Ten Tips For Selling Resin Art at Craft Fairs
Selling your resin art at craft fairs can be an enjoyable and profitable experience. We have spoken to a range of artists who regularly sell at craft fairs and we have compiled a list of their top tips & tricks! We actually started mouldd resin by selling at craft fairs, so we have also put in a few of our own findings!
1. Find the right craft fairs for you. When speaking to artists this was always the number 1 recommendation that came up. Not every craft fair is the same, depending on their theme and where they are being held, the target customer will change. For example selling at a school fair you will find that items focused on children will do better. We also recommend sticking to a fair which you do well at. Constantly trying different fairs will mean you won’t be able to fully understand that target customer. Once you find a fair which you think is right for you, our artists believe it makes the most sense to then focus on it.
2. Create a captivating display. There’s a few ways to do this so we have broken this answer down!
a. Have different levels to your stall. Using boxes underneath a table sheet to place your art on will allow you to offer more depth to the display and showcase your art in different ways which will hopefully draw more customers in.
b. Add light boxes or fairy lights. Especially at Christmas markets, this is an excellent way to add some festivity and fun to your display.
c. Don’t overload the display. Having too much on display can overwhelm a customer but having too little can make your stall look bare and empty. Have a play around throughout the day of your fair and see what works best. Take photos for social media as well and get your friends' opinions on what looks best!
d. Try and have something unique. Having a large unique piece or a unique theme throughout all of your art is a great way to catch customers' eyes.
3. Don’t stick to one layout. Halfway through your stall try mixing it up and changing the layout. Our artists found that by moving around the front of the display and changing the items there it helped them figure out what items sold best!
4. Offer deals for buying more. Making sure you set your prices correctly is important and we have a resin price calculator which you can view here to help you figure out your pricing. But rather than underselling yourself, we recommend offering discounts for buying more. For example selling an item for £7 or 3 for £15 will help entice customers.
5. Display your pricing. Clearly staying your pricing for different items was recommended by the majority of artists we spoke to. It allows customers to immediately see what the price point is and our artists found it led to more sales and conversations. Displaying very clearly when you are doing bundle offers is also very important.
6. Have a box of seconds. Having a box with the things you made which didn’t go quite right or that you aren’t happy with and offering them for discounted rates is also a great way to entice in customers and sell off some of your unwanted items. You will be amazed at how something which doesn’t look right for you, is perfect to someone else.
7. Speak to the other stalls. At mouldd we started out by selling at craft fairs and we always had a blast! We would always speak to the other stall owners as they would have some excellent advice to offer and some of them even became customers!
8. Have a card machine. Since covid, most customers want to pay by card now. So having a card machine is a must. We used Sumup, but there are plenty of options out there which are cheap and easy to set up.
9. Have business cards. Not all customers are ready to purchase there and then and sometimes customers are looking for something custom made. Having a business card you can give to customers is a great way to capture future sales. Having a link to your website or facebook page, contact details and a couple lines on the type of art you do is all the information you need!
10. Smile and enjoy it! Not every event will go amazingly. We had events where we sold next to nothing and others where we sold out. It is all about finding the right fairs for you and also enjoying it. If you are smiling and chatting to customers you are much more likely to do well!
We hope you find our tips and tricks useful. Remember it won’t always go perfectly, but if we didn’t give our first craft fair a go we wouldn’t be where we are now!
1. Find the right craft fairs for you. When speaking to artists this was always the number 1 recommendation that came up. Not every craft fair is the same, depending on their theme and where they are being held, the target customer will change. For example selling at a school fair you will find that items focused on children will do better. We also recommend sticking to a fair which you do well at. Constantly trying different fairs will mean you won’t be able to fully understand that target customer. Once you find a fair which you think is right for you, our artists believe it makes the most sense to then focus on it.
2. Create a captivating display. There’s a few ways to do this so we have broken this answer down!
a. Have different levels to your stall. Using boxes underneath a table sheet to place your art on will allow you to offer more depth to the display and showcase your art in different ways which will hopefully draw more customers in.
b. Add light boxes or fairy lights. Especially at Christmas markets, this is an excellent way to add some festivity and fun to your display.
c. Don’t overload the display. Having too much on display can overwhelm a customer but having too little can make your stall look bare and empty. Have a play around throughout the day of your fair and see what works best. Take photos for social media as well and get your friends' opinions on what looks best!
d. Try and have something unique. Having a large unique piece or a unique theme throughout all of your art is a great way to catch customers' eyes.
3. Don’t stick to one layout. Halfway through your stall try mixing it up and changing the layout. Our artists found that by moving around the front of the display and changing the items there it helped them figure out what items sold best!
4. Offer deals for buying more. Making sure you set your prices correctly is important and we have a resin price calculator which you can view here to help you figure out your pricing. But rather than underselling yourself, we recommend offering discounts for buying more. For example selling an item for £7 or 3 for £15 will help entice customers.
5. Display your pricing. Clearly staying your pricing for different items was recommended by the majority of artists we spoke to. It allows customers to immediately see what the price point is and our artists found it led to more sales and conversations. Displaying very clearly when you are doing bundle offers is also very important.
6. Have a box of seconds. Having a box with the things you made which didn’t go quite right or that you aren’t happy with and offering them for discounted rates is also a great way to entice in customers and sell off some of your unwanted items. You will be amazed at how something which doesn’t look right for you, is perfect to someone else.
7. Speak to the other stalls. At mouldd we started out by selling at craft fairs and we always had a blast! We would always speak to the other stall owners as they would have some excellent advice to offer and some of them even became customers!
8. Have a card machine. Since covid, most customers want to pay by card now. So having a card machine is a must. We used Sumup, but there are plenty of options out there which are cheap and easy to set up.
9. Have business cards. Not all customers are ready to purchase there and then and sometimes customers are looking for something custom made. Having a business card you can give to customers is a great way to capture future sales. Having a link to your website or facebook page, contact details and a couple lines on the type of art you do is all the information you need!
10. Smile and enjoy it! Not every event will go amazingly. We had events where we sold next to nothing and others where we sold out. It is all about finding the right fairs for you and also enjoying it. If you are smiling and chatting to customers you are much more likely to do well!
We hope you find our tips and tricks useful. Remember it won’t always go perfectly, but if we didn’t give our first craft fair a go we wouldn’t be where we are now!