First ever craft fair - advice please!

C_J

So I've signed up to do my first ever craft fair at the beginning of December, and I am excited and nervous in equal measure. I have product and personal liability insurance, and a good amount of stock available as I've been busy making things for months.

I make small gifts such as silver plated jewellery, re-purposed items such as bird feeders from vintage crockery, needlework items made from Cath Kidston, Liberty and other 'designer' fabrics, a range of hand knitted bits and bobs, and handmade cards.

Please can the more experienced craft fair sellers give me some hints and tips? How do you transport your items into the venue? How much float do you start with? Any tips for how to display items? Help! Thank you

Ilona

Hi. Pack your stock into boxes and/or bags. Not big boxes or they will be too heavy. Park close to the door to unload, should be signed which entrance to use. Carry your stock in, find your allocated table. The organizer should be there to advise.

You will need to take a covering for your table unless they have already said the tables will be covered. Covering should reach down to the floor at the front. A throw or big tablecloth, or bedsheet should do it, plain not patterned.

Your stock should all be priced up, a £20 - £30 float should do it, mix of loose change. Keep your money in a bum bag around your waist, or in a container hidden out of sight. There should be enough room under the table, and behind you, to store extra stock. You will probably get two chairs.

A craft table always looks better if it is tiered. You can build height into it at the back by using upturned empty boxes under the cover, or take a smaller cloth to cover them.

Put larger items at the back to help build height into the display. Childrens items are best near the front so little ones can see them. Put valuable items right under your nose so you can keep your eyes on them. If you are busy watch for hands picking things up.

Make friends with your neighbour if you are alone. You might need to leave the stall to go to the toilet. Take food and drink with you, you wont be able to go off for a lunch break. Resist the temptation to buy from other stall holders, you are there to sell.

Be friendly and chatty with the customers, but not pushy. Also, don't sit reading, it looks as if you can't be bothered. Take something to wrap purchases in. If it's not a posh do, any bags will be ok. Bubble wrap for delicate fragile items.

Don't go with expectations of making lots of money, you might do well, or you might not. Think of it as fun, and if you sell that's a bonus.

Good luck.
Ilona

luxor4t

Wise advice from Ilona!

When I was doing craft fairs I was told of the "3 P people" - they'd
pick up an item,
play with it and then
push off, leaving the neatly set out stall looking like a tip.... be prepared to spend a lot of time tidying. If you have anything that will get dirty easily or otherwise be spoiled by a lot of handling think of a way to protect it.

Sadly, some small things do 'walk' especially if there are crowds of people. I mainly did fabric items so I'd safety pin things to the table cover as a little extra precaution.

As Ilona says, sitting reading can be off-putting - I used to take some items to hand sew or finish. It helps give people an idea of what is involved in making the item and you are using quiet times productively.

Have fun!

Ilona

Good point about the tidying. Stock can be damaged by constant handling. It always bugged me that people have to pick things up, why can't they just look with their eyes!

I used tidying as a way to look busy, as a way to hover over people without it looking like I was watching for shop lifters. It was a way into a bit of chat, point to an item and say something like, 'these are lovely, I only got/made them last week, I'm really chuffed with them'. Never pushy, just chatty.

Ilona

C_J

Ladies thank you! This is incredibly helpful.

I visited a Christmas Craft Fair at a local garden centre last weekend, to get a feel for what was being sold, the price ranges and the displays people used. It was quite an eye opener, especially with regard to the pricing - I have a machine which makes those handbag mirrors and I've made some which I planned to sell at about £2.50 each, but another lady was at this fair at the weekend selling hers for £6.50 each. I suppose you have to pitch the sales for the demographic. My first fair is at a primary school so I expect only to sell things which are cheap'n'cheerful; my second one is a Christmas craft fair at work (a University campus, where most of the customers will be staff) and I expect that I will be able to sell some of my more expensive items there.

