Gift expos veer toward the domestic market

But gift producer Chen Cheng, manager of Beijing Four Season Collections, has no interest in selling his model ships to international customers in the market for chopsticks, silk robes and Chinese tea sets.

His sole focus is on the fast-growing domestic gift market and is confident his little ships will find favor with his target group.

Chen was one of thousands of exhibitors at the 24th China Beijing International Gift Show, which was staged by Reed Huaqun in August this year.

"We started to prepare this model three years ago; and we wanted to release it after the real ship undertook its maiden trial voyage in August this year," Chen says. "We expect to sell the model to people who have a hobby of collecting military paraphernalia because it has commemorative meaning for them."

For a niche business like Chen's, the beauty of the home market is its sheer size. In smaller Western nations, specialty products like models of aircraft carriers may only cater to thousands of collectors. But in China the numbers are always measured in millions.

Ten people spent one month setting up Chen's space and he made it different from other exhibitors, by offering a traditional Chinese tea service for his guests.

Chen likes attending exhibitions and enjoys the social interaction with old and new clients.

"You can say, 'hello' to old friends, chase up debts from clients who owe you money, and meet new friends."

Zhang Yalin, a sales manger of a Shanghai-based coin collection company, was attending the Beijing expo for the first time in order to develop more clients.

"Our business is basically related to traditional arts and culture. Beijing is a city filled with history and we see it as the market we need to develop. We are attending the exhibition this year to not only showcase our 40-odd new products but also to meet more prospective clients," she says.

Zhang's small booth was in one of the outer halls, but she is satisfied with the initial exposure. "Even to get this positioning, we need to book nearly six months in advance," she says.

Cai Weihong, the sales manager of a luxury tableware company, says his company attended the exhibition due to the growing domestic demand for luxury products. His jade porcelain table settings, plates, bowls, a knife and fork set sell for nearly 600 yuan (70 euros) per set.

"We mainly export our products to the Middle East. But with exports facing pressure and the yuan appreciating we are focusing on the domestic market."

Cai says through the exhibition, he expects to reach out to more Chinese restaurants and hotels.

A vast majority of the exhibitors at the Beijing gift show were Chinese companies, but there were also some foreign brands present.

Li Jingang, a Chinese agent for US gift brand Parker, says attending exhibitions is another way to promote the brand to a wider audience.

"Since we have fixed clients like Samsung, Canon, HP, and other industries including medicine, chemicals and mechanics, we do not place too much importance on exhibitions. But we are here, at the gift exhibition, to make more people aware that Parker pens can be good gift choices," he says.

He Fengjun, representative for the Chinese agent of Philips, says although they have clients from across the world, the gift exhibition is still an opportunity for them to attract new clients.

Exhibitors rely on influential visitors with buying power and Yang Yaxin is one such customer.

Yang is a marketing executive of a company in charge of gift purchasing for Hainan Airlines, China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank.

Though she has visited the expo several times, she considers this year extra special. "We selected 50 companies at the exhibition and plan to have further cooperation with them," she says.

Gift shopkeeper Jiao Dawei has attended the Beijing gift exhibition for three years and says the 2011 products were more creative and unique. "I found things exhibited here that are more practical and functional. For instance, I found a hanger, which is different from the traditional one as it does not occupy much space," he says.

But not everybody was satisfied. Luo Ting is setting up a gift shop in neighboring Hebei province but was disappointed by her first day at the gift trade show. She found some reasonable products but the prices were too high.

"The manufacturers are too far away from me, and I have to pay for the logistics. I have to book huge consignments or else they do not accept orders.

"For instance, I saw a red porcelain phoenix, which is really good, but they asked me to order at least 600 of them. I also need to negotiate with them on the prices, failing which I will not be able to buy the items."