There was an interesting discussion over on Craftster the other day.
The original poster asked for recommendations about sharing a table at a craft fair. The conversation brought up several good points to consider on increasing sales and revenue and I thought they would make an interesting blog entry.
Craft Show Policies
If you are planning on sharing table/booth space at a craft show, the first thing is to make sure that show planners allow you to do so. Also find out if the show is juried, does everyone that will be sharing the booth have to be vetted.
While some shows may not care if you share, others may ask you to leave if you haven’t made prior arrangements. Better to find out before having an unhappy experience.
Setting Up the Booth
Traditionally with yard and craft shows where people share space, they section off the space giving each participant their own piece of real estate. This may help to keep track of who is selling what, but it also doesn’t take advantage of product placement.
The table/booth will be much more interesting to shoppers if you mix the merchandise together.
Cross Promotions
Your number one goal will be getting people to stop at your booth. Your number two goal is to sell. Yeah, I know – no duh!
Think about how it’s done by the big guys. Look at any advertising circular. They might be selling a dress, but the model is shown with the matching shoes, purse, jewelry, hat, and whatever else they think someone purchasing the dress might also want. That’s called cross promotion.
Why not do the same with your items for sale? For example, if someone is selling felted hats and someone else is selling pins; why not put a pin on the hat? Someone selling a blanket with a tiger on it and someone has a stuffed tiger that somewhat matches – put them together! Cross promotions will help both crafters sell more by combining their marketing efforts as well as position the items similar to how they will be used.
Don’t think about it like it’s her blanket and my stuffie, think about it as our booth.
Minding the Till
This is perhaps the trickiest part of sharing a table/booth and the place where most get into trouble. There were a number of suggestions in the original conversation on how to handle this, but all had a common theme. Figure out how you will be dealing with the money before you even get in the car to go to the event!
No matter how you handle the money, every item must be clearly marked. No matter how many items that someone may sell for more than the owner had intended; it only takes one undersale to erase that unexpected profit.
Technique 1: Have one money box. Every transaction is recorded and the money is reconciled at the end of the day. Either keep some sort of journal of each purchase, use two-part price tags or remove the price stickers and put them in a notebook.
Pros:
- Shoppers don’t have to find ‘the’ crafter who made the item.
- Shoppers buying multiple items only require one transaction.
- Everyone doesn’t need to stock and maintain their own money box.
- The person better at money handling can handle all of the transactions.
Cons:
- If the bookkeeping isn’t accurate someone may not get their money
- If removing the price stickers – some customers don’t like that. (I’m one of them.)
- It’s harder to negotiate discounts.
Technique 2: Everyone takes care of their own transactions.
Pros:
- Customer deals directly with the artisan.
- Each crafter has complete control of their own sales.
- No worries about keeping inventory during the show.
- You will have to go to the bathroom or eat sooner or later – do you plan on not making any sales at those times?
Cons:
- Customers must figure out who is selling what.
- Customer may need to make multiple transactions.
- At any one time, there may be no one watching the table/booth; as everyone is conducting transactions.
Both techniques are successfully done every day. I’ve had better luck with technique 1. One of the artisans in the original discussion mentioned having a husband of one of the participants being the cashier. This seemed the best of both worlds. The husband in question didn’t know who had made what – so it was in his best interest to keep accurate records. It also allowed all of the artisans to be available to make the sales and promote the items to the shoppers.
You might come up with yet another way. The important thing is that everyone agrees to it and you work out as many kinks as possible before the day of the show. There’s nothing that will kill sales faster than a group of people behind the tables fighting over money.
Share the Expense, Increase the Profits
Sharing table/booth space will significantly decrease each crafter’s expenses. By having a table/booth that has different things, you will be likely to bring in more shoppers and have fuller, more interesting tables. And by cross-promoting, everyone should see increased sales.
Seems like the perfect solution for artisans and crafters just beginning to sell at shows, those with smaller inventories, and makes a more expensive show more affordable.
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