Is Canton Fair Worth to Visit for You?

The 117th Canton Fair Spring Edition has started in Guangzhou and I think this is a great time to answer a question that many sourcing companies get from existing and potential clients, i.e. whether or not a trip to the fair is worth their time.

Many of the considering clients have been importing from China for a few years now. They have started with a specific product in mind and then sourced using a sourcing company like ours or via a B2B Platforms. Others are new importers looking to take the plunge but weighing their options.

Therefore, we ask 5 Questions from importers and potential importers whether to visit Canton Fair. These questions would help you clarify expectations and allow you to assess if a visit to the Fair is worth the investment.

1. Are you a Newcomer or an Expert?

When we speak to people in the industry here in China, we often get very different views to this question which shows that people have their own views on whether a visit to the Canton Fair is worth it or not, especially for existing importers who have established suppliers. So the opinions shared in this post are very much our own opinions to this question based on our experience.

If you value your time and you know that you want to source your goods from China, then going to the Canton Fair is a no brainer. Now you might think that using Alibaba is good enough. But if you’ve ever done business via Alibaba before, you’ve probably noticed how time consuming and tedious the whole process can be. First you’ve got to establish contact. Then you have to communicate. Then you have to have samples shipped across the world. Then you have to evaluate the samples and iterate. It’s a pain in the butt!

By going to the fair, you can bypass this stage altogether and have access to thousands of vendors who are all congregating at the same place. I believe at least one visit to the Canton Fair is definitely a great experience for any importer, whether new or experienced just to get a good understanding of how the industry in China works & to realize the enormity of the scale & diversity of manufacturing in China.

However, for a highly practical importer, with limited time or financial resources or someone who wants a direct ROI on the Canton Fair trip, the decision may require a bit more thinking.

2. Are you Looking for Ideas or to Cut Costs?

Canton Fair is an absolute goldmine for importers looking for new product ideas.

Many suppliers use it as an opportunity to launch their new products and if you are someone who is on the lookout for new exciting products within your niche or across industries, Canton Fair is a great place to be to get an early mover advantage.

If you have already been importing a specific product from China and the purpose is to meet new suppliers in order to cut costs, then Canton Fair is not the best avenue to reach this goal. This is primarily because, a very large percentage of booths at the Canton Fair are manned by trading companies or large manufacturers (with marketing budgets) and the pricing in general at the Canton Fair tends to be higher. There are lots of other great ways to look for alternative suppliers for your existing products in order to manage costs & I will look at those in a future post.

3. Are you Sourcing Consumer Goods or Industrial Goods?

While Canton Fair would normally have both consumer & industrial products on display, we have found that Canton Fair is not a great source for sourcing of industrial products relative to sourcing of consumer goods. For consumer products however, there are very few places where an importer would find such a wide variety under one roof.

Consumer Goods or Industrial Goods?

China has lots of Industry Specific fairs for both consumer and industrial goods. In the case of industrial goods, I find these to offer a lot more value and open access to a better and wider range of suppliers. They also tend to have more factories as opposed to large trading companies who dominate the Canton Fair.

4. What is your Business Model?

Many importers have business models, where a visit to the Canton Fair may not provide a tangible return on investment. It only gives qualitative value in the form of experience and insights gained.

Some of you might be sellers, who shift big volumes of goods each year and have a very viable business model. This means that the business model revolves all the time. while looking at new product opportunities with high margins, upward demand trend and low competition. Many of these importers do not have or care about product or industry specialization. They maximize earnings in a 6-18 month time-frame and by the time the competition starts to come in, move on to a new product.

While they could benefit from visiting the Canton Fair to discover new products, a visit to the Canton Fair or China in general is not an imperative as the focus is not on developing a supplier base within an industry or improving relationships with the supplier, but on finding products backed by “Online research & data” & moving on to the next big thing every time the market starts to get saturated.

There are also online sellers who mix & match a lot of products and import these in consolidated shipments. Canton Fair is once again of very little value to them as suppliers MOQ’s would be too high for them.

These importers are better off buying off wholesale markets in China (Traditional Importers), through B2B Wholesale sites or through sourcing companies in China.

5. What is the Scale of your Business?

While we believe anyone looking to do serious business with China would consider a visit to the Canton Fair as a small investment, we also believe a visit to the Canton Fair or China is not necessarily the best investment for new e-commerce based importers on a tight budget.

I believe that money is better spent on a lot of other areas like, educating themselves about the nuances of international trade through web based courses & training programs, utilizing those funds for increasing purchase quantities and being able to meet supplier MOQ’s in order to get better pricing & control over quality, investing in quality control for e.g. through pre-shipment inspections of goods or in improving sales & marketing systems.

In Summary

A visit to the Canton Fair in Guangzhou can be a great way to find new products, to find new suppliers for your existing products, to build relationships with existing suppliers or simply a great exercise in assessing the realm of opportunities that exist in importing from China. It can also be a great cultural experience.

However if you are on a tight budget or switch products regularly then there are better ways of spending your money. Canton Fair is definitely not the place for buying goods in smaller quantities (i.e. wholesale lots) and not the best place for finding low-cost suppliers for your products.

How about you: What are your thoughts on the Canton Fair?

Source: Is it worth spending money to a trip to canton fair?