These are the top 5 mistakes handmade vendors commonly make at craft shows. If you're wondering why sales aren't higher, take a look through the list.
There's a lot for craft show shoppers to take in and they likely won't stop at every booth. Here's how to ensure your space catches their eye.
Fall of 2012 marked our first experience as an art vendor, at Cooper Young Festival in Memphis, TN. Over the years, we’ve padded our resume with quite a few more shows and experimented with a LOT of trial and error on our vendor booth layout and setup. We’ve learned a lot, both from our own experiences and from looking to other vendors for inspiration. Today, we’re going to share with you our top 16 ideas for selling at art festivals, craft fairs and indie markets. These tips can be summed up into three key categories: Booth Display, Signage/Décor and—the most important—Branding. FIRST, LET'S DIVE INTO VENDOR BOOTH DISPLAY. 1. Plan out your booth space BEFORE the day of your festival. Before we set foot at an art festival, our vendor booth is completely laid out. We measure all our display pieces (shelves, tables, etc.) and configure the space to help speed up the set up time. Plus, not all shows have the same options for booth sizes (because that would just be too easy). This year, our Cooper Young booth featured a 10’ x 15’ space, while some of our holiday shows ranged from a 6’ x 8’ space to a 10’ x 20’ double booth. It helps to lay everything out beforehand to know what will or will not fit in the allotted space. Once everything is measured, we use Adobe Illustrator to plan out the booth space, with everything to scale. We print out copies to take with us during set up, as well as email a copy to ourselves in case we lose the paper copies (it happens). Here's a look at my Adobe Illustrator artboard for our most recent Cooper Young Festival vendor booth: And here is our finished vendor booth, based on that original mock up: 2. Display vertically. When potential buyers pass your vendor booth, they’re not seeing product that is flat on tables. At least some of your work needs to be in their line of sight. One way we add height to our booth display is with these adjustable white metal shelf units we found at IKEA (shop them here). The shelves are completely adjustable and IKEA sells individual shelves, so you can add to the original four included. We switch it up depending on what art we need to display at each festival or market. In the past, we've used these custom built white-washed wood displays on rollers, which our brother built for us. We love how they look in our booth, as they mimic a more retail-style setting. However, these are rather heavy and bulky to transport. Looking for something a little more transport friendly, this year we commissioned a custom white wood peg wall. The unit breaks down into four separate pieces, so it's easy and convenient for traveling. Everything hooks together via large bolts and wing nuts, with the shelves and pegs packed separately. It's also completely adjustable, as the pegs can be configured in various ways. This wall unit is great for displaying our larger 5 panel wood pieces, which serve as great eye catchers for potential buyers walking by our vendor booth. For smaller shows, we take just two of the four wall panels, usually paired with one of the white IKEA shelf units. Bonus: extra pegs are great for hanging ornaments! Clear acrylic risers are also a great way to subtly add height and levels when displaying artwork on a table. Because they're clear, they don't take away from your displayed art. We use combinations of this 5 piece set from Displays2Go. 3. Choose display colors that will make your work pop. As you can see, for our larger display pieces (shelves, walls), we incorporate as much white as possible. Because all sides of our wood art is stained in a dark finish, the white background helps it pop. We also prefer how clean the white and neutral hues look. 4. Store and display multiple art prints. We have ALL-CAPS-STRUGGLED with how to display and store our art prints, other than stuffing them in baskets for browsing. We recently discovered these gold wire baskets from IKEA that slide on perfectly to our white IKEA shelves. They are great at storing stacks of prints! To actually display the prints, we chopped up a 4” x 4” piece of lumber and sawed angled grooves down the top. We stained them to match the color of our wood art. The art prints stand up perfectly in the grooves of the wood, which we then prop up above the wire baskets. It’s easy for buyers to see the print displayed and simply pick it up from the basket underneath for purchase. 