Figurines as gifts.

The just-concluded 9th China International Gifts, Premium and Houseware Fair held in Beijing is to merge with the Beijing International Gifts, Artware and Houseware Exhibition after 2010.

The strategy is to shift the centre of China's gift industry, which is now at the mercy of sagging overseas markets, towards inland provinces. The merged event will provide an all-round exchange platform for China's gift enterprises and open up the domestic market, especially in the central and western regions.

Many export-oriented gift enterprises participating in the Beijing exhibition show now attach greater importance to the domestic market.

Ms Zheng, Representative of a watch and clock gift company from Zhejiang Province, said her company took part in the Beijing gift show for the first time and mainly targeted domestic consumers.

As a company producing gifts for export, Zheng's firm knew very little about the Mainland market. Pointing to her company's clocks and watches, she said that in the past these products sold well in Europe, the US and Southeast Asia and had no shortage of orders.

However, these orders started to fall from the second half of last year. The Southeast Asian market was doing slightly better.

But the Mainland market for gift consumption was developing, so her company promptly adjusted its strategy for domestic marketing. Clients from the northeastern provinces and Henan flocked to her booth on the first day of the fair with good business offers.

An exhibitor from Hong Kong.

A Wenzhou-made cigarette lighter.

Wenzhou is the production base for cigarette lighters in China. Many enterprises that produced cigarette lighters for export are now keen on tapping the domestic market.

Mr Chen, an exhibitor from Wenzhou, had many visitors interested in over 100 different types of cigarette lighters. Holding a lighter in the shape of the China Pavilion at Shanghai's World Expo, he said the company was licensed by the design company that owns the intellectual property rights to produce this limited edition lighter featuring the world's most advanced technologies. It is not just an excellent lighter but is a collectible gift item.

More than a dozen products on the World Expo theme were shown at the exhibition, all of which were patented products. Products on the theme of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern China also attracted a good deal of attention.

Industry integration and overseas markets

China has become the world's biggest gift producer and exporter after more than 20 years of development. As the centre of China's gift industry, coastal areas like Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian are home to large numbers of export-oriented gift processing and production enterprises.

Due to their inability to innovate and open up the international market, they are facing grim prospects in the economic downturn. So, they’re turning to the fast-growing domestic market.

China's gift industry now has an annual output value of about Rmb200 billion and is growing at an average annual rate of 20%.

Artwork clocks sell well in US and European markets.

Visitors picking their favourite gifts.

Many gift enterprises have transformed to cope with the new situation, and gift exhibitions have changed as a result.

According to reports, the Beijing Gifts Fair, hosted by the Qunxue Exhibition Co will merge with the China International Gifts, Premium and Houseware Fair hosted by Reed Huabo Exhibitions after 2010. The merged event will be jointly hosted by a new joint-venture company.

"Reed Exhibitions Group will make use of its strong global marketing network and overseas resources in the gift and houseware industry to give the Reed Huabo Gift and Houseware Exhibition a greater international dimension and upgrade the exhibits," said Reed Exhibitions Greater China President, Preecha Chen.

"Besides serving domestic manufacturers, we hope to make our exhibition the top choice for overseas manufacturers interested in directly marketing their products in China," he explained.

Industry analysts noted that the move would lay an important foundation for the rapid development of gift exhibitions in northern China. Qunxue has hosted 19 Beijing gift exhibitions while Huabo has hosted eight. Both events are showing a steady growth in the number of visitors each year and demonstrating the great potential of the Mainland gift market.

Spurred by the policy of expanding domestic demand, the merged Beijing gift exhibition will promote the shift of the industry to inland provinces.

Beijing a centre for gift market in northern China

The glass art corner.

Mr Liu from a glassware and gift company in Weifang, Shandong, said a good exhibition would help boost the transformation of the industry at a time when enterprises are catering to more local clients as the export market declines and the domestic market picks up.

"The organiser had done a lot of work in buyer promotion, opening up marketing channels and facilitating the sharing of resources before the exhibition. With the merger of the fairs, we can, in future, make better use of our time, energy and resources."

The market potential of Beijing as the centre of the northern China gift market needs good strategic planning, said the organiser of the Beijing Gift Fair. Future gift exhibitions should further upgrade in scale and should influence and guide more gift enterprises to bargain on prices.

Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, the domestic market has not only become the shelter for export-oriented gift enterprises but become a gold mine eagerly sought by overseas manufacturers.

USBs in different shapes and sizes.

China's increasingly mature consumers are becoming more demanding on gifts. Many new varieties of presents, such as consumer electronics, houseware, DIY tools, green food and hardware products, are available.

The theme of this year's Beijing gift show was "Seeing China through the World Gift Market". The exhibition brought together well known domestic and foreign manufacturers, provided them with an all-round display platform as well as opportunities for tapping the Mainland market in depth.

Hundreds of thousands of varieties of gifts of novel and unique designs and fine quality, both Chinese and foreign, were on display.

Peking opera figurine available in overseas markets.

People pay greater attention to the trendiness and creativity of gifts. Items like Mao porcelain ware marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of China, unique houseware, chic and personalised small home appliances and Chinese-style collectible artwork were attracting visitors to the exhibition.

On toys, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Pleasant Goat and other well known Chinese and foreign cartoon characters attracted buyers.

According to Chinese Customs statistics, the international toys market is on an upward trend in the second half of the year.

Major toy and gift manufacturers in Guangdong and Zhejiang are beginning to see overseas orders coming in too. Although the amounts involved are smaller than in previous years, toy and gift exports have began to warm up.

But studying and developing domestic marketing channels as well as export sales will better sustain gift enterprises in the future.

from special correspondent Xu Lin, Beijing