A space where products are presented for sale: to trade buyers placing wholesale orders, or to clients in a retail store.
In fashion wholesale, a showroom is where a house presents a collection to buyers from department stores and other retailers, who place their orders there. Sessions are often timed to the fashion weeks. Every Paris Fashion Week, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode holds SPHERE, a showroom for selected young brands, and invites accredited professionals, including buyers and press, to increase the brands’ sales to retailers. A digital version runs with partners offering B2B digital showrooms and iPad order-taking.
A wholesale showroom is not a shop. The British Fashion Council’s LONDON show ROOMS, held in Paris, is reserved for buyers, press and industry professionals, by appointment. In retail, by contrast, the word can name the store itself: the Watches of Switzerland Group, whose brands include Mappin & Webb, Goldsmiths and Mayors, calls its stores showrooms.
In job listings
Most listings that use the word are retail, from watch and jewelry retailers that call their stores showrooms: showroom manager and administrator roles, and sales roles that speak of showroom hours and showroom success. The wholesale sense appears in merchandising, wholesale and press roles at fashion houses, which prepare showrooms, enter showroom orders and analyze post-showroom sales. See current showroom roles.
