The artist's market was a hit! I had quite a few people come up and tell me they came to the market just to see my work. I love selling my jewelry at artist's markets or arts & crafts shows and thought I'd share a few tips for having a successful show.
First here is an article I wrote a while ago about creating your own jewelry booth display and how to extend your table legs. If you sell jewelry, it's better to have your table raised to bring your work closer to eye level.
For your line of jewelry have two or three show-stopping pieces that are your highest priced items. These will bring people into your both, not everyone can afford to buy the big ticket item, but if they love your work, they will purchase the one that is more in their budget. Along with the higher priced items have a product that you can sell for $25 or under. These will be your impulse buys, people will pick these up even if they hadn't planned on shopping. For my work, I have necklaces that range from $250 to $125, and then lots of $65 ones and then a handful of pendants that are under $30. So different price points are important.
Since this was a holiday show more than half of my booth items were under $25. Lots of earrings, ornaments and snowmen pendants. Display your work in sets. I pair up earrings with matching bracelets and necklaces. This helps increase sales because people love to buy sets, especially if they are shopping for gifts.
When people come to my booth, I greet them with a friendly hello and smile. I'll say something like, "all of my jewelry features art beads that I create." If they pick up a piece I may say something about it, like what material I used or if it was created with a special technique. I then take a step back, greet someone else or "pretend" to do something so that the first customer doesn't feel like I'm pressuring them. If they are still browsing I'll invite them to try on a piece and show them the mirror. I'm also pretty chatty. If someone has an interesting piece of jewelry on I'll talk to them about it or if they have their kids with them I'll make small talk about mom stuff.
If someone is taking a long time to decide, I may ask if they are shopping for a gift or for themselves. If it's a gift, I let them know I have gift boxes and I'll point out a few of my best selling gift items. If it's for themselves I'll ask a few questions to see if I can help them pick something out. Like what are their favorite colors, suggest they try on both and see which one they like better, etc.
Now the sale, accept checks and credit cards. You are a business! I love using propay.com to process credit cards. There is a small yearly fee and then they take a small percentage of each sale. I've used them for the last 4 years for both my website and in person sales. People buy more when they can use their cards, it's just a fact.
Packaging: don't just throw your items into any old bag. When they take that bag from you, you want them to be excited about the purchase. I use brown kraft gift boxes and vellum shopping bags that I picked up from our local packaging store. I put in my business card or a postcard in every order. I also use purple tissue paper, so everything has this nature feel that is carried over from my booth and iris logo. My customers feel like they are getting a little gift when I wrap up their order!
Oh, a logo, yes, my earring cards and business cards have the iris logo and people will come up to my booth and say, I remember your iris, I bought earrings a few years ago from you! I print my cards myself from the computer using the clean edge business cards you can pick up at office supply stores. My earring cards are a simpler version of my business card that have the logo and my name printed on the bottom.
Lastly avoid these kiss of death art fair mistakes:
1. Never talk bad about a show or if sales are slow. No matter how terrible a show is going, smile and tell people you are doing great! You are doing great, and you don't want shoppers to wonder why people aren't buying from you!
2. Never bring along something to read or work on. You are there to meet people and share your work. Don't have your head stuck in a book or give the impression they are going to bother you.
3. Stand up during most of the show. It's better to be at eye level with people, it's easier to have a conversation. You should be chatting a lot in your booth.
4. For goodness sakes at all cost avoid the craft show face. You've seen them, the artist sitting in the chair next to their booth, looking like someone just ran over their dog. No matter what kind of show or day you are having, smile and be excited about being in the show. Your positive attitude will go far toward your craft show success.
5. Don't feel like your are being pushy when you talk about your work. People want to meet artists and hear about how they create their art. They want to know about your work and you are offering a service to them, not just selling something. You are sharing, and sharing is a good thing!!!
Good luck at your next artist's market, craft show or fair!
