The largest furniture fair in the world, the Ciff - China International Furniture Fair has great strategic importance for doing business in China, both for positioning in the local market and for the development of world exports.
It is held every year in two different editions, in March in Guangzhou and in September in Shanghai, representing not only the furniture indusry but also the entire production and design chain.
The first phase of the 49th edition in Guangzhou is dedicated to home furnishings, decorations and home textiles, outdoor furniture and leisure;
While the second phase will focus on furniture for offices, hotels, healthcare, commercial and public spaces, but also on new materials and specialized machinery for furniture and design products.
This year's fair was scheduled for 18-21 March 2022 and 28-31 March 2022, however due to the Covid Pandemic it has been postponed to a later date, and further developments are expected.
Each new edition is enriched with products and services offered, but also with new perspectives and ideas.
Due to the climate of uncertainty resulting from the global pandemic situation, the organizers of the trade fair event had faced a new challenge: Making the 48th edition of the CIFF fair an entirely virtual event.
The unusual digitized edition met with considerable success, receiving strong support from the 548 exhibitors who gathered online, attracting 775.043 visitors. The classic 4-day long fair has been replaced by a non-stop virtual exhibition open 365 days a year, contributing to the technological development of the furniture industry.
The CIFF Shanghai Hongqiao applet on Wechat was used, and divided into four sections: Cloud Exhibition Hall, Cloud Live Broadcast, Cloud Negotiation and Cloud Activities.
The use of augmented reality, streaming and the important marketing activities were necessary and essential support for the exhibitors and the organization, demonstrating how even in a purely online event it was possible to obtain good results: 13 live presentations of the new collections recorded more than 10,000 views each (source: CIFF Press ).
The CIFF fair was launched in 1998 by CTFE (China Foreign Trade Guangzhou Exhibition General Corporation).
In about 17 years it has expanded significantly, reaching an exhibition area of approximately 116,000 square meters, 6300 exhibitors and more than 44800 visitors in 2019. In 2015, another location in Shanghai was added to the original location in Guangzhou.
Since 2018 it has activated a partnership of fundamental strategic importance with Red Star Macalline, the clear leader in the furniture’s distribution in China, which manages more than 260 shopping centers throughout the country, for a total exhibition area that exceeds 15 million square meters and annual sales exceeding RMB 78 billion (source officebit).
Thanks to the success of the purely online edition of the CIFF, these data cannot go unnoticed.
The high frequency of online interaction is definitely due to the creation of new services and contents such as business matching, the many internal courses designed for presidents and top management of the participating companies, or the exclusive pavilions dedicated to brands, interaction in real time streaming and the possibility of 1-to-1 spaces for commercial negotiations.
As a result, the organizers announced that they would be committed to optimizing the platform and include the virtual experience for all the fairs that will follow.
The will is to allow each Brand and exhibitor to reach its target audience at zero distance, allow each retailer to be able to contact the brand at zero distance and will give private users the opportunity to browse the product offer directly from home. , a sort of cross-border e-commerce platform for the sector (source home.163.com)
The CIFF Fair is one of the main sectoral events in China, attended by the most important world leaders in the furniture and woodworking technologies industry, large Chinese groups, but also European, especially German and Italian.
It is therefore a complete and stimulating event, able to attract and bring together producers, buyers, designers and media from all over the world, for the creation of a 360 ° commercial dialogue.
Moreover, thanks to the greater purchasing power of the Chinese domestic market, demand is growing strongly both for the sector of wood-working technologies, semi-finished products and for the furniture industry, and for finished furniture. Consequently, there’a an increasing demand for quality, variety, production capacity and the offer of goods and services (source ICE agency).
Regard to this, relevant data are represented by the value of Italy’s trade with China, As the economic observatory for foreign markets suggests, exports to China in 2020 of machinery exceeded 3,790 million dollars and 435 million dollars for the furniture sector.
Participating in the CIFF fair is therefore an excellent way to position yourself in China in the furniture sector, a market that is increasingly open and sensitive to manufacturing and design made in Italy. If nothing else, China is Italy's main trading partner in Asia.
Participating in the CIFF fair is therefore an excellent method to position yourself in China in the furniture sector, a market increasingly open and sensitive to manufacturing and design made in Italy, if nothing else China is the main trading partner in Asia of Italy.
China is certainly a crucial market, which is increasing international trade every year. Also thanks to the trade agreements signed with Europe, and of which Italy is one of the main characters.
Thanks to the growth of the local purchasing power, the Luxury, high and medium ranges are becoming more and more interesting than low-end products. Therefore, interest in excellent quality, great manufacturing, and products with a refined and unique design is increasing.
This is certainly a competitive advantage for Italy, whose style is becoming increasingly popular ,and this opens up new opportunities for both designers and distributors and retailers.
We must not forget, however, that China is certainly a complex market and therefore the positioning requires an ad hoc study, which identifies targeted strategies for local tastes and culture.
Partners such as Noziroh Hub can help you organize and manage participation in trade fairs, manage physical presence on site by promoting your brand and products, by creating a communication baserd on the context of the event and marketing strategies adapted to the target market.
All the services avaible at Noziroh Hub can help you manage all the phases before and after the event, such as:
Do you want to learn more about our services? Read this article: What is Noziroh Hub and how does it work?
Today you can make your business plan to Asia with a customized plan, discover our offers and click here for a free call.
Author: Dalila Adragna
On this website we use proprietary or third-party tools that store small files (cookies) on your device.
By enabling these cookies, you help us to offer you a better experience.
To know more, you can check the Use of cookies page.