If you have any experience as an exhibitor at a trade show, you know that there are a whole slew of costs that go with preparing for and exhibiting at a major expo or trade show. Many of these are necessary costs that directly help to improve the return on your investment; marketing costs for example. But, there are other costs which don’t contribute, such as drayage and shipping.
Drayage and shipping costs are on the rise and it is starting to significantly impact the profitability of trade shows. In fact, just over one half of exhibitors report that drayage and shipping costs are too high according to a poll done by Expo Magazine and UPS. And fully 81% of respondents said that they are looking for ways to reduce these costs.
Although it’s not usually possible to eliminate shipping and drayage costs (unless the trade show is held at your corporate offices), it is possible to reduce them significantly. Obviously, one of the best ways to do this is to limit the weight of your trade show displays or the distance which you have to ship these materials.
There are two great ways to do this: one is to purchase and make use of a portable display and the other is to rent a trade show booth. Both of these can save you money by not only limiting shipping and drayage costs, but also by limiting many additional costs as well.
A portable display allows you not only to save on drayage costs, but also to save money by setting up the display yourself instead of paying extra for exhibit set-up and teardown. A portable display also has the added advantage of providing you with more flexibility in terms of how and where you can exhibit which can open up a whole new realm of possibilities!
On the other hand, if you opt to rent a trade show booth you can sometimes eliminate shipping costs altogether if you can source a booth locally. Rental booths also provide the financial advantage of not having to maintain and manage the large physical asset that a trade show booth represents. They are usually cost-effective as long as you are only exhibiting a couple times a year or less.
So, take a swipe at those shipping costs and save yourself money by taking advantage of a portable display or a rental booth today.