6 Reasons you Didn’t Make Money at your First Craft Show

As mentioned in this article, you’re doing well if you’ve made enough money to cover your COGS (costs of goods sold) and your booth fee.

If you didn’t earn enough revenue to cover those costs, that’s okay; many vendors don’t, but they use the event as a learning experience.

If you’re wondering why your sales were so low, here are some common reasons.

1 – No price variety

If everything you have on your craft show table is the same price, you’ll push away a lot of shoppers.

Everyone has a different budget and a different amount they have in mind for how much they want to spend that day.

It’s a good idea to have products that are priced:

• high
• medium
• low

What high, medium, and low are will depend on your product, skill level, and the market you’re targeting.

For example, a silversmith selling jewelry may have prices from $25 – $100, while someone selling stickers and bookmarks may have prices ranging from $1 – $20.

In general, craft show shoppers tend to expect the following for high, medium, and low prices:

• Low = $20 and under
• Medium = $20 – $50
• High = $50 and up

Again, this may go up or down based on the event and the type of shopper it attracts.

 

2 – Products are too broad

Although it’s great to offer product options and a range of prices, having too many options can turn craft show shoppers off.

It depends on the event, but most craft show shoppers are looking to buy from small businesses (rather than hobbyists or crafters).

Small businesses specialize in something and become experts in their field.

If I’m selling knitted stuffed toys, candles, lotions, jewelry, and greeting cards, I don’t have a specialty.

It’s likely shoppers will question the quality of my products because it’s hard for one person to be an expert at creating high-quality products in 5 different product categories.

On the other hand, if I’m only selling candles, I’ll give shoppers the impression that I’m an expert in my field because it appears as though I work on making candles day in and day out.

If you didn’t make enough sales to cover your booth fee, consider whether you’re selling too many types of products.

Ideally, you should be sticking to ONE product category (e.g. knitted goods OR jewelry, but not both).

 

3 – Prices are too high or too low

Before shoppers see your prices, they’re placing a value on your products.

That value is what they think they should pay based on:

• The product (e.g. a bar of soap will be less expensive than a piece of gold jewelry.)
• The presentation (e.g. a table that’s set up like a discount table at a department store will make shoppers think prices should be lower.)
• The craftsmanship (e.g. if they look closely at one of my bags and see crooked seams and skipped stitches, they’re going to think prices should be lower.)
• Your behaviour (e.g. if you dress and act like a salesperson in a high-end boutique rather than a bored vendor, they’re going to expect prices to be higher.)
• Your sales pitch (e.g. if you explain the benefits of your products and their features, it can help shoppers place a higher value on them.)

Once a shopper places a value on your products, if the prices are much higher or lower than they’re expecting, they’re going to think twice.

For example, if someone is examining one of my pencil cases and they think it should cost around $30, then they see the price tag and it actually costs:

>> $50, they’re going to be a little shocked and wonder why it’s such an expensive pencil case.

But if it’s priced at:

>> $10, they’re going to wonder why the price is so low and what’s wrong with it. Will it fall apart in a month? Is it undesirable to other people?

Be sure you’re pricing your products fairly. If they’re higher or lower than average/what your target market might expect your products to cost, be sure to communicate why that is (e.g. I use 100% organic and toxin-free materials).

 

4 – Low foot traffic

Your low sales may not be a reflection of your business, products, display, etc. It’s possible that the event didn’t attract enough shoppers for you to meet your sales goal.

>> Conversion rates of online stores are typically around 2% – 4%. That means, if 100 people visit an online store, on average, 2 – 4 of those people will buy.

>> Conversion rates for brick-and-mortar stores are 20% – 40%.

There aren’t accurate stats for craft show vendor conversion rates. But it’s likely, on average, they fall somewhere between online and brick-and-mortar.

So let’s assume the average conversion rate for a craft show vendor is 10% and the event attracts 100 shoppers. Even if you hit that average conversion rate, you’re only making 10 sales, which may not be enough to cover your booth fees.

Consider how many shoppers attended the event and how the other vendors seemed to do with sales.

 

5 – Wrong target market

A craft show will attract a certain target market, based on its branding and marketing. If your products appeal to a different target market, it will be hard for you to make sales.

For example, if you’re selling at a market that is predominantly MLM vendors (e.g. Arbonne, Tupperware, etc.), the event is going to attract shoppers looking to stock up on products they know and love. They’re likely not familiar with or interested in handmade products. And handmade prices will seem high compared to the mass-produced products that are dominating the event.

On the other hand, an event might attract people who are just looking for something to do. For example:

• Community events where people are there to catch up with one another
• Farmer’s Markets or food-truck-heavy events where people are there to buy food
• Music festivals where people are there to be entertained

Be sure the events you apply to are attracting the types of shoppers who are a fit for your product. That will help improve your conversion rates.

 

6 – High booth fees

Your sales may not have covered your booth fees because the booth fees were just too high for your products.

Before applying to an event, roughly calculate how many sales you’d need to cover the booth fees.

For example, let’s say I make pencil cases and it costs me $7.95 to make each item, and I sell it to customers for $30.

COGS (costs of goods sold) = $7.95

Retail price = $30

Gross profit (i.e. money that is left to cover other expenses + wages) = $22.05 ($30 minus $7.95)

Craft show booth fee = $1500

I would need to sell 68 pencil cases to cover my booth fee (booth fee ($1500) divided by gross profit ($22.05)).

If selling, or even making 68 pencil cases seemed like a lot, I probably wouldn’t apply to the event.

When starting, try to choose events with lower booth fees, but that still attract a good target market (community or church craft shows may have low booth fees, but they may attract more people who want to look, rather than buy).

 

Remember, every craft show will be a learning experience and should be used to not only sell your products, but market your business. 

Most vendors don’t profit from their first few craft shows and many don’t make more than a few sales. But they use them to gather feedback and make adjustments for the next event.