A photo of my booth from over the weekend! I feel like I struggle a lot with a clear display because I do have a lot of inventory from this year, and I also do prefer leaning into a maximalist setup. I've also upgraded my color scheme to match my signage (red, pink, white, and toadstool aesthetic), and this is the first time I got to use my banner!

With this in mind, how could I go about making my products 'pop' more? My next event is in two weeks under a 10x10 tent with two 6ft tables and a hanging rack for bags. Would love to hear comments and suggestions!

I sell my handmade clothes at local markets. I display my most eye catching and market-themed pieces on the smaller rack (left in first pic) and have the rest on a circle rack. I am worried about over crowding the rack being overwhelming to shoppers. But also I want to have as much of a variety of pieces because I am consistently the only vendor with exclusively plus sized options.

Anyone have any thoughts about how much to display?

Also I'd love to hear any feedback from plus size shoppers about their market shopping experiences. I know we rarely see clothes for us at these events, and that is why I love doing this!

Any and all feedback welcome. Thanks again y'all 😊

I want to run this by others to see if this is as good an idea as I think it is.

I'm a fiber artist, I crochet, knit, spin, etc. my general problem is that I tend to generate very few items at high prices. Also my hands hurt so making the same small thing over and over again is hard.

I'm trying something new this year, which is making notions. So far I've been making buttons, stitch markers, needle minders, and pin cushions. My polymer clay skills are perhaps not quite as good as some, but it's also stuff I would love seeing as someone who makes art. But I'm me and I keep thinking if that's what the average craft fair goer wants?

I'll still probably be spinning yarn in the corner trying to convince people they want a scarf that took 2 months to make.

Greetings,

I'm someone who runs events for a non profit organization. We have a car show coming up, which typically doesn't align with craft fairs. However, because we have a large empty space and we're right dab smack in the middle of a family-dense neighbrhood, I'm trying to increase attendance by also setting up a vendor section, that doesn't have to be related to cars at all. Just something for the community to come and enjoy. It's a five hour event (six if you include setup/breakdown) and because I cannot guarantee success, we aren't charging any fees.

My question is, how viable is my idea from the side of a potential vendor? Is it something that would be of interest because of the little to no risk? Or is it just not something that's worth the time since the audience may not match what you're trying to sell.

Thanks.

I’m in MA, if it makes a difference.

I’m looking to host my first craft fair, and am curious what folks do for insurance.

I checked eventsured and it’s not bad: $123 for a single event. I’m looking to host maybe a few events a year if the first one is successful.

Am I better doing the single event insurance, or is there an option to get affordable monthly/annual coverage if I plan on hosting more?

Thanks to anyone with any insight!!

I’m no longer planning to sell at craft fairs, but I still have a large amount of crochet inventory left. Everything was handmade by my mom, and the items are already finished and ready to sell.

For those who have stopped doing craft fairs, how did you clear out your remaining inventory? Did you sell everything as one bulk lot, discount items individually, use Facebook Marketplace, sell to another vendor, or donate part of it?

I would prefer to sell the inventory in bulk rather than list every item separately, but I’m not sure where craft fair vendors usually look for this kind of inventory. I’d appreciate hearing what worked for others.

New to craft fairs, just got invited to one in a month trying to build up some inventory to sell. Made a few sets of these quilted-esque coasters that I figured I could bundle and sell as a group but I'm not sure where to start on pricing...

Also, should I be looking to make a bunch of little, low price items or should I be focused on the middle to high ticket stuff?

Any help whatsoever would be appreciated, I don't really know what I'm doing and will take ALL feedback and suggestions on anything related to starting out!

Thank you in advance!!!

Hi so every first and last day of school I like to make these for my girls. Would this be something you or someone may be interested in purchasing ?

Sometimes I use canvas. This time around I used poster board.. paint markers.. sometimes paint.. markers... stickers and little doodles sometimes.

