The merger of French exhibitions - the MIDEC shoe salon and the Salon de la Maroquinerie leather goods salon, which took place in September, has not yet brought the desired effect. Although Jean Papillon, Honorary President of the National Federation of French Footwear Retailers, President of the European Confederation of Footwear Retailers, believes that the combination of exhibitions was quite logical, since they complement each other very well.
In terms of assortment, the exhibitions could really mutually reinforce each other and ensure cross-sales. However, in fact, it turned out that the leather goods salon occupied 90% of the exposure. Shoemakers left for another exhibition - Mess Around, which took place at the same time, 6 - 8 of September, but in another place - Doсks de Paris (the total exhibition area was 7 000 sq. M).
The organizers of Mess Around, who are also the organizers of the exhibition of Italian shoes Italmoda, made an offer to the exhibitors, which they could not refuse - the cost of the exhibition space was almost halved.
At the Midec exhibition, which was held at the Parc des Expositions de la Porte de Versailles, there were 33 shoe companies that represented 60 brands. 300 brands were exhibited at Mess Around. However, in the end, neither there nor there was a sufficient number of visitors.
Even Midec's entry into the general project Paris Capitale de la Creation failed to attract visitors. Within the framework of this project, all b2b exhibitions dedicated to footwear, clothing, accessories and underwear have joined forces to attract visitors. Since September 2008, within the framework of the Paris - Fashion Capital project, a single ticket has been in effect - that is, buying a ticket to one exhibition, the buyer gets the right to visit all the others. According to the organizers of MIDEC, this system made it possible to increase the number of foreign buyers up to 30% due to those specialists who came to the Pret-a-Porter Paris ready-to-wear exhibition, Who's Next youth clothing exhibition, and Premiere Class accessories exhibition. Even so, the number of visitors remained less than expected.
Speaking about the necessity of visiting exhibitions, Jean Papillon highlighted two options. The first case: the merchant does not attend any exhibitions. By the time he buys, he will be careful, very careful ... and he will miss the sale: his turnover will be low. Case two: before making purchases, our merchant went to one regional and one national exhibition. He found that most of the manufacturers showed models with very sharp toes (for example), and this allowed him to increase the order, being confident that he was purchasing within the general trend.
Whether Mr. Papillon’s appeal to buyers will be known only next spring, during the new season of orders.
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