Discount Trade Show Displays

Historically, trade show booths and displays were sold in a showroom setting – much like how you traditionally buy a piece of furniture or a car. You would visit a bricks and mortar store and talk to the salesperson on the floor. He would take you from display to display, explaining the benefits of each type of display booth.

When meeting someone in person you got the chance to quickly size up the business, it’s employees, it’s reputation. By talking directly to the salesperson you could evaluate how the business was run and get a sense of the level of professionalism. Over time you would establish a customer/vendor relationship through this face-to-face meeting.

Buying trade show booths now is very different. With the advent of online purchasing, buying trade show booths and accessories doesn’t require a visit to a bricks and mortar store or even having a conversation with a salesperson. Imagine the difference, ordering a product without even having to talk to a salesperson. Simply choose your trade show product online from a catalog or order form and you get the product delivered directly to you or you can even have the booth sent right to the trade show floor.

So what are the causes of this shift from a physical storefront to online marketplace, and what are the repercussions for you, the end customer?

Online Trade Show Display Sales – The Ecommerce Revolution

Seeing the huge potential for online sales, many booth manufacturers decided to relax the qualifications needed to become a distributor. By having lots of online distributors it was a way to quickly tap into a new sales channel. Indeed, many trade show display suppliers are mom-and-pop shops run from a home office.

Because of the easing of distributor requirements, this created a surge in home-based trade show businesses which caused prices to drop due to the increase in competition.

If you look at the retail prices for the standard convention items such as popup displays, banner stands, flooring, panel systems, table top displays — they have seen deep discounts at the retail pricing level.

Trade Show Displays Become Commodities – The Need For New Products

Until the 1990s the trade show display market was characterized by a small number of manufacturers with a relatively small number of major distributors. Since competition was low, hefty margins could be made on the standard pop up displays and panel systems. There was no real motiviation for creating innovative and new products. Panel material and graphics were also fairly limited.

Most products from different manufacturers were basically the same in terms of design and form. This was a period of product commoditization for the entire industry.

Starting in the early 2000’s, two things happened to dramatically affect the trade show display market. First, as mentioned earlier the ecommerce revolution allow for more distributors which created more competition and a subsequent lowering of prices. Second, there were technological improvements to how graphics and textiles were created and processed. It was a lot easier and cheaper to creating stunning CMYK graphics for display panels and banner stands. Also, the polycarbonate and laminate materials used for the panels and banners were lower in cost and easier to produce.

Lately the trade show booth industry has seen a revitalization of product ideas and designs as the greater competition and lowering of margins forces manufacturers to be much more innovative.