Thoughts on my second craft fair

On Saturday I had my 2nd Christmas craft fair. It was held at Belle Isle URC. I was hoping it was going to be better than the last fair. Read on to find out if it did.

I'd managed to get most of the stuff ready the night before so had a fairly smooth morning. I even remembered to take the stocking filler/pocket money items that I forgot last time.

There were a lot more stalls at this fair with quite a variety of products. There were a lot more people coming through as well. I think it helped that it was in a church that was used by the community. It had a community cafe in the church, which was open during the fair. This encouraged more people to come and have a look at the stalls before or after eating. Some even had a look whilst they waited for food to be made. I had a few friends, family and fans of my jewellery come along too, which added to the numbers.


There was a reasonable amount of interest in my jewellery and I made a few sales. Most of them were the stocking filler/pocket money items, which was understandable because they were cheap and meant to draw children's attention and therefore their parents. However I hope they didn't detract too much from my main items. I did make a few sales of my silver items. I sold a necklace and some earrings, and someone ordered a ring. Quite a few people took business cards so hopefully I'll get a few more sales from them in the future.

Overall I'm reasonably happy with how it went. I would have preferred a few more sales, particularly of my silver items, but I sold enough to cover costs and make some profit too. The problem with craft fairs is they take quite a lot of time and effort in preparation and on the day. It's trying to find the balance between the amount of time and effort it takes and how much I will make from it. However, this isn't as straight forward as how much money I take on the day because craft fairs can often act as advertising. As I said earlier quite a few people took business cards, so I'm hoping that it will raise my profile and I will make sales in the future. Plus I do like meeting customers. It's a lot nicer seeing people look at your work and making positive comments than looking at some stats saying that x many people visited my on-line store.

Have you ever been to a craft fair? What attracts you to certain stalls? Is it the products, the display, the seller? What do you like/not like about craft fairs?

Have you sold anything at a craft fair before? How did you find it and how did you find the balance of time and effort versus items sold?

Christmas Craft Fair No. 2

This week it's time for me to prepare for my 2nd Christmas craft fair for this year. I'm planning on restocking a few items that sold during or since my last fair, and making a few new items. I've already made one new item - a bracelet. I'll try to add a few photos for you of the new items. Watch this space! Any special requests or suggestions for particular types of items?

Luckily I don't have much work to do on the display as I can use my ideas and spacing from the last craft fair. Last time I forgot to take my basket for stocking filler/pocket money items, so hopefully I'll remember it this time and make a few more sales. It may attract some children and bring their parents along to buy the more grown up jewellery.

It looks like the organiser has been doing a lot of advertising in the local area, so hopefully there will be more customers than the last fair. However, the location is not such a central one, so people who aren't in the area are less likely to come. It is closer to where I live, so I am hoping more of my friends and regular customers will be able to attend.

This fair looks like it's going to have more of a Christmassy feel to it than the last one as well. Santa's going to be making a visit, so it should be family friendly. There will be lots of other stalls selling potential Christmas presents, so feel free to come along if you want to do a bit of Christmas shopping. Below is the address.

Belle Isle URC
Nesfield Road
Belle Isle
Leeds
LS10 3L

How I faired...

I did my first of the three Christmas craft fairs on Saturday. It was held at Zeus Restaurant, on the edge of Huddersfield town centre. It took quite a lot of effort to prepare, but I was looking forward to it. My husband was kind enough to come along and help me out with the stall. Here's how the day went.

The morning started early as I got up at 7am to make sure I'd got the last few bits ready and packed up. Despite getting up earlier we still ended up leaving later than we meant. However, it worked out fine and we got there with enough time to set up before it started.

All set up and ready to go

The start time was 10am and it was a quiet start. I was expecting this to a certain extent because it was a Saturday and most people don't usually go into town to shop until after lunch. The organiser went out at this point with some volunteers to hand out leaflets to advertise. I took this time to speak to the other stall holders and look at what they were selling. It's always nice to meet other designer-makers and crafters, especially since most of us make things in isolation.




As the morning went on, the amount of customers didn't pick up much. The other stallholders took this time to look at some of my items. Luckily, most of them were interested in my work, and eventually I had an order, which boosted my spirits.

I had expected the afternoon to pick up with people who had come into town to do shopping. However, this didn't seem to happen. There were a few flurries of people coming through. A few were interested and took business cards, but no one bought anything. Part of the problem was that we were on the edge of town so didn't have any through traffic. Some friends came to visit in the afternoon through, which cheered me up, and even better they bought a some items too!

Overall I made enough to cover the costs, but I was still disappointed. I had hoped it would be reasonably busy due to the central location and from the advertising that had been done. One problem was that when customers did come in there weren't many of them. This probably resulted in them feeling like they were being watched or stared at, which will have put them off. I also wanted to try to engage people to keep them, but I didn't want to scare them off either by talking at them too much or watching them.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? How did you deal with it? Does anyone have any hints or tips as to the best way to engage customers without scaring them off?