IFA Berlin 2019 — consumer electronics exhibition: news, trends, and expert opinions

Every year Berlin hosts the world’s largest trade fair for electronics and household appliances, IFA, which covers 161,000 m² of floor space and attracts 1,800 exhibitors and 240,000 visitors. We went to Berlin for these six days to see where the world’s e-commerce is heading.

Alexey Chekhvalov (New Business Director in 24ttl) during IFA 2019

What happened at IFA 2019

The exhibition takes place at the Messe Berlin exhibition center, in the city’s outskirts. It is targeted towards the end-users, so it does not show innovation and know-how behind the scenes, but rather the final products. It seems as if the visitors are entering a massive hypermarket with hundreds of refrigerators, washing machines, and TV sets. Mainly European and Chinese brands are represented. Many independent OEMs from China are looking for an extra load for their production capacity.

In addition to the exhibition, two other events took place: IFA+ SUMMIT and IFA Global Markets. IFA+ SUMMIT is a conference dedicated to development trends of consumer electronics. Entrance to the conference is possible with a separate ticket, starting from 350 euros. The Global Market is Networking-oriented — multiple meetings of manufacturers and distributors are organized in the center of Berlin. Entrance is free, but strictly with accreditation. IFA also hosts IFA Next, an exhibition of technology start-ups, which occupies a separate pavilion. Next is not as well known as the CES event, but it helps the founders of new companies find their first dealers and distributors.

IFA is huge. Last year it was visited by 245 thousand people. That’s twice as many as at CEBIT in Hannover and 1.3 times more than at CES in Las Vegas. The exhibition always attracts many professional journalists and bloggers. Last year 4,700 people from 160 countries were accredited. We think that this year, there weren’t less.

What we noted at IFA

Integrated Internet connection. All major brands are building ecosystems around the Internet connection of their products. Refrigerators, coffee makers, kettles, vacuum cleaners, and other appliances are powered by smartphones and connected to each other. Alexa’s voice assistants from Amazon and Google’s Assistant are mainly used for control. Brands aim at developing comprehensive solutions in which all appliances and electronics at home are integrated into a single system, and the products of different manufacturers do not conflict with each other, but rather work together.

We want to mention a set of intelligent sensors for Safera Sense kitchen, which will set a timer, turn on the fan, and remind you about the cake in the oven. Philips’ snoring control encourages you to turn from back to the side in your sleep. And LG has solved the problem with grocery shopping — household appliances of the ThinQ line order detergent powder or dishwasher capsules on Amazon by themselves when you run out. All we have to wait for are the other appliances in this product line — the refrigerator and air cleaners.

Retro-style. Nostalgia for the ’90s captured the electronics manufacturers. Sony released Walkman, which looks like a 40-year-old cassette player. However, the new player has a Wi-Fi module, HD-display, 16 GB of internal memory, and 26 hours of battery life. Other manufacturers produce music equipment in the form of boomboxes and retro speakers, record players, and massive radios.

Retro-style

Smartphone novelties. Sony has showcased a new version of Xperia 1. The width of the smartphone is now 68 mm, which is 10% smaller than the previous model, and the screen resolution has decreased from 4K to Full HD +. Samsung introduced the Galaxy A90 5G, which belongs to the budget line, but for some reason costs over 700 euros. We hope that its camera with a 48-megapixel lens will not disappoint. Samsung has also finally released a folding smartphone Galaxy Fold. It unfolds like a book and turns into a tablet. The price, however, is spicy — 2000 euros. For admirers of the good old Nokia 3310, there is a new shockproof Nokia 800 Touch. You can throw it on the floor, pour water over it and take it with you in the 40-degree heat without any problems.

Nokia stand

Engaging visitors. We were particularly interested in how global brands attract customers in the conditions of extreme competition. Thus, LG installed a giant installation of 250 OLED TV sets. Samsung changed the size of the TV screen with the help of sliding panels to clearly show how the image quality improves in front of the audience. Liebherr connected a graphics tablet to the fridge. The artist drew portraits of visitors on it, and the drawing appeared on the door. Many exhibitors used AR&VR tools to get the visitors interested. At Haier’s stand, visitors in VR glasses plunged into the refrigerator, and Samsung added AR models of smartwatches and other products.

[embed]LG installation

[embed]AR by Samsung

Who should attend

We specialize in IT products for online retail, so most of the exhibitors are our target audience. It was also interesting to exchange experiences — to see how the largest retailers build their sales, what content they offer to users, and how the latter are involved. We went to the exhibition spontaneously, so we ended up organizing fewer meetings than we wanted — but in general, we are satisfied with the trip.

You should definitely go to IFA if you are a distributor or buyer. At the exhibition, you can get acquainted with new exciting brands from Switzerland, Turkey, China, which are not yet known in many countries. For example, China is mainly represented by cheap goods and is still associated with low quality. However, there are many middle and premium brands with decent products in China, and Chinese corporations are absorbing good quality European companies: Haier bought Italian Candy Hoover Group, Hisense — the Slovenian Gorenje.

It is better to prepare for the trip in advance. The daily entrance ticket costs 52 euros, for two days — 75 euros. In August they were sold on presale for 43 and 61 euros, respectively. At the exhibition, it is hard to communicate productively at the booth, if you have not previously agreed on a meeting with a client. It seems that 10 or more people are working at each booth, but most are consultants and temporary employees. As a rule, key specialists and decision-makers are busy.

At the exhibition, meeting places are conveniently organized. At the stands of major brands there are separate partner areas for negotiations and lunches, which are accessed only by special passes. For smaller brands, there are meeting rooms that can be booked in advance. A lounge area with computers, office equipment, sockets, and high-speed Wi-Fi is organized for Trade visitors, so they can work from there or hold a meeting.

When you don’t book a meeting in advance

IFA has a special section on its website for networking — Trade Show Planner, but in our opinion, it is not fully developed: there is a list of exhibitors, but the contacts that are indicated are those of the PR-managers, or they are absent at all. There is also no possibility to book a meeting in real-time. We often attend international events and see that technologically, IFA lags far behind the massive Web Summit or the Chinese RISE. Those offer assistance in navigation, and conference applications allow you to get acquainted and meet the right people quickly. Trade Show Planner gives the impression that it is easier to get to the exhibitors through LinkedIn, and to navigate through the pavilions following the paper map.

To Sum Up

• IFA Berlin is an interesting exhibition for those related to consumer electronics. The area is huge and there are bus shuttles that take you between the pavilions. To have a chance to look at everything make sure to come to the event for at least three or five days.
• For networking try to book meetings in advance — at least two or three months before the event date. Connect with prospects via LinkedIn and try to reserve a time to meet. If you don’t do this you won’t be able to chat with them even for a few minutes — everyone is very busy at the event.
• If you want to have a booth — book it in advance. Applications for next year end in January and you would have to pay 50–190 euro for each square meter.