Does anyone use a card reader? Or use Paypal? I am expecting everyone will be paying in cash but I wondered whether it is possible to get more sales if you can take an electronic payment. Does anyone do this?

Ilona

I took my stall to events/markets, craft fairs, shows, for three years and I didn't take card payments. Mind you that was a long time ago and things change, people like to pay with a card now. You have to weigh up how often you are going to do fairs, I suspect it will die down after Christmas, and won't get going again until the spring. Would it be worth it to go to the expense of getting yourself set up with a reader.

If your price range is quite low I doubt it would be worth it. People still carry cash, or if the event is close to a cash machine they can always go and withdraw some if they need to. Or if they are with a friend they can ask them to lend them a few quid. If you have expensive items £30 or more, you might miss out on the odd sale, but try and take the price range you think might be appropriate for the venue and area. Small local cheap event, cheap prices. Big posh hotel, more expensive prices.

You could have a look at this site. The National Federation of Market Traders have info on card readers.
http://www.chipandpinsolutions.co.uk/accept-card-payment/

Ilona

C_J

Ilona, you are a star. Thank you very much

Ilona

Hi. I've just remembered, I wrote a blog post about selling at craft fairs, in August. You might be able to pick up a few more tips from it.

https://meanqueen-lifeaftermoney.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/selling-your-crafts-at-fair.html
Mods please note, this is not spam, I make no money from my blog.

Ilona

C_J

That is fantastic, thank you for sharing.

My craft fair is at a local primary school, and they expect between 600 and 1000 people through the doors so I am hopeful (if I get the pricing right) I should do quite well. Thank you for that excellent advice about tiered staging to give some height to the table, I will see if Mister CJ (a very competent woodworker) can make me something lightweight and foldable to take with me.

I'm spending every spare moment finishing off the items I have for sale, getting them nicely packaged, labelled, priced and boxed up. I'm going to print some mini leaflets about my craft business with contact details on, to put on the stall in case anyone wants to email me after the show to order any custom made items. I think I might order a job lot of medium sized plain paper bags to put things in when (if!) people buy something, depends how expensive they'll be.

Ilona

I used tong and groove cladding to make steps, cut step shapes into the two sides, to support them. Had two cross members and held it all together with 'D' clamps. Covered it in red velvet.

Suggestion for wrapping. Have you any offcuts from colourful wallpaper? Cut squares of different sizes, have a roll of sellotape handy and wrap small items, stick them down. Might be a bit time consuming if you are super busy.

Ilona

CapricornLass

If this takes off, and you decide to do more craft fairs, its worth investing in battery lamps that you can shine down on your work. People don't visit a stall that looks gloomy, or if the light is poor, and if you have your own battery lamps ( ours are clip on), it makes you independent of the plug sockets - which you often have to pay extra to use.

We do have a card machine as some of my husbands work is perhaps more than most people will be carrying, it helps with the impulse buy and many people prefer to pay that way. Make sure that you have charged both the card machine and your mobile/tablet the day before the show, as this can take some time to do. Many events will have a free wi-fi that you will be able to tap into you, otherwise you are on 3/4G. We carry phones with 2 different carriers as sometimes the reception is better for one than the other. Float wise, we usually carry £50-£60 in change, and the same again in small value notes. We also keep a record of all the sales we make at each event. You won't make a kings ransom unless you are really fortunate, but so long as you cover your costs it doesn't matter and it can be real good fun.

Echo the bit about carrying your own food and even your own flask of coffee/tea too. Although occasionally an event is kind and do come round with a tray of mugs half way through! Some will give a voucher giving a discount (usually 10%) off any food and drink you buy at the event, but this eats into your profits. I'm afraid that I do look round the other stalls before the show starts proper - I've picked up some good Christmas presents that way

I've used fleabay and the internet for getting paper bags at reasonable prices - got some nice Christmas tree ones this year which I just couldn't resist!

Good luck with the event.