Being an omni-channel business, many of you may have found us through one of our channels whether it was our in-person pop-up markets, our retail store, our wholesale stockists, our online store or through our public or private events. One of the areas of the business I’ve been wanting to expand most this year was our wholesale channel because I’ve seen some other business’ success with their wholesale channels who do a similar amount of business to us and i knew we could get there ourselves if i devoted a bit more time and effort in that area. However, the more I got into it, the more i learned (naturally).
We already sell or have sold with over 800 stores worldwide including the likes of Urban Outfitters, Tilly’s, Free People and have had conversations with Macy’s, Nordstroms and Francesca’s and while the latter of the list didn’t pan out (this happens, often! And is so okay - the terms didn’t align with our margins but we still respect and look forward to the potential of working with them in the future one day as a wholesaler)
This all being said, we’ve primarily used Faire, the massive wholesale platform that has a huge grasp on the wholesaling industry, or in the cases of UO, FP & Tilly’s, we were lucky enough to be found and approached by them. However, relying on one platform and luck to be found, I’ve learned how important outreach is when getting your name out there as a wholesaler vs a retailer. Thus, I signed GHD up for a massive fashion Tradeshow — Magic by Informa in Las Vegas.
For those who don’t know, there are TONS of different trade shows in the USA and also globally, but i wanted to start with the one i had heard the most about and was most local to me. Now every show has it’s bad apples and unlucky vendors, but this year the Accessory section (the one we exhibited in) was moved to a new hall (never a good sign) and our booth was quite literally shoved in the very corner of an absolutely MASSIVE show. Not only are corner spots never good for business, i spoke with most of the other vendors in our category and learned that we were all in a similar boat — the show was crazy busy, but nobody was making their way back to us because of how far out of the way we were.
(Pictured is myself and Shellaine A.)
The cost of attending this show and the exhibiting fee unfortunately surpasses $10,000, and we didn’t come close to bringing that amount of sales in during the show. Ideally, we would’ve liked to see double that, at a minimum to make it worth our time, but even though that didn’t happen we created SO many new connections to retailers who traveled far and wide to see and shop the Tradeshow so we can only hope to continue cultivating these new relationships and hope they place orders in the future or if they placed orders with us at the show, that we continue to be excellent wholesalers and receive re-orders in the future.
For what it’s worth, i was fortunate enough to grab the attention of the corporate accessory buyer from ZUMIEZ, a representative of the LV Golden Knights hockey team, some other wholesale show reps and more. I wish we could have seen an immediate return from this show, but I learned SO. MUCH. And made some really incredible connections to other wholesaling businesses, potential retailers annnnd i picked the brain of some seasoned Tradeshow exhibitors so now I can go into new tradeshows knowing a little bit more of what to expect.
Let me know if you want to hear more about the lessons i learned at this trade show as an exhibitor or a break down of costs vs sales! It definitely gave me a run for my money…
xx,
Amanda
Owner & Founder @ GHD