Trade shows for ecommerce sites...

Tradeshows are tyically under-rated by ecommerce companies, it seems distinctly old school and yet it's still important. This is particularly the case for wholesale - it's still the best way to reach buyers i.e in person as opposed to typical consumers online.

If you're selling B2C products it's hit or miss. Unless you were the manufacturer or supplier of one particular product it usually doesnt pay for the space or the exhibit booth. Not to mention it's exhausting physically to do even a one or two day trade show (trust me, I've done a few).

Now, on the other hand, industry trade shows are actually a great place to attend to find new products or product lines to carry and add to your selection before your competitors find out about these new up and coming products.

As someone who attends a lot of trade shows, I think it is a tremendous opportunity to network with people who can help your business.

Maybe not today or tomorrow. But when you need them, it is incredibly helpful to already know them.

On the point of exhibiting (I think that is what you are suggesting in your first post), I believe it is a good way to build credibility and make some new contacts. But you need to keep your expectations in check. I wouldn't go in expecting to leave with a bunch of new customers.

However, for the long game of establishing yourself as a player in the business, there are few methods that are comparable to being one of the exhibitors among the big guys displaying their goods at these places.

Just make sure you have some way of distinguishing yourself from them. Whether it is pricing, unique lines, a strong brand identity, or the half-naked supermodel bringing people to your booth (I don't necessarily recommend that one your first time out), if you give people nothing to remember you by, well, they won't remember you after the show ends.

I've actually attended, and had many booths at trade shows.

Yes, the networking is great, but so is the potential to find a lot of suppliers should you choose to go that route.

A common mistake people make, though, is that they buy too much 'booth.' They, many times, charge by the spot on the map, but if you're display is great, and your product is great, then you're not wasting time/money for a 'prime' spot.

a good way to exhibit when starting up is "sublease" space from a bigger company, they usually are in a great spot. if you make a connection or they have an interest in partnering/joint venture/distributing your product/service they might let you have a small part of their booth space. plus you get all their traffic.

trade shows are very valuable. to Ecom people, if it ain't on the net, it doesnt exist!!! There are 10's of thousands of businesses that do not have net presence. People always complain they can't find a drop shipper/supplier etc.....well they don't even bother to look offline

If you can easily find a source online, well guess what, so can everyone else.

The place to strike the best deals are bringing sales opportunities to small/medium businesses/manufacturers that have little/no web presence and they are too dang busy/entrenched in their ways to change. They'll just agree and let you handle their online biz if you make it easy for them.