5. Use slim Christmas trees to display holiday ornaments. During our holiday shows, our Christmas ornaments are HUGE sellers. While we use our peg wall for some ornament overflow, ornaments look best hanging on an actual Christmas tree. This also better demonstrates to potential buyers how it will look on their own tree. However, for those smaller booth spaces, a full Christmas tree takes up too much valuable real estate and just isn't practical. And some of the smaller, table-top trees aren’t known for being sturdy. Because our ornaments are on the heavier side, we've had issues with the smaller trees tipping over ... especially when buyers are trying to take the ornaments off the trees to purchase. We found a great slim Christmas tree from our local At Home. It measures only 18” in diameter but can still can hold quite a few ornaments. We re-stock throughout the show to keep the tree looking full. NEXT UP, WE HAVE BOOTH SIGNAGE/DÉCOR. 6. Emphasize your business name for potential buyers with branded signage. We have our friends over at Ella Jude to thank for this easy DIY pop-out booth sign idea. For this sign, we painted a thin piece of wood white, then transferred our logo (with our image transfer process) to both sides, though we've seen others hand paint their logo. We bought two pieces of copper pipe and an elbow joint and glued them all together to form an L-shaped corner. To hang the wood sign from the copper pipe, we spray-painted loose-leaf rings to match the copper pipe. We then use clear zip ties to attach the sign to our booth or tent. We're hoping to make an even larger version this year. For additional branded signage, we bought a large white vinyl banner with grommets and designed it to include our logo, website and social media handles. We use this when we have space available. For our outdoor art shows, such as Cooper Young, we hang the banner on the back of our tent so buyers walking down the sidewalks behind the booths can see our name. 7. Tell your story with signage. We sell handmade image transfers on wood and marble tile. The most common question we receive from customers during festivals and shows is,
One of my most popular articles details the types of products that sell best at craft shows; you can read that here: What Sells Best at a Craft Show? This article explores the other side: Types of products that don’t tend to sell well, or that can actually harm the sales of best-selling products. I’ve created...
When I was making Christmas dinner for the first time, I had a lot of questions for my mom. I asked how much poultry seasoning she puts in the dressing and she said: “I don’t know…until it smells like dressing”. It’s an odd way to determine how much seasoning to use, but it works. If...
Craft shows are a unique way to shop and vendors can get creative with their setup. But there are certain things craft show shoppers shouldn't see.
Whether you’re creating a craft show display or photographing your products, product composition is important. Composition helps: Create organization and structure Create a focal point (that tells shoppers to “look here!”) Lead the eye throughout your space so shoppers don’t miss important details Without proper composition, a space can feel cluttered, disorganized, and uninspiring. This...
There's a lot for craft show shoppers to take in and they likely won't stop at every booth. Here's how to ensure your space catches their eye.
Most handmade vendors ignore these 3 important perspectives when it comes to their craft show setup. Find out what they are and how to fix any issues.
If you sell at enough craft shows, markets, and events, you’ll eventually run into shoppers who think your prices are too high. They’ll tell you they could make it themselves, get someone to make it cheaper, or find the item at the mall for less. Yet they still want the item and are asking for...
When I was making Christmas dinner for the first time, I had a lot of questions for my mom. I asked how much poultry seasoning she puts in the dressing and she said: “I don’t know…until it smells like dressing”. It’s an odd way to determine how much seasoning to use, but it works. If...
Craft shows are a unique way to shop and vendors can get creative with their setup. But there are certain things craft show shoppers shouldn't see.
Illustrations of 6 common craft booth designs and layouts to help you plan an effective art fair display.
Most popular easy portable display ideas for markets and craft fairs - save time and energy with these clever, eye-catching display ideas for vendors.
Craft booth design ideas and inspiration with 12 photos of great displays. Here's how to use portable folding craft tables in your 10x10 craft show booth space.
Farmers markets and artisan fairs are great place to get your product in front of people. Here are 10 ideas for setting up your vendor booth.
