Exporters find virtual fair is no match for real thing

June 28: China's attempt to shift the world's largest trade fair online this month has demonstrated that for some things, it's hard to replace meeting face-to-face.

The Canton Fair, usually held in the southern city of Guangzhou twice a year, managed to get some 25,000 exhibitors to sign up for an online opportunity to 'meet' global buyers. This took place through a virtual architecture built by Tencent Holdings Ltd featuring live streaming, translation and conferencing technology.

But for many of the exhibitors interviewed by

Bloomberg News over the past week, catching --and holding--the attention of browsing visitors online is much more difficult than in a physical setting. Communi-cating and following-up on leads afterwards was also more tricky in the virtual system.

"The online format definitely can't replace the real fair for now, and I can't see it happening even in one or two years," said Yvonne Xu, a sales manager of Hangzhou Sinosky Industrial Ltd., a manufacturer of apparel and fashion accessories.

That is a sobering thought for technology optimists who hope that global commerce can shift quickly to operating online in an era where the coronavirus has curtailed global travel.

Like many other exporters, Xu's company trained their salespeople in the weeks running up to the fair in order to be familiar with live video merchandising techniques. They also hired foreign models to make hundreds of photos for the online catalogue. But the enormous hits they had expected from clients didn't materialise.

Xu felt the virtual trade fair was still a new thing that hasn't yet been accepted by foreign clients. In the real-world exhibition, customers come into a booth and can quickly spot the goods that interest them. In the livestreaming show, however, a salesperson would spend at least 1 or 2 minutes on each product and clients move on quickly if nothing catches their eye immediately.

While there's a lot of visitor traffic, it is more difficult to get in touch with the clients compared with the old model, said Lilian Ho, a manager at the shoe making company Wenzhou Steed International Industry Co. Ltd. "We have pages of visitor logs, but we can't reach out to them as there are only names. Maybe that's because of privacy concerns, but all I need is just an email address," Ho said.

Ho missed the traditional fair, where a face-to-face conversation could quickly address clients' questions, and salespeople would get hundreds of business cards for follow up later. In the virtual sphere, if a client doesn't get a response within 30 seconds or so, they will likely exit, and it's impossible to find them unless they leave their contacts or come back themselves.

—Bloomberg