This post features reflections, tips, and tricks about a crochet market held at a fall sunflower festival. Within this post you can find all the background about this event and tips to help you make your next crochet market even more successful!
One of my favorite venues for craft shows has been a local gourd farm that sells hand-crafted items made with their gourds. This past September, I had my fifth show at this venue, and it was by far my best show yet! I have learned so much over the years of selling at crochet markets, that I wanted to be sure to tell you all about what made this event such a success.
The Event and Venue
The Sunflower Festival was a two-day weekend event held in the middle of September at an artisan gourd farm in Central PA. This event has been taking place for several years and features dozens of artisan vendors, food trucks, trolley rides, a clearance sale for the gourd business, and several fields of cut-your-own sunflowers. The business also has workshop activities for families such as paint-your-own gourd birdhouse.
This business is very well-known in our area, which makes this a very successful event. They advertised for several months in advance on social media, local ads, and billboards on very busy interstates in the surrounding area. I would approximate that they had about 5,000 visitors over the two-day span.
The farm that hosts this event is absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately their events have have been prone to high winds and some difficult weather. For this particular event, there were torrential downpours both days of the event. The venue went out of their way to move some of their gourds outside to provide space in two large barns for the vendors to set up inside. While the weather wasn’t great, the event ended up being a great success due to their quick change in plans and all the advertising they did for the festival.
How I Prepared for My Crochet Market
I am a full-time teacher, so events in September can be a little difficult for me with school starting at the same time. To prepare for the event, I spent the majority of my summer making as many stuffed toys as I could. I specifically spent time making smaller stuffed toys for this event, as they have been especially popular for other events at this venue.
In addition to making as many items as I possibly could, I also spent a lot of time refining my setup for the show. I marked off a 10′ by 10′ space in my craft room and put my tables in the layout I planned to use for the show. I then set up all of my shelves and displays how I wanted them and filled in with the inventory I had about two weeks before the show. While space was a little tight for this time, the ability to see exactly what I needed to add to my display was invaluable.
I also spent a lot of time tagging my items to make sure each item had a specific tag with care instructions and the price so that customers didn’t have to guess. About two days before the event, I also made small placard signs to use for pricing large quantities of the same item. I have noticed that the easier it is for customers to find the price of an item, the more likely they will consider buying it.
While a lot of venues often provide the opportunity to set up for an event the night before, I typically don’t use this option and just set up the day of instead. However, since this event ended up being held inside, I opted to set up all my tables and display pieces the night before. This was so incredibly helpful for the day of the event. By only having to put my inventory and price placards out on the shelves, I was ready to go for the show in so much less time, and I was so much more calm for the event to start. While I am still not a fan of setting up in advance for outside shows (out of concern for my tent and tables in bad weather), I highly recommend taking up venues on this option if you are indoors.
Inventory for My Crochet Market
I have really begun niching down in my business, but I still have a lot of inventory from previous years of markets. For most shows, I choose to only bring my stuffed toys, key chains, and some wearable items, but since this was such a big show, I brought almost everything I had made.
While I was thankfully able to sell some of my older products that I was trying to sell out of, this show confirmed to me that I don’t really need to bring my home decor and assorted accessories along to shows because they really don’t sell that well for me.
My best-sellers at this particular market were:
- Mabel Chickens
- Mini Mabel Chickens – one customer called them “chicken nuggets,” which had me rolling!
- Ollie the Mini Octopus
- Mini Sunflower Turtles – These were a huge hit!
- Ghost Plushies – These sold out in the first three hours of day one!
- Guinea Pigs – I only had three of these, but they got a lot of compliments and sold quickly!
The majority of my sales were for stuffed toys. I had a lot of items that I had only made one or two of, and I think that appealed to customers because they knew they were getting something unique. Some of these one-of-a-kind items were very large, and I was really excited to see them sell. One of the larger items that sold at this show was a polar bear that I made using the pattern from Animal Amigurumi Adventures Volume II by Lauren Espy.
In addition to stuffed toys, I sold several of my Addi beanies with pom poms and gnomes that I made using my Addi machine. I also sold quite a few key chains made with worsted weight yarn.
Customer Interactions
Despite the fact that almost everyone was soaking wet by the time they got inside, the overall mood of the day was incredibly positive. I was one of the only vendors selling items that appealed to kids, so I had a lot more traffic than some of the other vendors. Attendees at the event were very complimentary, and I was appreciative to have a lot of people make comments about the quality of work and how impressed they were.
Just like all shows, I had some people suggest to friends and family to ask a friend to make a certain item or say they could make it themselves. Rather than get upset, I tried to connect with them as fellow makers. I offered my business card and encouraged them to follow along with my blog and social media to see pattern reviews and free patterns that I offer. One of the attendees that I talked to about this actually came back around to my booth later and purchased something saying it would take her too long to figure out how to make it herself.
My favorite part of the show was the excitement of the kids at the event. I was located on the opposite side of the barn from the entrance, and throughout the day I saw quite a few kids get excited when they walked in the barn and run over to my booth. Given that my main goal is to appeal to kids and families, this totally made my day! I left the event with a huge sense of accomplishment and all the warm fuzzies!
Outcome of My Crochet Market
Despite the bad weather, I felt that this was an extremely successful event! I increased my profits, making this the best show I have had thus far, and I sold the majority of my inventory. In addition, I gained a wholesale account with a local business that has brought in multiple sales. While I was exhausted after the busy weekend, it really was a fantastic show! I am really looking forward to this event coming up again this fall in just a few weeks.
Tips and Tricks for a Super Successful Crochet Market
I strongly believe that my success at this show was due to a lot of learning and planning that I have done over the years. If you are hoping for a super successful market, here is some of my best advice for your next crochet market:
- Appeal to your ideal customer – You want to make sure that you are making items that your ideal customer wants to buy. I focused on stuffed toys more than other items at this event, and they are definitely what my ideal customer is looking for.
- Grab attention with height – I utilized a lot of shelving and other display pieces to make sure I was able to showcase as many items as possible in my booth. I highly recommend you use shelving like my folding shelves I shared in the past or other display pieces to add height and bring items to eye level.
- Make sure your prices are clearly marked – I made sure that all of my items had clear pricing by using individual price tags. For smaller items, I made placard signs to display prices. I have noticed that clear pricing really helps to gain more sales.
- Utilize clear branding – I put a lot of effort into showcasing my brand colors and theme in my booth decor. This has really helped repeat customers recognize my booth when they come back to future events. It also helps make my booth look more professional.
Want to Share Your Crochet Market Experience?
If you have participated in a crochet market and would like to share about your experience, I would love to hear from you! You may even find your experience shared in an upcoming crochet market spotlight right here on the blog! You can use this link to share all about your market! I really look forward to hearing about your experience!
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