How Much Product To Bring To A Craft Show

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These tips will help you finally know how much product to bring to a craft show. These are expert tips from crafts who have been there!

Craft shows have a learning curve. You don’t want to take too many products, but you also don’t want to be stuck with a bare stand that fails to show off your wreaths. So what is the sweet spot? You are about to find out!

I recently had a very eye-opening chat with Karen Gresham from Crafty Creations Wreath Shop. She helped me create this useful list for you. I hope you find them as helpful as I did.

Karen is located in Alabama and in my Makers Mastermind group. Her craft shows are super successful (like thousands of dollars a day) so she has some amazing tips to share.

Craft Show Tips: How Much Product To Bring

One of the biggest questions people ask about craft shows is “how much product should I bring?” The number of wreaths you bring could actually influence how many you sell.

Full disclosure: I have never set up a booth at a craft show. Nope! I’m only on Etsy y’all. That’s why I brought in Karen’s expertise. Thank you, Karen!

Remember The Cost Of the Show

You want to sell enough wreaths to make a profit after paying the cost of the show. So, bring enough wreaths to sell so that the cost of your booth doesn’t bring down your profit.

These are the costs you need to include when you are trying to figure out how much of a profit to make:

• Entry Fees
• Hotel or Lodging
• Booth Helper Wage
• Meals
• Show Insurance

When you recoup all the fees listed above, that is your profit point.

How Much Product To Bring Based On Pricing

Plan inventory for multiple price points. It’s very important because you want to reach customers that are in all of the price points. If you only take one size or style of the wreath, that exact size might not be what a potential customer is looking for. You will sell more if you have more options.

Here are three sure-fire ways to price your items so they sell at craft shows.

1. Price Based On Vendor Fees

This is effective if you are concerned about how many fees you have to pay to sell at the show. To do this, take 8-10 times more products than your entry fee.

For example, if your fee was $50, your goal of 10 times the fee is $500. So figure out how many wreaths you need to sell to make $500.

2. Price Based On Sales Goals

To do this, just estimate how much you want to sell in order to make it worth your time to do the show. This is more of a lenient format.

Set a loose goal. For example, if you want to sell $5,000 worth of wreaths, then bring double that in inventory. You will probably only sell half of what you bring. People love options.

Statistics state that the conversion of sales is 1-3% of the traffic that goes by your booth. If they advertise that their show brings in 8,000 people, you will anticipate converting 1-3% of those to sales, which is about 160 items.

This is the easiest way to do it, but remember to try and break even. Set your sales goal at least over your craft show fees.

3. Price Based On Attendance Numbers

You can also look at the attendance numbers to judge how much inventory to bring to a craft show. Like I mentioned earlier, 1-3% of attendees should convert to a sale.

After you figure the 1% conversion, then look at the average price point of each sale. Calculate that and decide whether that is worth it for you.

For example, if a craft show advertises traffic of 8,000 people, then 1% of that is about 80 items. If your average price point per item is $97 then you might make $7,760 sales from that show. That’s a very conservative estimate.

Remember, that is an average price, so bring enough products to upsell and cover your expenses too.

Don’t Be Afraid To Sell Out

Have a backup plan just in case you do sell out of certain (or all) of your products. Perhaps you can take orders, or even reward yourself for meeting your goals.

You could even take some show-stopping pieces that are at a really high price point so that they will want to buy the less expensive ones.

If you do bring a really ornate wreath, then place it at the back of the booth on the inside. Place the less expensive ones front and center because it draws them in.

No Show is A Failure

Banish your fear of failure. Even if you go through an entire show without a single sale, it wasn’t for nothing! You will come away from it with contacts, new confidence, and maybe even some order requests.

One way to banish fear and anxiety is to make bows while you are at your booth. Not only will it draw people into your booth to see what you are doing, but it will calm you down too.

Watch the Video: Craft Shows – How much Product do you Really Need?

Want to learn more? Check out this video for all the details!

How Much Product To Bring: Final Thoughts

The best tip of all is to just try things out and see what works for you! Keep learning through your missed goals and keep making new ones. You’ll be successful the more you try.

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