Top Tips For A Successful Craft Market
My first craft fair was in September 2021. My first set up was a mess. It was breezy that day and my products went blowing away at the smallest gust. I only paid $15 for the table and I made that money back. Technically this fair was a financial success, but it felt like a failure in many ways. Despite these failures, I learned a lot at that fair, and I’ve continued to learn and improve at each fair after. In this blog post I’m going to share with you some of the things I learned the hard way so you can avoid these mistakes.
Invest In Your Display Setup
Setup of my first craft fair table. I practiced in the living room of my apartment. The stickers and art prints are being displayed with plastic holders.
At my first fair, I tried to spend as little amount of money on my table setup as I possibly could. I bought cheap 4 foot tables, cheap plastic stands to hold my products, and just used signs that I printed on cardstock. I didn’t even have a canopy yet to help block any of the wind. This cheap setup led to my products and price signs blowing all over the place. I constantly had to reset the whole display because everything would get knocked over.
For my next fair, I invested in nice wooden display stands for my prints and stickers. At my most recent outdoor event it was a little windy but my displays stayed upright and only a couple of stickers blew off the stand. I was relieved to not have to be constantly worried that everything would get knocked over. A canopy can also help protect your products and yourself from the wind, sun, and rain.
Additionally, I’ve purchased a larger 6 foot table. This extra table allows me to spread my products out and keep my display from looking too busy and crowded. This extra space on the table also lets me use nicer price signs. I have acrylic signs that I can place sheets of paper in. These acrylic signs protect the sheets from rain and also keep them looking nice after several uses. They also make it easy to make new signs whenever my products or prices change.
For my first fair, I had black and white handouts on printer paper that I gave to people in lieu of business cards. They weren’t very nice looking and they probably just got thrown away. Now, I have business cards that I designed and got printed through vistaprint. These new business cards have my brand colors and a little drawing of a panda on them. Some people take them just because they like the panda. These higher quality business cards mean that people are less likely to just throw them away.
Investing in high quality displays will make your market booth look nicer to draw in more customers but will also have a functional purpose.
Greet Everyone Who Comes In Your Booth
I’m a very shy person and am typically very quiet. At craft fairs it is very important that you try to be as friendly as you can be. For me, I like to say hi to everyone who comes into my booth. Some people like to chat, and some people just want to browse the items without getting into a conversation. Saying a simple hi invites people to start a conversation if they wish, or they can just say hi back and continue on their way.
Research The Event You’re Thinking Of Being At
Researching an event can help you determine if the booth fee is worth it. You want the event to be financially successful for you so you typically want to make 8 to 10 times the amount you paid for the table. Some questions you’ll want to ask yourself or the event coordinator are:
Will my target market be there?
You’ll want to think about your target market when choosing your events. For example, if you make products for children you’ll want to choose family friendly events. If you choose something like an art showcase where there might be a lot of adults without any children then you won’t get as many sales. I’ve had many people pass by my booth because they said they don’t have children.
How many people will be attending?
You want the booth fee to be proportional with the amount of foot traffic that will be there. You don’t want to be $200 for a spot and then only have a handful of sales. However, if you only spend $15 on a spot and 100 people come to the event it will be much easier to make a profit.
Is the event well advertised?
This one ties in with the previous point. You want an event that is well organized and well advertised. Sometimes the event coordinator won’t put any effort into advertising the event and hardly any people show up. It’ll be much harder to make sales with less people in attendance.
Does the event offer the things I need (i.e. indoor/outdoor location, electricity, wifi)?
Be sure that if you need something like electricity or wifi that you choose an event that provides those for you or that you have a way to provide it yourself. For example, if you process card payments with your iPad and your iPad needs wifi, then you’ll want to make sure the event has wifi or that you set up your phone to be able to take the payments with data.
Bring As Much Product As You Can
On several occasions, I have been surprised by what sells when I’m at a fair. I had plush octopuses that I made that didn’t sell very well at the first market I took them to, but I continued to bring them to the fairs, and now I’ve sold all of them.
Another reason that you’ll want to bring as much product as you can is because you don’t want to miss out on sales because you’ve sold out of something. I had a fair recently where I almost ran out of crochet. I wished I had brought more products because by the end of the fair there were only a few options to pick from. Having a variety of items is good too, because different items will appeal to different people.
Demonstrate Your Craft
If you’re able to, demonstrating your craft at an event can be a great idea. At previous events where I haven’t been crocheting for people to see, people would also ask if I was the one who made the items or ask if they were handmade. When people see me making the items there’s no question that the products are actually handmade. People also thought it was really cool to see me doing it. A lot of people asked more questions about how long it takes me to make the items. Additionally, it gave me something to do while people were browsing the items instead of awkwardly standing around seeing if they’d buy something.
Bring Someone With You
Bringing someone to help me has been really important. Setting up my canopy by myself would be nearly impossible. I have a lot of items, display stands, and tables that would be time consuming for me to set up all on my own. Another benefit of bringing a friend to help you is that there’s always someone at the booth. One person can go to the bathroom or get food while the other watches the booth. Or one person can answer questions about the products while the other person can check out a customer.
I bring my husband to events with me to help watch my booth, set up, and other tasks. This photo also shows the upgraded wooden displays that I use for my art prints, stickers, and keychains.
Make Friends With Other Vendors
Making friends with other vendors has many benefits. First, it can be helpful because if you do have to work your booth alone, then your vendor neighbor might be willing to watch your booth for you while you go use the bathroom or get food.
Some vendors have been doing events for a long time and they can give you advice about your setup or dealing with certain situations. Other vendors also know about other events in the area and will often share that information with you. At my most recent event one of my neighbors took my business card and said she might contact me about future events.
Take Care of Yourself
I always bring water with me to my events because they’re often outside and hot. I use a 64 oz stainless steel bottle that keeps my water cold for the duration of my events. At a lot of my events I forget to bring lunch with me. This means that I often end up working 6 plus hours without any food. This can be hard on the body. A lot of the time, you will spend much or all of the day standing. It can be hot at outdoor events. And even if the event is indoors and you’re taking time to sit, being “on” all day can be exhausting. That is why it is so important to eat. At some events, I end up paying for food from the food vendors and that helps me feel a lot less exhausted at the end of the event. In the future I plan to bring a cooler with sandwiches, snacks, and water to stay hydrated and fueled for the duration of the event.
These are some of the things that I’ve learned through doing craft markets in the past 2 years. I hope they help you to have the most successful event possible! I will leave links to my favorite products below. These aren’t affiliate links and I don’t make any money on them. These are just the products that I use and like so far.
