Market stall reviewed

Well, I turned up at 7:00 on a sunny Brisbane morning at North Pine Country Markets. The other casual stall holders were queued in their cars and we all were lead to our spots.

I set up next to a lovely American selling her handmade jewellery, and a family running a scented candle stall. The American was only there at North Pine for her second market at that location, but was a seasoned marketeer of 15 years experience. The Family running the candle stall were permanent stall holders in their regular Sunday spot. These two people taught me a lot over the day.

They shared two valuable pieces of information - put your work as close to the customer as possible. You may have a whole tent space but people are not comfortable walking in. You need to draw them in and the window of opportunity to catch their attention is only seconds. So have your work at the very front of your stall looking as good as possible. The other tip for people who want to do markets is that you need to earn the trust of the area of you market so you need to go back several times and get known before you get any real sales. Both these pieces of advice a rock solid.

My stock was good and well priced and when I got people to look at it there was interest and sales but I did not have my work set up well (you had to come in). I will remember this next time. The candle store was super well done. They had a well developed product range in fabulous packaging with easy to read pricing. The colour scheme was lovely white tablecloths and pink highlights with a pink and white uniform worn by the owner. They used personalised packaging and had loyalty reward cards. They attracted people with more than one sense (visual, smell, and tactical) and had the best pack up system ever.
The American jewellery seller was different. She also set up very well and had discounts available for multiple purchases. She was very warm and engaged people so they stopped and chattered. This gave them time to look at the stock and to upsell - what a gift for conversation.

While at the market I met the marvellous Trish from Trishalan Designs. She is so bright and engaging. She was very good to share secrets and stories with and we compared notes about how glad we both are that we are part of the brilliant BrisStyle team and the excellent support and effort they give to we members.

In all the market was very worthwhile for learning and now that I have got the stall ready, I can use when I want. The day was fun, the people and location really special, but oh god NEVER in that heat again!