I survived. Actually I more than survived. This weekend at Market Collective was truly an amazing experience. A very crazy, busy, exhausting, satisfying, successful, fun, experience. I am just feeling so full and incredibly thankful. After years of friends and family telling me that I should be selling my craft creations, I now get it. I SHOULD be selling my crafts. It’s funny, I went into the craft sale thinking that truly, I would be happy if I sold just one of the scarflettes, because the main purpose of the weekend was to learn from the experience. Having a single person out in the world who liked one of my scarflettes enough to pay for it, would make the whole thing worth it. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I sold half of my scarflette stock!!
My brain is still spinning with everything. Above and beyond the selling, I did learn so much and met some wonderful people, including the very lovely Nicole of Noela jewelry. She is actually a close friend of one of my co-workers and we completely lucked out with tables right beside each other. Besides chatting with a couple of the vendors, it was pretty amazing to talk with all the folks that came through the market. I hope that everyone enjoyed their time shopping and listening to some of the live music. It was fascinating to see how many people treated the market not just as a sale, but an event. Folks would spend hours there and I now understand how much of a “happening” Market Collective is.
On a business level, one surprising thing for me was that my coin purses actually did not sell very well. I thought that they would definitely sell and I had been a bit sad that I didn’t have more to bring along. As it turned out, I have plenty left. Folks seemed to genuinely like them. They would spend plenty of time picking them up, opening them, flipping through all the colours, but then didn’t buy them. So I’m left wondering what else I can do to encourage folks to take one home with them. This again, is all part of the learning.
In the end, my table display was pretty simple, but I think it was fairly effective. I had some things raised at eye level, which people were drawn to. I rotated which scarflette was displayed on the top of the shelf. If folks took a second to touch the scarflettes while they were passing by, it always made them stop and feel a bunch of them. I soon discovered that wearing one of the scarflettes in person was key. Customers often picked one up to try and figure them out, then glanced at the photos, but as soon as they realized I was wearing one, their face lit up in understanding. They are an odd shaped thing, I kept admitting, but once around your neck, their shape makes sense. I encouraged folks to try them on and I had a mirror hung on the wall, so that they could take a look. All in all, I think the simple table with a few important pieces (like a mirror) worked well for me this time.
Before the weekend was even finished, I was all set to start thinking about the next Market Collective. I would love to do it all again! Thanks for everyone’s support and continued interest in the blog!