theMICAM president Cleto Sagripanti reported that “This edition represented a fresh start after a trial phase of the show last year. We´re happy because the long months of hard work by Assocalzaturifici and Fiera Milano, with the invaluable support of ITA, the Italian Trade Agency, has brought growth to an event offering enterprises a unique opportunities for investment and business opportunities. We worked hard to select the best buyers from South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as Chinese buyers from all over the country, thanks to roadshow held in the weeks leading up to the event.”

The latest edition of theMICAMshanghai highlighted new development in distribution, including the increasing importance of e-commerce as a growing new trend on the Chinese market.

Claudio Pasqualucci, Trade Commissioner at ITA´s Shanghai Office, commented: “The success of theMICAMshanghai is the outcome of the joint efforts of all the Italian organizations involved in China. The event is becoming a key to the footwear system in China, and this edition has confirmed that teamwork has allowed the event to grow and become a highly qualified focal point in the country as a privileged showcase of Italian-made footwear.”

theMICAMshanghai attracted a number of key players in China, who chose the show as location and occasion for a number of events and meetings such as the “E-Commerce Summit 2014 International Footwear”, the first international forum on footwear e-commerce, organized in collaboration with China´s principal e-commerce platform, TAOBAO, owned by the ALIBABA group, and the International Fashion Buyers Forum, organized by the Shanghai International Fashion Education Centre and the Hong Kong Institute of Fashion Buyers.

Enrico Pazzali, CEO of Fiera Milano, noted that “theMICAMshanghai represented a major challenge for Fiera Milano and all the partners involved: exporting a successful trade fair format to China and then improving on it by improving the quality of the goods on offer. This edition provided us with important feedback from the city of Shanghai and responded to exhibitors´ and visitors´ needs with a top level trade fair that still has plenty of potential for growth.”

The most important new development introduced in the third edition was theMICAMshanghai Matching, a tool for facilitating B2B meetings, with a team of coordinators who selected buyers on the basis of requirements such as the type of footwear or leather accessories, sale price and distribution channel and matched them with exhibitors in their target group.

“There is still a lot to be done, and a huge amount of potential remaining to be discovered,” concludes Assocalzaturifici president Cleto Sagripanti. “The true challenge for Italian footwear is to present top quality products and convey a sense of the value, craftsmanship and tradition lying behind each product. This is not easy as it sounds, and the event offers an opportunity and a concrete aid to companies who want to achieve this in Asia. We also wanted to explore the potential of e-commerce with signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with IFG, represented by General Manager William Wong, one of China´s biggest buyers of imported footwear and leather accessories. We hope that this agreement on an e-commerce platform for importing footwear and leather accessories in China will offer an effective new tool for businesses, especially the small to mid-sized Italian enterprises that increasingly require new tools proportionate to their investment capacity.”

The next theMICAMshanghai is scheduled for September 24th-26th at Shanghai Exhibition Centre.

 theMICAMshanghai
(04/04/2014)