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Around the world, the exciting ambiance of in-person trade shows is back. After a two-year, pandemic-driven hiatus, retail trade shows are starting to boom again worldwide – and that’s spectacular news for brands looking abroad to fuel growth.

As pandemic guidelines relax, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands feel a growing urge to get out and network face-to-face with global retailers. Trade shows are ideal venues to boost brand awareness and product discovery, build industry relationships and trust, and make deals to drive revenue growth.

If you plan to attend, exhibit, or speak at an international trade show, consider the following best practices. But first, let’s acknowledge how the pandemic has shaped today’s trade shows.

How COVID-19 changed trade shows

In 2021, U.S. trade show attendance rates declined by 48% in Q2 compared to Q2 in 2019 and the number of exhibitors fell by 31%.1 Hegel, Theresa. Despite COVID Hurdles, Trade Shows Go On. ASI Central. September 27, 2021. In 2022, the retail industry shows higher demand for in-person trade shows; yet, supply chain disruption and labor shortages have made the ordering process longer than before COVID-19. For instance, producing custom booth setups used to take a few days and …

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Cosmoprof Reveals the Future Trends of the Beauty Industry

Do you need to brush up on your knowledge of the current and future state of the beauty industry? You’ve certainly come to the right place. The 2022 CosmoProf North America show was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on July 12-14th, where our team was blushing over the many unique and innovative trends. As always, our team was happy to see familiar faces, including some of our RangeMe Verified™ suppliers, at the show.

As our team walked the aisles of exhibitors and learned about the products on display, there were a handful of existing and emerging trends worthy of highlighting, pun intended:

Pastel & Colorful Packaging 

I have to admit, I am a sucker for pretty packaging, and I know I’m not alone. It seems more and more brands are catching on to this trend, and I am here for it. Pinks, blues, purples–think Trix yogurt but more esthetically pleasing. RangeMe supplier, Slick Hair, exhibited their line of hair products with no shortage of pink. Consumers can say goodbye to bad hair days and hello to the ultimate slick and everyday hair-do with their SLICK STICK™. 

SLICK HairSLICK Hair Mermade HairMermade Hair Kim Chi CosmeticsKim Chi Cosmetics FluffFluff

Childhood Nostalgia

Have …

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Instant Biologics: Sowing the Seeds of Success at Retail

When it comes to plants, I’ve always had two brown thumbs. Whenever I bought one for my apartment, I had little success maintaining it, or keeping it alive. Feeding it was a hassle that involved mixing and measuring that often turned into a mess on my kitchen counter. It was simply time and effort I didn’t want to invest.

This all changed when I met Jeff Robbins and Ari Tenenbaum, Co-Founders of Instant Biologics. Their brand, Instant Plant Food, consists of tablets that dissolve in water and provide all the nutrients a plant needs for three months. A packet contains four tablets, enough to feed one plant for a year.

I am now the proud owner of a snake plant for which feeding is a piece of cake. And it’s thriving – much like Instant Biologics, which has landed business from a half-dozen large retail chains including Target and 1-800 Flowers (and is currently onboarding another half-dozen). This soaring growth can be credited to their RangeMe Premium membership, participation in several RangeMe summits and ECRM’s Lawn & Garden and Sustainable Products: General Merchandise sessions.

Instant Biologics's Instant Plant Food Instant Biologics's Instant Plant Food Instant Biologics's Instant Plant Food

The idea for the company sprouted when Robbins and Tenenbaum decided to shift their focus from …

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As retail costs balloon, certain products deflate.

Across retail categories, more manufacturers are making products smaller to offset rising costs, a practice called shrinkflation, or downsizing.

Retail costs keep climbing, as U.S. inflation hit its highest one-year price hike in more than 40 years in March 2022. Global supply chain disruption has made raw materials, labor, and freight more expensive. Costly omnichannel investments, product returns, and sustainability efforts also add financial pressure. 

That’s why consumer packaged goods (CPG) suppliers are now scrambling to cut back somewhere. Shrinkflation helps brands save some money—and keep prices stable—by slightly reducing the amount or weight of their goods.

Let’s examine what shrinkflation looks like and how it affects brands, retailers, and consumers.

Household staples shrink

Recently, several popular CPG brands exhibited signs of shrinkflation across the food and beverage, personal care, and pharmacy categories:

Doritos bags fell in weight from 9.75 ounces to 9.25, equivalent to five fewer chips, and parent Frito-Lay cited inflation  Aleve pain relief pills have decreased from 100 caplets per bottle to 90 Cottonelle toilet paper mega rolls shrank from 340 one-ply sheets per roll to 312  Gatorade bottles decreased in size from 32 fluid ounces to 28. The brand…
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Micro Health And Wellness Trends Consumers Are Melting For: How To Drive Sales This Summer

If you’re reading this wearing sweatpants, make-up free, with unbrushed hair, you’re not alone.

But with people starting to leave their homes more last year, the overall consumer health industry grew by 4% in 2021, according to Euromonitor International.

So, what’s driving sales of health and wellness products?

Multi-use products

Hybrid products mean consumers buy less but feel they’re getting more. Avon’s Anew Revival Serum has added AHAs; and Charlotte Tilbury’s Multi Miracle Glow Balm functions as a cleanser, overnight mask, and face and body balm/moisturizer. If only it did the laundry too.

Then there’s Olay’s 7-in-One Moisturizer which smooths fine lines and wrinkles, hydrates, evens skin tone, evens the skin’s texture, brightens, reduces age spots, and replenishes moisture. 

With inflation hitting everyone hard, manufacturers are focusing on adding value to their products.

Personalization

Today’s consumers don’t want a generic product, they want a product for them. 

According to Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey in 2021, 51% of respondents stated they want products and services that are uniquely tailored to them.

Companies doing a good job at homing in on each individual consumer include Roman (for men, offering personalized treatments for everything from hair loss to erectile …

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The global inflation crisis goes from bad to worse. War in Ukraine, lockdowns in China, and COVID-19-related supply chain disruption continue to cause problems, sending prices spiraling all around the world.

In the U.S., the annual inflation rate hit 8.6% in May, the highest level seen since 1981, prompting the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates for the third time this year, by 0.75 percentage points. In Europe, U.K. inflation is expected to hit 11% by autumn, while the eurozone has seen price rises hit 8.1%, the highest level seen since the launch of the euro. On the other side of the world, inflation is heading towards 7% in both Australia and New Zealand.

Consumer-facing businesses such as consumer packaged goods (CPG) suppliers and retailers are finding it difficult to cope with surging inflation. Their own costs are rising rapidly, with inflation running particularly high in staple ingredients – wheat prices, for example, have doubled this year. But they are nervous about passing on too much cost to customers, for whom a cost-of-living crisis is rapidly intensifying.

CPG businesses and retailers are already seeing consumers taking action in the face of soaring prices. In particular, we are seeing a …

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