My first market was on September 9th, 2023, from 4 to 8 PM at The Met in Costa Mesa, California. It was hosted by Creative Babe Market which does tons of other markets practically every weekend. This booth fee cost 125 dollars and I ended up making 142 dollars, so 17 dollars in profit. While it was a great market and I did well for it being my first, there is still tons of improvement because it is my first.
At the moment I don’t have many table display pieces, no tablecloth, no canopy or umbrella, and I borrowed the table, so technically no table. I learned a lot of information which I will put to use in my next market.
The main thing I learned is to have multiples of the same item and make cheaper items. Pretty much every person looking at my table was picking up the cheaper-priced items and a bunch of people asked if I had two or more of some of my items.
To put this into play for my next market I will be making a bunch of leggy frogs, mini octopus, jellyfish, and cows, since those were my best sellers.
The second thing I learned is to not have things lying directly on my table. Either buy dowel stands to put into my plushies to make them stand up, have baskets for multiples of the same item, or use risers to display my plushies.
When looking at other crochet booths, everyone has their items displayed in a certain way, rather than lying flat on the table. Those crochet booths got a ton of traffic compared to my booth.
Finally, I learned to keep a fun personality, greet guests, be able to read them and know whether to back off or engage in a conversation. Keep an open body language, so people are willing to come up to your booth and buy from you.
And have good customer service. Keep smiling, don’t be on your phone, and if you’re able, stand for either the whole duration of the market, or as much as possible to be more inviting.
