Trading director at Today’s Group John Baines shares his top tips for running a successful trade day
- Simple and easy: The most successful trade shows keep it simple: wholesalers need to tell their customers via clear PoS what price they buy at, they sell at and what they make.
- Refreshments: Complimentary food and drinks or buffets go down really well and add theatre and interest to the day.
- Extra staff: The best events are well organised with good availability. It’s worth considering extra staff to help customers load goods to their vehicles.
- Depot champion: It is helpful to have one person who is the sole contact for all matters relating to the trade day – it gives them a sense of responsibility to ensure that the day runs well.
- Amazing prizes: Our Gold Rush trade days feature giveaways that include free vans, free stock and at the moment we have scratch cards that offer customers the chance to win instant prizes.
- Maximise the time: Hughson Brothers in Shetland only has one trade day a year but the manager Carl Cross welcomes suppliers to dinner the evening before to sustain good trading relationships.
- Plan logistics: Dhamecha has seven trade days all planned within a few weeks of each other, but communication across the depots is effective which means that resources can be maximised.
- Entertainment: We use a ‘close-up’ magician to entertain customers while they are queing at the checkout and around the depots – but we’ve used sporting celebrities and look-a-likes in the past.
- Now shout about it: We supply ‘coming soon’ posters and promotional brochures for our members but some of them also invest in radio advertising and have their own promotional apps.
- Ask for feedback: We generate feedback for from all our members and we encourage them to send us photos of their events to help us share best practise with other members.
