Lightovation Pre-Game: What Is the Industry’s Plan?

Next week is Lightovation, held every June in the Dallas Market Center. Some showrooms prefer to attend this market instead of the kick-off to the year in January, and others aren’t able to make it to the summer show due to vacations, weddings, graduations, reunions, and other events.

This June edition is especially hard to gauge as the yo-yoing of the tariff percentages since April has led to pricing fatigue across the board. Many manufacturers have had to implement a series of price increases, while others have rolled back previously announced increases when the tariff numbers came down. A few maintained their pre-tariff pricing.

For retailers, the tariff rollercoaster has forced most to put a limit on how long a price quote remains valid (this varies from as little as three days to one month, and everything in between) and has created a never-ending chore of changing hangtags in store and updating prices online.

According to showrooms contacted by Lighting News Now, there was an uptick in consumer sales in March and April, as homeowners felt the need to hurry their purchasing decisions ahead of the tariff deadlines. Similarly, showroom owners felt it was in their best interest to place POs sooner than they would have liked in order to contain costs (and that was before the 50% increase on aluminum and steel tariffs) and have asked their vendors for extended dating.

With showrooms and consumers placing orders sooner than they may have wanted to, there is not a lot of money left over in their budgets. Therefore, showroom personnel who will be attending Lightovation next week have said they have different goals than they originally planned on for June.

For some retailers, another wrinkle in the budget has to do with their Canadian vendors.

Since the tariff on Canadian goods was not in effect during January market, showrooms who do a  good business with Canadian vendors – as well as those who just placed their first sizable order with a Canadian manufacturer in January – are using their time at the June market to sit down with those company principals and brainstorm how to keep their partnerships intact despite the steep price increases.

One West Coast lighting showroom said their meetings at market will be about negotiating terms with vendors; while an East Coast showroom said their team was coming to market to view new products, but unless “there is an exceptional deal or something we really need” they are not planning to buy.

Rachel Fleischer Garmezy of Hermitage in Nashville said, “We do not look at Dallas as a time to place orders. Market is a place to see new product and to educate our employees on what’s trending in the market for our customers.”

Members of Lighting One, whose convention is conveniently timed to overlap with June Lightovation for better business synergy, told Lighting News Now that they will be attending the gathering as always and that it continues to be a worthwhile draw to attend market at the same time.

There were some showrooms who noted that they will be visiting vendors that they hadn’t done business with before and will use their time at Lightovation to research new sources based on unique designs as well as paying close attention to each product line’s country of origin to minimize any future tariff volatility.  

A few manufacturers who exhibit at Lightovation say they will be using this June market as a testing ground for design ideas and plan on having more focused conversations with their customers on how they can strengthen their partnerships.

The bottom line is, there will still be the regular flow of lighting showrooms typical for a June show; however, their business strategy for Q4 and beyond has shifted from historical buying patterns.    

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