Flat packing display stand - ideal for craft fairs or shop displays. NOW AVAILABLE IN VARIOUS SHELF LENGTHS! This stand was designed to display glass coasters & signs but could be used for a variety of items, including cards, jewellery, pictures, ceramics or books. The stand consists of FOUR shelves, two ends & one back support making it very compact for transportation and also very quick and easy to assemble. Everything is precisely slotted together - no glue, screws or other fixings required. The four shelves each have a 1.25cm raised edge to prevent items from sliding. This also acts as a strengthening device to prevent the shelves from sagging. It is also possible to turn the shelves upside down for additional width if the front rail isn't needed to hold items in place. The display stand shown has a total height of 48cm (19") and the depth is 25cm (10"). The shelves are each 7.5cm wide (with 6.5cm behind the front rail). Please note that the lower shelves have a usable depth of 4cm due to the overhang of the other shelves. The vertical spacing of the shelves is 11.5cm. All material is 6mm thick MDF & suitable for painting (please ensure that all slots are protected from paint if you do decorate your stand, otherwise assembly will be affected). Unpackaged weight of 4 Shelf display stands: 30cm - 1.2kgs 50cm - 1.7kgs 75cm - 2.2kgs Delivery of all stands are via a Courier, due to parcel length. This display stand is offered in three shelf lengths of 30cm, 50cm and 75cm (usable shelf lengths). Please note that the longest shelf lengths are best suited for light weight items to prevent the shelves from sagging. If your items are heavy please contact me to discuss alternative designs. I can make larger / smaller / taller / wider versions of this stand, so if this one doesn't quite match your requirements then please just let me know & I'll give a quote for a customised version! Please also take a look at my other shelf display stands (listed separately). My 5th photo shows my THREE shelf version of this display stand. If you need MORE THAN ONE stand then please message me as I'll combine the postage cost. Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions. OVERSEAS DELIVERY POSSIBLE - BUT PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR A SHIPPING COST.
These will made fantastic display stands for your shop, studio or an event. Unique design, top quality and finish will impress visitors and make your products stand out. They are upcycled cable reel tops joined by metal poles with cast iron round bases. Sizes available: 90, 80, 70, 60cm diameter (prices starts at £339 for 60cm-70cm-80cm) You are welcome to collect as a complete display stand from EX15 3TU or we deliver and assemble. IMPORTANT: Please message me your postcode and I double check the exact delivery cost.
2019 Top 11 Craft Fair tips and booth layout tricks to help your vendor experience, Advice from a seasoned craft fair stager | Stampin Fool
Most popular easy portable display ideas for markets and craft fairs - save time and energy with these clever, eye-catching display ideas for vendors.
7 art booth display photos show you how to display paintings, prints, and photographs in your craft show booth.
If you have a product that will sell well at craft shows, it’s time to start applying to events. Juried craft shows are preferred by handmade business owners because they tend to have more elements in place that help ensure success. One of the downsides of juried craft shows (over non-juried) is that each vendor...
Color, and how you use it, is the most important element of your craft show display. Color can instantly catch a shopper’s attention, tell your target market your products are right for them, and help tell a story. There are many ways to incorporate color. This article’s quick fix focuses on color in product groupings. ...
Whether you’re creating a craft show display or photographing your products, product composition is important. Composition helps: Create organization and structure Create a focal point (that tells shoppers to “look here!”) Lead the eye throughout your space so shoppers don’t miss important details Without proper composition, a space can feel cluttered, disorganized, and uninspiring. This...
Each year I create a list of crafts you can make and sell that are seeing an increase in consumer demand (you can check that out here). I also look over the previous year’s trend list and see if those trends are still growing, are plateauing or declining in popularity. To create these lists, I...
Color, and how you use it, is the most important element of your craft show display. Color can instantly catch a shopper’s attention, tell your target market your products are right for them, and help tell a story. There are many ways to incorporate color. This article’s quick fix focuses on color in product groupings. ...
When I was making Christmas dinner for the first time, I had a lot of questions for my mom. I asked how much poultry seasoning she puts in the dressing and she said: “I don’t know…until it smells like dressing”. It’s an odd way to determine how much seasoning to use, but it works. If...
Craft shows are a unique way to shop and vendors can get creative with their setup. But there are certain things craft show shoppers shouldn't see.
If you're selling at a farmers' market or outdoor event, you'll love these unconventional ideas to draw shoppers over to your market stall.
10 places to find local craft shows and markets to apply for and what to do to ensure you're applying to the right events & actually making money at them.
Asking what to wear to a craft fair is like asking "what do I wear to work?" The answer depends on many variables. Find out how to choose the right outfit.
If you plan to use craft shows as a sales channel for your business, you don’t want to make a bad impression on organizers who decide whether or not you’ll be accepted as a vendor. These are common mistakes vendors make that can annoy craft show organizers and have them second-guessing if they want you...
Although you may be working with a small space at a craft show, it should still have a strategic layout, with 3 key areas that transition shoppers to buyers
Although you may be working with a small space at a craft show, it should still have a strategic layout, with 3 key areas that transition shoppers to buyers