I was thinking maybe $15 dollars if I did do something like this maybe a little more if they want a specific sticker/decor and if it is on canvas. If i did make a post online Id cap it at around 5 orders. Ive never done anything like this before but I think I do an okay job. And with some notice/ planning 5 doesnt seem that bad.

Hi, as a newcomer to the craft fair scene, I have struggled with keeping inventory straight, losing track of what've sold, scrambling to restock, that whole mess. For me, low ticket items like stickers, or buttons have been the hardest to inventory. I'm also a software developer who would like to figure out a solution. Before I try to build anything to fix this, I want to actually understand what's broken for other people who do this regularly, not just assume my experience is universal.

A few things I'm curious about:

• How do you currently track inventory at a fair (spreadsheet, notebook, apps like square/stripe, nothing)?
• What's the most annoying part — before the show (prepping stock), during (ringing people up, tracking what sold), or after (reconciling everything)?
• Have you tried any tools for this and given up? What made you stop?

Not selling anything, genuinely just want to hear the messy real version of how this goes for people. Thanks in advance!

While im pretty happy with my setup, im always opened to feed back on what can be improved. In a quiet season for markets here and it would be nice to be in tip top shape for the holiday season!

Hello fellow craft peeps!

I had a question for people that do outdoor events, do you find that having floor coverings is helpful? And if so what kinds do you do? I have seen some people do tarps but seems like it wouldn't look very nice and the sound of walking on it is unpleasant to me but I get it's good for moisture

And then I have seen people use both indoor and outdoor washable rugs and I wonder do they hold up well? Or would it be good to do those overtop of the tarp?

Just new to the outdoor vending world and trying to see what ideas the vendor veterans have

Thank you!

At the beginning of July I was notified that I was accepted as a vendor to my city's pride parade. There tends to be an average of 200,000 to 300,000 people. Since then I've been prepping as much as I can. I sell stationery items like stickers, bookmarks, notepads, sticker sheets, and a couple other items featuring artwork that I draw.

I also hand make all my items so I print and cut everything out. Since I'm about 2 weeks out I want to put more of my energy towards making sure that I have enough of my best seller items, which are my stickers.

Currently I'm aiming to have about 100 or so stickers of my best seller pride design. I sold 4 at my first craft fair that had about 1,000 people (which wasn't a pride specific event) and 20 at my artisan shelf in a store at the mall.

Do you think 100 stickers of 1 design is enough, not enough, or way too much?

Edit - The event is one day and about 8 hours. I was thinking of having 100 just for my best sellers and then dropping inventory numbers for less popular designs. Basically I'm trying to figure out what the max I should be making and then working down from there.

I also totally forgot to mention that I'm doing two other craft fairs (non pride events) at the end of August that would see about 1,000 to 3,000 people. I'm hoping to have enough left over to cover those two events as well so that I can take a break in the middle of August.

Last couple shows I didn’t barely make my vendor fee back would love some advice — my theme is junk art and using trash to make treasure but I also make photography and art prints, stickers, and clothing

Edit: to the kind and constructive feedback thank you- to the ones who just wanted to hurt me, I’m sorry your mom did not hug you enough!

My stuff is weird yes, I will definitely be leaning more into the witchy/ oddity type shows more next year. I got lots of Good ideas among the hatred!

Got several art shows coming up that’s more witchy/oddity/queer themed and I should do much better at those. Mostly I’m confused because last year I was selling these like hot cakes making at least 100-$200 every art show with the same setup and product types I think everyone’s just struggling with money this year especially here in America.

After a few years of bare bonesing my display and not putting a lot of money into my set up, I finally invested in my business. I made the earring holders from a sheet of plywood, designed my own logo, etc. I'm very proud of my booth now, where I used to be proud of my product, but not super stoked on the presentation. I also have noticed an increase in sales just over the two markets I have had the new look. Could be coincidental, but I don't know. Anywho would love feedback or thoughts! Thanks for reading!

