Last week, the second January edition of the Atlanta Market took place at AmericasMart, and the consensus from the casual industry observers we’ve spoken with is that it was slower than they expected.
Three Birds Casual has been showing in Atlanta in the Gardens for over 15 years, and since the move to the casual floors, the type of buyer is noticeably different, says President Tad Varga.
“We had a lot of traffic in the Gardens but it was a wide variety of buyers,” he says. “Whereas now people coming into the showrooms are prequalified because they’re obviously in the market for it, or they wouldn’t be on these floors. I think the traffic compared to what we’ve been used to was significantly down. But the people who did come in, we wrote quite a few orders.”
As someone who knows a thing or two about marketing, O.W. Lee’s Vice President of Marketing Leisa McCollister pointed out that the outdoor floors need to be promoted year-round and often because they are still very new.
“We had more traffic last January than we did this year, but I think that’s because there was more marketing behind it last year,” she says. “That message has to continue because people have short memories and buyers are somewhat habitual. One thing we at O.W. Lee didn’t do was advertising for this market, so we realized we need to let people know we are here and keep driving that message in.”
She also clarifies that slow traffic at the market is no one person, company or organization’s fault — it’s still a learning process. And as Three Birds Casual proved, you don’t need heavy traffic to write quality orders — it’s about quality over quantity.
Casual showrooms on Floors Two-Six are required to be open during each Atlanta Market. So what can the industry do to make the most of this market?
We need to figure out what we want this market to be. We know that independent casual retailers are not coming to the January show because it doesn’t make sense for their buying cycle.
So who is coming? Interior designers and full-line retailers.
This should be the audience that the industry talks to and sees in January when they aren’t busy with the bustle of the Casual Market. And making this clear through advertising and marketing efforts is one easy way to direct traffic to outdoor showrooms.
There are a few ways the industry can work together to help improve traffic and drive that message home.
First, as McCollister pointed out, the outdoor showrooms need to be advertised more and in new places.
The outdoor category should be advertised in the Gardens, where outdoor used to be, and on floors populated with indoor showrooms. Putting an ad for your brand on the floor that your brand is on isn’t going to drive new people in. It has to be somewhere it can reach new and different buyers, like showrooms in the Gardens did.
This is something that exhibitors should work on with the market team to help get people interested in the casual floors.
Second, there needs to be a designated point person for the January market to help exhibitors with advertising. As Paula Eller-Cox does for the Casual Market, a point person for January could help with so many different things.
Finally, understanding that the customer that comes in for the January market is different than a traditional retailer and embracing that continually will help speak to a new audience of retailers and designers.
This will be an industrywide effort, and it will take some time. But the learning curve can be overcome and the category can bring more value to this market.
