Being one of the first exhibitors at Kids Instyle when it was launched, Axis Toys decided it was the right time to move back and exhibit in Sydney in April 2022.
“It is the perfect fit for us,” says managing director, Paula Opfer.
“It has been lovely to see everyone again and to be able to put a face to a name of customers that we haven’t met for the last two years or we have only met by zoom. It has been a great opportunity for them to see and feel the quality of what we have to offer.
“Most of the products we are showing here are new as this year we have put on almost 500 new products and last year we introduced over 250 new products, so this has been helpful to educate our buyers.”
Opfer says she has seen a mixture of existing and new customers and she believes it is a personal thing—whether people decide to come or not as well as whether they feel safe or not.
“The quantity of people attending the show has been about what I expected, but what has been interesting is that people that said they were coming haven’t turned up (some due to staff coming down with Covid) and people that weren’t coming have turned up.”
The buying pattern has also changed throughout the various days of the show, she adds, with buyers placing more orders in the first half of the show than the last couple of days.
“On the first two days of the show—Saturday and Sunday—buyers were here and ready to order and Monday, which we would expect to be the more corporate day has definitely been a browsing day and not attended so much by corporates.
“We expect this is probably due to the fact that the fair is in April and we have already had those ranging meetings two months ago.”
Another thing she has noticed is that over the last two years, a lot of stores have moved to a hybrid model of physical and online shop fronts. For those who are only recently moving to this model, the issue for them is how they have developed their search engine optimisation and whether they are behind their competitors online.
“I think that ultimately there will always need to be an in-store experience and unless someone knows and trusts a brand, they are going to want that physical experience. Visiting a store is still an event and a social experience whether it is with a friend, family member or a grandparent with their grandchild and after everything we have gone through, physical shopping is a treat. Both physical and online have their purpose, but with different agendas.”
Image L to R: Peter Morris, Paula Opfer, Emma Morris
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