Mebel Moscow 2024: Notes From Four Days of Buyer Meetings
Our second season in Moscow, and a very different show from the first. What we changed on the booth, which models buyers came for, and what we would tell a first-time exhibitor.
The first time a factory exhibits abroad, the booth is usually a catalogue on a wall. By the second season the lesson has landed: buyers do not want to look at pictures, they want to sit down, and they want to talk to someone who can make a decision. Mebel Moscow 2024 was the season that changed how we build a stand.
What we changed
- Fewer models, better displayed. Instead of crowding the wall, we gave each model space and put the specification sheets on the panels behind it — model number, material, dimensions.
- A table and chairs in the middle. It sounds trivial, but buyers who sit down stay three times as long as buyers who stand.
- Fabric and finish samples within reach. Most complaints at a fair start with “I could not tell what the colour really looks like.”
Which models buyers came for
Office seating surprised us. The PU Leather Executive Office Chair (MSA-O-25) and the Luxury PU Executive Boss Chair (MSA-O-60) drew steady traffic from distributors supplying corporate fit-outs, and several buyers asked specifically about the curved plywood frame and chrome five-star base on MSA-O-60.
On the upholstery side, the Hand-Woven Design Velvet Sofa (MSA-Sofa-A) sat at the front of the booth for all four days and was almost never empty. On the metal side, the Tolix-style MSA012 dining chair remained the fastest model to explain: one-piece powder-coated steel, stacks, ships flat.
Advice for a first-time exhibitor
- Book meetings, do not hope for walk-ins. A useful fair is 20 pre-booked conversations, not 200 business cards.
- Bring the paperwork. Test reports, material certificates and a price list with FOB terms. Serious buyers ask for them on day one.
- Send the follow-up within 48 hours. Buyers visit dozens of stands; the factory that replies first usually wins the sample order.
- Bring someone who can quote. “I will ask the factory and come back to you” loses deals at a fair.
All the models from that booth are on the site: office chairs, sofa & lounge chairs and dining chairs.
