The big day is coming, the day of your craft show. Everything is set. Now what? How do you bring customers into your booth and increase your craft show sales?
It takes a lot of practice to become successful as a seller – closing sales and most importantly, acquiring repeat customers.
The most basic strategy is to make sure your craft booth is attractive and not sloppy. Tables should have floor-length tablecloths so you can tuck crates, boxes and extra stock underneath, rather than shoving them in the back. All of this is pretty standard stuff. Yet if you still have trouble selling your work, then it’s time to look deeper into the psychology of selling at a craft fair.
Use these strategies and you’ll have the edge over all other craft fair vendors.
1. Greetings
One of the easiest things to learn is how to sell your handmade products by placing yourself in your customers’ shoes. How would you want to be treated in a booth? Your sales will go a long way if you know how to greet customers during craft shows.
Don’t ask, “May I help you?” or something like that. You aren’t selling products at a local mall, you are an artist selling your handmade goods. Come up with a good greeting that fits your personality. You can simple say “Hi!”. It set the tone and often led to more conversation.
But be cautious and don’t try hard to make a conversation with your customers. Sometimes, when a customer walks into a booth, you need to make a snap decision whether to engage them in conversation or not.
Example: You love children and then a woman comes in with a beautiful toddler and your first instinct is to coo and fuss over the child. If you continue to admire the kid, the proud mama’s attention would be diverted from browsing your products to talking about her child. So it would be better to say hello, and let her browse. Sure enough, the woman will buy something…and then you will have a chance to gush over the child while you ring up the sale.
In addition, even if you are grumpy, hungry, disappointed in sales and/or tired, make sure to smile. I’ve walked out of booths before just because the people behind the table looked disinterested or unhappy.
2. Stand
Standing is a much better position for engaging customers. Sitting down has the potential to send the message, “I’m taking a break, don’t disturb me”, and that’s not what you want. Now sitting is okay, if you use a tall chair (like a director’s chair) or a stool and are out in the booth, rather than behind a table.
3. Your Products
To keep customers returning, you need to maintain professionalism in your work. Scrutinize your pieces before placing them on display. Resist the temptation to display work with defects.
When you see customers engaging with your goods, tell them a little about the process and/or materials, especially if it involves something special or uses materials they might not recognize. For example, if you make polymer clay jewelry, let people know that when they pick up a piece to study it, don’t wait until they ask. Don’t be too pushy though, let it drop if they clearly aren’t interested.
4. Positioning Your Items
Your displays should be uncluttered, clean and easy to view. Watch for hot spots on the table. Pieces placed on certain corners seem to always sell. The most popular hot spot seems to be the corner where the traffic first glimpses your booth. As the day progresses, you may want to rearrange your work, periodically. Usually, traffic will make their way around to your table more than once. By creating a different look, customers will get a chance to view items they may have missed the first time.
That’s the 4 basic things to keep in mind to increase your craft show sales.
Do you want to increase sales dramatically? Then aside from focusing in attracting new customers why don’t you also exert your effort on making more sales after craft shows? Entice your proven customers to buy again.
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