You’ve reserved your booth space at an industry trade show that’s perfect for the type of product you sell. The next step is configuring your booth in the best possible way for displaying your products so that you get maximum exposure and engagement from the show attendees.
We’re going to examine the best ways to display your products and provide some best practices so that your booth attracts the excitement that it deserves. All while being functional but not creating a logistic nightmare for shipping and setup!
Don’t Overlook Product Lighting
Before we dive into the main content of this blog post, there’s one important area to spend some time researching — lighting.
Don’t underestimate the importance of trade show lighting, from LED spotlights to backlit options or even display cases with focused lighting. It will go a long way towards making your products stand out and will help attendees see up close details like the materials, how well it’s made, and other important characteristics of your products.
Most Commonly Used Trade Show Product Displays
Before arriving at the best way to display your products, there are some things you need to consider first. Ask yourself basic questions like:
- How heavy are your products?
- What size(s) are your products?
- Will they be viewed or interacted with?
- What quantity of product needs to be displayed?
- Will you need storage space?
Getting a basic accounting of what you’re bringing to the show and working out the details such as weight and dimensions will help you in the early stages of planning.
Types of Exhibit Product Displays
If you’ve ever walked a trade show floor, you see an almost never-ending way of “merchanding” booth spaces.
From small to large sizes, there are many ways to present your products but they typically share a few things in common. They use one of the following for the actual presentation of their merchandise.
Back Wall Shelving
Portable or modular back walls, usually with graphics and free-floating shelves. These are perfect for smaller and lighter products, such as footwear.
Retail Display Shelving
Having a dedicated standard display with the sole purpose of displaying your product is also a great way to plan out your space. Using retail displays like the Merchandiser individual freestanding displays or even complete Merchandiser kits, provide branded graphics, shelves, and garment racks, and can even be double-sided for a full 360° product display.
Slatwall Display Stands
Incorporating slatwall into a custom exhibit or buying one of many freestanding slatwall-equipped exhibit stands can be great for more traditional retail products. For example, products that can hang on hooks like smartphone accessories or fishing lures, just like you see them displayed in retail stores.
Counters, Podiums, and Tables for Showcasing Products
One of the most common — if not the most common — solutions for being able to merchandise a booth is using tables. These are usually 6 or 8-foot folding tables that are sometimes supplied by the show venue or convention center that can easily be branded with a printed table cover. Using the surface area of the table provides a nice way of adding your products without the need for elaborate product displays.
It’s the same with portable trade show counters are podiums like the CA700 Case-to-Counter. While not a big surface area, like a folding table, it still offers an opportunity to display products like mountain bike shocks or other products of similar size in a small quantity.
Simply put, having a branded table counter or podium gets the job done for exhibitions with a limited product showcasing need.
Grid Wall for Hanging Products at Trade Shows
Last, but not least, are grid walls. These are grid-shaped metal frames that usually mount on hard walls and are often used for hanging apparel. They’re simplistic and make it easy to add or remove apparel or other similar products.
This method has been around for a long time, and while there are now other alternative ways of hanging items, you’ll still see exhibiting companies use grid wall.
Other Notable Product Displays
Make sure to check the exhibitor manual for your show and flip through the pages to see if they offer any rental solutions. At some shows, they’ll offer a plethora of options including glass product cases, shelving solutions, and other ways of achieving your merchandising goals.
Final Thoughts
There are some really portable and innovative products that have come along and made it easier for exhibitors like yourself to have fully functional product displays.
The Brandcusi, for example, is a small but portable shelving unit that also allows for custom printing to brand. The Lumiere Backlit Wall with internal shelving is a really clever freestanding product display with lots of branding options, as well as being super attractive with its backlit features. As mentioned before, the Merchandise kits and retail units are very popular and can be set up and stored easily and they ship standard FedEx or UPS. The Panoramic-H Line Display is a truly modular frame system where you can adapt your needs and shelving for different booth sizes.
No matter the need, rest assured there’s a solution out there waiting for you to look your best at your next event. If there isn’t, then you can reimagine the perfect product display and have it custom-built if your budget permits!