See the 10 or so carebears chillin around my table? They are KID MAGNETS. As if my booth wasn't already pink and girly enough, little girls could NOT resist dragging their mommies into my booth to point out each of the carebears by name and squeal happily (meanwhile, their mothers looked at the jewelry! Win!) I also had some other kid-magnet props like a unicorn head and a gumball machine. *tents fingers evilly* little kids cannot resist the gumball machine.
Unfortunately for me, little kids also have no money, so I have to rely more on parents and older chicks for sales. My first two sales were to women in their 30s, one of which kept stopping in to tell me how many compliments she'd gotten on her new skull earrings! And one preteen girl and her mother apparently shared the same taste in jewelry and bought over $50 worth of merchandise between them!! Now that is my FAVORITE kind of sale.
I've definitely learned some good lessons from this first fair which I'm going to apply to my future fairs this summer. Hopefully these can help some of you as well.
1. Accept credit cards! Over half of my sales were charged to a credit card, and the majority of the sales on credit were higher cost items. I use ProPay, an affordable credit card processing platform. As long as you have the CC number, expiration date and zip code, you can go online to the propay site and process any amount on the card. I couldn't figure out how to work my Knuckle Buster so I ended up writing them all down by hand and shredding them once I had processed the cards, but all of the orders went through and I'm really glad I took CCs!
2. Showcase your least expensive items! My stud earrings are $3-$5 and I put them front and center. Lots of shoppers made impulse buys or didn't want to spend very much, so having them featured like that really helped them to sell, in my opinion.
3. Use eyecatching displays! Heads literally turned when people passed my booth. Not only is everything bright pink and colorful, but I had so many interesting props to look at that several people came in just to examine them! I found most of my props at yard sales and flea markets for cheap!
4. Don't pack up until the fair is really over. My biggest sale happened less than an hour before the fair was schedule to end. I know it takes a while to dis-assemble a booth, but it's not worth saving an extra few minutes if you lose a customer!
5. Test your display before attend a fair! I ALMOST did this. I set up my tables and tablecloth in a room in my apartment, and halfheartedly tossed some of my props on top. But I didn't set it up completely and I'm really sorry I didn't. I need another table, more displays with varying heights, and better necklace displays. Luckily I've got time to get these things before my next fair in a month!
