From Product Search to Purpose Search

Sourcing is being rewritten.

For years, finding suppliers online has meant the same routine: click into a category, stack up filters, type in a product name, and hope the right match surfaces somewhere in the results. It works, technically. But ask any buyer who's spent an afternoon scrolling through page after page of near-misses, and they'll tell you it rarely feels efficient.

The Gift Fair is rewriting that routine.

At the heart of the change is Matchmaker AI, a newly launched agentic feature powered by XpoFairs, the platform behind The Gift Fair UK. Trained on patterns drawn from previous shows, it's designed around how buyers genuinely think, not how a search bar assumes they think. Instead of describing a product, buyers can now describe a goal.

Agentic AI, in practical terms, means the system doesn't stop at recognizing keywords. It reads intent, and then it goes and does something about it.

That "doing" is the interesting part. Matchmaker AI can chase down contact details, line up a store visit, pull pricing and minimum order quantities, or compile your own personal show - the legwork that normally eats up a buyer's day.

So rather than typing "candles" or "gift sets," a buyer can simply say:

"Show me bestselling gifts under £20"

"Take me to booths with sustainable homeware suppliers"

"Introduce me to emerging brands not on the high street"

What comes back isn't a list to sift through, it's a shortcut from what a buyer wants to who can actually deliver it, with far less guesswork along the way.

The timing isn't accidental.

The Gift Fair ecosystem is in a stretch of rapid growth, and the numbers back that up:

• Over 8,400 unique buyers came through The Gift Fair.

• More than 13,000 unique users engaged with the show overall

• 65% of all traffic arrived via mobile

• Buyers represented 17+ distinct retail categories.

• Gifting and accessories emerged as standout areas of interest

Behind those figures is a genuinely mixed crowd: independent shop owners hunting for something distinctive, alongside larger multi-category buyers building out broader ranges. Matchmaker AI was built with exactly that spread of use cases in mind, tackling a problem that's dogged sourcing platforms for years: relevance.

"Buyers rarely walk in already knowing the product, they walk in knowing the problem they're trying to solve," explains Fabian Santoro of The Gift Fair UK. "Better margins, sustainable sourcing, something fresh for their shelves, whatever it is, the goal comes before the product. Working with XpoFairs, we've been able to connect that goal straight to the suppliers who can meet it."

That's really the shift in one sentence: pairing the discovery-led magic of a trade show with the practical objectives buyers walk in with. Less time hunting, better matches, and lower cost and effort for everyone at the table.

Suppliers feel this shift too. Being found is no longer just a matter of SEO, follower counts, or blanket outreach campaigns. Under this model, visibility comes from fit- how closely a brand answers a specific buyer need, which opens the door to standing out in ways that were harder to achieve before.

As The Gift Fair grows its footprint across the UK and US, Matchmaker AI points to something bigger than one feature: a shift in how trade buying itself works, blending the relationship-driven roots of the industry with a smarter, more outcome-focused way of finding suppliers.

Connection has always been what trade shows are about. Now the tools behind those connections are catching up.

Buyers and suppliers alike are about to feel the difference, get an early look this September at The Gift Fair UK.