines and absorbing the trends for the season, Zack welcomes the opportunity to chat with other retailers while he’s shopping.
“Trade shows are like continuing education,” he said. “If you don’t go, you do your customer a disservice. By talking to retailers and manufacturers, you learn things, and as a small business, I need all the advantages I can get.”
Rubenstein also welcomes the opportunity to meet with other retailers.
“There are so many people to mingle with and talk to [at the shows],” he said. “If I’m worried about something, I can talk to other stores about how they’re doing. It really helps.”
In addition to the New York trade shows, Rubenstein will also attend the Dallas Men’s and Boys’ show, which has been moved ahead to Jan. 23 this time because of the Super Bowl.
“So I’ll get a week in New York and then fly to Dallas,” he said. “I prefer the regional shows. I like to give business to the local sales reps who take care of me throughout the year.”
Jeannie Lee, owner of Satine in Los Angeles, said, “I try to go to as many trade shows as I can. I do think they are still important and, for a designer that is unknown, it is a really good place to showcase your brand and be seen by people that you might not have access to.”
Although her first preference is to shop shows in her native California, Lee also plans to travel to New York for Coterie and Designers & Agents.
“I don’t take fewer trips, they’re just not as long,” Lee said. “I used to stay in New York for two weeks, but now I will stay a week. For the shows that end up coming to Los Angeles, I do them in Los Angeles. It just makes sense. There is no reason for me to pay extra for travel. My approach is really to do as much as I can locally.”
She also flies to Paris for Premiere Classe, Atmosphere and Rendez-Vous.
“A lot of European designers only go to those shows and might not make it to America because it is expensive,” she said.
Her primary purpose at the shows is to find new lines and add a hot item or two.
“If we are missing scarves or jewelry, it is a good place to pick up lines because there is a high concentration there,” she said, but with the cost of travel so high, she needs to “be smarter” with her time and “really vet designers, showrooms and collections before we see them. We make sure it is a good fit for us before we go there.”
Rochelle Gores, owner of Arcade Boutique in West Hollywood, Calif., plans to attend some Paris shows, as well as Designers & Agents in New York.”
Gores said she uses the shows to seek out new lines.
“I hope to find something that I have not heard of yet,” she said. “We are looking for quality brands, with a good fit at a certain price point. The trade shows showcase hundreds of brands at once, so to buy it correctly you really have to know your customer and what you are looking for before you walk in. First we do an initial edit of the show and see the brands that I think are the correct fit. I then spend time with my buyer in the buying office putting the whole story together. We always strive to tell an exciting and unique story on the sales floor that appeals to women across the board.”
Mark Goldstein, owner of stores in the Los Angeles area under the Madison, Madison Gallery and Diavolina nameplates, will attend Coterie, D&A, Premiere Classe and Tranoï.
Since most manufacturers approach him before the shows begin, Goldstein said there are generally “not a lot of major discoveries at the fairs,” but occasionally he finds something.
“We are always looking for good new things,” he said. “We are consistently editing also because these days you have to be really focused and buy what works. And it gets tighter all the time.”
He said he doesn’t tend to place orders during the show because competitors are also shopping the same lines, often resulting in “a political battle for who gets the line for what location.” Additionally, “it is always better to go back and look at pictures, digest and edit as opposed to being totally emotional.”
Goldstein said his budget for 2011 will be “very similar” to this year and he’s planning to be “conservative and chase the business if things improve as opposed to being aggressive up front.”
Diane Biggs, owner of Diane’s Inc., which has 18 beachwear stores in California, had always shopped ASR, but with the demise of that show, she is considering attending Surf Expo in Orlando, Fla., in January. She doesn’t think the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show, which has been touted as a possible substitute for ASR, will suit her needs.
She will attend ISAM, which has been aligned with MAGIC since 2005, and SwimShow in Miami. Between those events, she can check out misses’ suits and European lines, and also look at upscale brands at CurveNV, but she said the missing piece is the junior swimwear market.
“I think there is going to be a lot of missed buys, to be honest with you,” she said.