Hey everyone! Figured I’d do an easy and accessible tips and tricks post of the best things I know about vending at markets. These tips are in a random order, some are silly, and all of them should help you on your journey to vending your art!
Bring water!! I cannot overstate how important this is! You will DEHYDRATE and SHRIVEL UP. Bring water! Drink water!
Make friends with other vendors! Introduce yourself to your booth neighbors every time! Your local vendors are your community. When you get to know them, you’ll make friends, have someone to watch your booth if you’re vending alone, and you’ll know that there are folks around who care about you. This is the #1 thing that will improve your experience vending. Community, not competition!
Reusable zip ties my beloved!! I love reusable zip ties so much! We have 3 different sizes and use them for literally everything. We use them to attach our grid walls, put up pegboards, attach baskets, hold up displays, attach mannikins, and hang signs. I don’t feel sad and wasteful using them because at the end of the day we collect em all and just use them again at the next market!
Use slower events to take photos! Your stuff is all set up, you’re kinda bored, get some good product imagery for later! Take videos, hold your stuff out in the sun, take photos of your pieces, get yourself a sick backlog of your products that you’ll have anytime you need it! Plus you’ll be able to refer back to photos from different events and see how your setup and products have grown and changed.
Matching tablecloths!!
If your aesthetic uses tablecloths, have all your tables match. You can use a bunch of different stuff for this, but matching tablecloths in your color palette bring an entire booth together and make everything look cohesive. We have a purple canopy, purple tablecloths, and purple hanging display pieces, with pops of brighter color and dark wood. This lets folks take the visual journey of our booth in one cohesive swoop, instead of being distracting or making folks wonder which stuff is yours.
Get a good EZ up. NO slant leg canopies. They’ll collapse when it gets windy and it’ll be simply awful.
{Pro-tip: get a colorful EZup. It brings our brand aesthetic together so nicely and it’s so easy to point and say “the purple one” Some markets only let you have white EZ ups but uhhhhh that’s stupid. Don’t do those markets.}
Display your art so people can touch it!! Customers LOVE to touch stuff. They’re so much more likely to buy stuff if they can pick it up. Put stickers in trays or bins or baskets, hang things available to customers where they can reach em, put out prints that can be flipped through. You’ll make more sales, I promise.
Do lil sales, lil deals. We do stickers at $4, and 3 for $10. People used to buy one or two stickers. Now they buy 3+. It’s not a ton more money, but every little bit helps. Make sure with your deals you’re still hitting good margins, but give the people a lil treat now and again.
Price your items, make the prices visible! Folks are more likely to step in and look at stuff when they can see prices beforehand, and if they can’t afford your prices, it’s better for everyone to just know at the outset.
Height height height! Get your stuff up up off the tables! We use pegboards, standing shelves, baskets, grid walls, clothing racks, earring racks, necklace racks. Go up! You have the vertical space, using it makes your products more visually appealing, and your space seem more professional and polished. (I’m gonna do another post explicitly about displays and how to get your items off tables so look out for that one)
Don’t undervalue your own labor!! If you’re not making enough selling your art to be worth making the art, you’re not charging enough.
Try this example: If you were to pay someone to run your booth, and couldn’t afford to pay them at least minimum wage, you need to raise your prices. (That person is you.) Your time and labor are incredibly valuable. Value yourself. Set your prices accordingly. Not only does undervaluing and underpricing hurt you, it also hurts your fellow vendors and the small business community. Nobody wins. If you can’t figure out what to price your stuff at, start by looking at folks who make similar stuff.
Ok that’s all for now. Feel absolutely free to comment and email if you have a stellar tip that I missed, as always, these are living documents, and may be edited. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well if these tips helped you out! Thanks for reading, feel free to sign up for our email list if you’d like updates about new posts, new products, or what’s going on in the SpookySphere.