If you’re a buyer walking into a showroom at market, just about the first words out of your mouth are, “What’s new?” And if you’re a supplier, vendor or rep, your answer better be “Lots.”
The need for new has always been a staple of the business, whether in fashion, gift, floral and holiday, or home, but during the pandemic conditions it took a bit of a back seat in the feeding frenzy of shoppers buying up anything they could get their hands on. This was especially true in home, but certain gift and apparel categories had the same situation.
It was fueled by government subsidiaries that put a lot of extra spending money in stuck-at-home consumer hands combined with a supply chain collapse that caused all kinds of shortages in all kind of categories. These factors all created a situation the likes of which few of us have ever seen in our business lifetimes.
As the world – and all of us consumers in it – came back down to earth over the past 24 months, so too have the dynamics of the marketplace. Just having product for sale is not enough again: it’s got to be good product at a fair price.
So, we are in a “new normal,” if you will, where it’s all about product development, something that perhaps a few suppliers took their eye off when they were selling anything and everything. Successful companies can’t afford to ignore creating new products, something that is very apparent when you walk around the shows here at the Dallas Market Centers. Some lines are doing great while others are slow, sometimes happening in the same multi-line showroom. It’s because some brands made the effort to develop great new merchandise...and some didn’t. A consumer, more cautious in her spending, has further amplified these discriminating shopping patterns.
Today, it’s clearer than ever that newness is the difference maker.
Cindy Morris,
CEO, Dallas Market Center