I've just started doing outdoor events this spring/summer. I have a secondhand tent that had a dark green top and walls. I bought a new white top to keep things brighter but haven't purchased new walls. I'm thinking of using sheer curtains instead, so there's more light and possibly a breeze, but I'm curious about others' experience using curtains instead of proper tent walls. What did you like/not like? How did you hang them? Did you anchor the bottom to keep them from blowing around?

While I wasn't at the Blakes Lavender Festival yesterday, it's a terrifying reminder of how scary the weather can be at an outdoor market. Many vendors lost tents and product, the only saving grace was no one was hurt. There was a Severe Thunderstorm Watch an hour ahead and warnings issued 35 min and 10 min prior to the storm hitting, but many vendor complained about poor cell signal.

Check the weather multiple days in advance and day-of, keep an eye on the radar and NWS when possible, bring plenty of tent weights, and drop your tent as low as possible. Feel terrible for everyone involved. Was anyone in here at this festival?

📷The UnBaked Cookie Co.

The humans that i made portraits of were awesome and interesting - such a hilarious time behind the scenes 😂

I’ve been getting into water colors and painting cartoonish animals has been so much fun. I’m thinking of keeping it going, and then at the end of the summer setting up at a small vendor event. Would you buy one and what would seem like a good deal? I also thought about getting frames from goodwill to place them in. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Hi! I’m host a “fashion show” outside in our parking lot at my job and I need help because I’ve never done this before

I work at a thrift store in metro Detroit and we’re hosting a little fashion shows outside, we are having student from near my high school as a our models we have dancers from a local student doing small dance numbers in between we have DJ and MC to play music and talking over the mic while the kids walk down the Red Carpet!

I’m looking for ideas to spicy this up some of my current thoughts is
-lots of giveaways thrown the whole thing
- ask a few local vendors/ businesses to step a a table and sale/ promote there merchandise
- ask a few small local content creators to come and flim maybe collaborate
- local animal shelters to come

I’m needing some ideas on maybe places to ask to sponsor us, with $25-$100 gift cards or gift baskets,waters, snack, cash. In return they can be posted on our social media(12k followers) we they can also have a table or whatever they would like at the event but there add in our flyers, shout them out during the event things like that

If you have any suggestions,

This was an outdoor market, so I didn't get to use the pit rug this time 😭😭

Found the pegboards on FB marketplace for $2 each, built a little skeleton for the awning from an old bed frame + $6 of fabric, new banner for $25, new little shelves for $12. Always a work in progress, but I'm happy with how it came out!

Have been doing shows for many years, stopped for a few years and now back at it. One of the issues that I have is with when trying to process a payment through a phone, there is so much phone traffic that I or the customer have a hard time getting payment to process. Sometimes, it doesn’t go through at all.

Does anyone have experience or solutions to this issue? Interested to hear of what really works when there is several thousands of people at the show.

Made 5 sales, and $36!! That's a Win!

Last time i vended, I made one sale and like $4

Not too sure about pricing still, I kinda just throw prices out there,.

But I feel I should be more Consistent, and not try to low ball myself just to potentially make a sale! ☺️

Not driving is the hardest part, because I couldn't carry any serious types of displays for the table.

I live in a town and have to travel to reach bigger markets in my province. The last market I did was in a city-- other vendors (who are great people) were the only ones who bought my products, which was nice of them.

I spent $90 for an airbnb and burned 3/4 of a tank of gas to get there. My net profit was probably $40, or less--minus table fees--$10!

Removing the time+energy to prepare, the market itself was 6hrs of standing there, scrolling my phone, smiling at people who blankly looked at me or moved on the moment I said something, and I'm not pushy or abrasive at all. I realize this is par for the course but it's discouraging.

If I want to keep doing bigger markets, I'll have to invest in a $300+ tent/canopy, new table $120, and marketing materials $300+, which is a lot right now as I'm not working.

Are markets really worth all the time and effort? Table fees eat into profit. Sometimes there are already 1-2 vendors there selling the same product as me. I'm a new business so I don't know if I'm overreacting or just bad at public sales.