According to an online survey by the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, the top reason people attended the OR was to see new products, followed by finding new suppliers/manufacturers, and establishing/building relationships.
The remaining seven reasons, in order, were finding new product segments, industry networking, the outdoor community and cultural experience, planning marketing and co-op strategies, writing and closing orders, attend educational business seminars, and finding closeout products.
The top four categories of product carried by respondents were apparel, footwear, and camping and backpacking equipment. These categories were followed closely by the running and instruction categories. Popular write-in categories included travel, fishing and hunting.
Of those participants who did attend Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 08, 87% of retailers found new suppliers, 76% wrote orders on site at the show, 34% wrote orders on site with five or more exhibitors, 52% wrote orders on site of $10,000 or more.
Ninety-one percent of attending respondents indicated they were very satisfied or satisfied with their experience.
Most notable is the fact that late July through mid-August predominantly ranked as the best time window for holding Summer Market by all respondents. Also, nearly 28% of attending buyers went to Open Air Demo 2008.
The research showed that OR is likely to grow this year with 80% of those who attended Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 08, plan to attend Summer Market 09 and 41% of those who did not attend Summer Market 08, plan to attend Summer Market 09.
More than 1,500 retailers participated in the survey and 85% listed owner, buyer or manager as their primary job title. Other participants included co-owners, partners, assistant managers, VP of operations and multiple merchandising titles. Sixty-three percent of the survey respondents had attended Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 08 while 37% did not attend.
