In September, 100 Portland businesses participated in a free, online wholesale trade show called Portland Supply. The online experience was created in partnership between Prosper Portland and Candid Wholesale, to help business reach more buyers locally and internationally.
Portland Supply was created as a first-of-its-kind discovery wholesale experience that integrated with the affordable and flexible platform of Candid Wholesale. With the help of Mercatus and Portland Made, this free virtual trade show featured a curated group of 100 Portland-based apparel, fashion, accessory, home goods and personal care products, with a focus on Female, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color owned brands.
Portland Supply kicked off with 4 days of live virtual events to feature the different makers and sellers. Portland Made hosted live tours and interviews with makers on their Instagram Live on September 1st and 4th. Portland A&O hosted live Zoom events on September 2nd and 3rd, providing over 30 Portland business owners the opportunity to talk about their products and brands (all videos are now available to watch on Youtube).
In addition to the opportunity to talk about their products, sellers were also invited to join educational sessions to gain insights on resources to help grow their wholesale businesses both locally and internationally.
Thanks to Prosper Portland’s relationship with the United States Commercial Service, Portland Supply has been made available and promoted to international buyers through the end of 2020.
Prosper Portland creates economic growth and opportunity for Portland. Our vision is to make Portland one of the most globally competitive, healthy, and equitable cities in the world by investing in job creation, encouraging broad economic prosperity, and fostering great places throughout the city. We aspire to be a workplace of choice with passionate staff excelling in an open and empowering environment and sharing a commitment to our collective success.
OPEN on Candid is a virtual trade show platform that arose in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As real-world trade shows have been canceled or postponed, we created OPEN as a collaborative and free solution to help like-minded groups of brands open up, support each other, and build online communities of engaged buyers.
During each OPEN event, buyers have time-based access to a curated selection of brands, with the ability to make introductions, begin placing orders right away or schedule appointments for later. Brands have access to powerful tools for reaching new buyers and building orders faster.
Candid Wholesale is a B2B ecommerce platform that helps brands, retailers and showrooms manage and optimize their wholesale operations. The Candid web app makes it easy to buy, sell, and pay for wholesale, with a strong focus on building relationships rather than pushing through one-time transactions.
Basic features are free forever, and all brands exhibiting at Portland Supply will receive Complete-level features at no cost for 12 months following the show.
Portland Made is a membership organization that supports emerging makers in Portland, Oregon by making space for creatives to meet their peers, learn, collaborate and share their stories.
Mercatus elevates the unique and universal narratives of entrepreneurs of color in Portland and connects the city and region with local talents, businesses, services and products that come from the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in the city.
