Great Feedback, Great Memories
Christmas Craft Fair
Before Christmas, I decided to display my products at a craft fair. I signed up for one day of a regularly recurring fair, where visitors with the intention to purchase handmade products go. While I was watching the other exhibitors unpacking their products I thought nobody was going to approach my table. All other exhibitors were well experienced with serious equipment and nice decoration. But as soon as the fair started my doubts vanished. It was interesting to see how the passers-by recognized my cups, stopped for a second, took a closer look and walked over to my table. My first craft fair experience was unecxpectedly good.
Touristic Craft Fair
The fair went so well that I decided to take part in three more, so I participated in two types of fairs, two times each. One is more like an event where mostly locals go with the intention of shopping, especially before Christmas. The other, on the other hand, is in a place where tourists are constantly coming and going, without the intention of shopping. And although there I had to rely on impulse purchases, the result was just as great.
Customer Reactions
The eyes of passers-by were almost always caught by my ceramics, and many decided to take a closer look at them. Most people carefully looked at the animal cups, not daring to touch them. However, I quickly realized that they think that the animals are made separately, and I just glued them to each cup. In order to dispel their doubts, whenever somebody approached my stand, I grabbed one of the wings on the cup with parrots and shook the cup in front of them. "You can easily hold them, they won't break, the whole cup is a single piece of porcelain, it's fired in one piece" I added. Usually, at first everyone stared shocked at what I was doing with these delicate pieces, but after voting me their trust in the creator, the visitors also took the porcelain in their hands. They tried them, praised them, and luckily many of them purchased one or more products.
It would be hard to tell which design people liked the most. I sold many pieces of all designs, there is a model that only had one sale, yet, there is another model with ten, and there are two models a few pieces of which is even preordered for the next month as I had run out of stock at the market.
What’s even more: I gained some important experience.
Key Takeaways
Although with one of the models I only had one sale, a lot of people got hold of that one for first and praised it for a long time, but then chose other models to purchase. Next time I will try to find out if it was just because of its position on the table or if there was something else. I already got several orders of this model online and in person, so I did not experience the same thing with that elsewhere. In fact, I'm happy that it attracted attention which generated sales for other models. Maybe in an offline fair some items have different roles to contribute to the total.
Visitors typically didn't dare touching the No Planet B mugs until I showed them how strong they were. However, after dispelling their concerns, the animal mugs sold the most, despite the fact that they are my most expensive items.
Most people didn't buy my cups as gifts, but for their own use. I went to pre-Christmas fairs and asked everyone who they were looking for a present for, but most of the time the answer was that what they buy from me, they certainly don't give to anyone else. I would say about 70-80% of the purchases were for the shoppers themselves.
Those who purchased from me for someone else were very happy to find a special gift that they had not seen anywhere else and that was made for daily use. Well, if someone buys a cardigan for the price of one of my cups, it will change after the first wash, but in a year it will look completely different. However, a properly used porcelain cup will remain in the same condition after decades, making its user smile while remembering who the gift is from.
Especially in the tourist fair, one of the biggest dilemmas for my visitors was how to pack the cups to take them home. Fortunately, this did not deter many. I pack my cups carefully and stuffed with buffer material in a box so that they can survive the trip even if the suitcase is being thrown at the airport.
I showed this to those who voiced their concern. I can't even list how many tourists from different countries have purchased from me. Germany, UK, Italy, France, New York and California... But that's not even what is important.
When I think about how many people have chosen my products and how many places in the world my cups make their new owners smile, it fills my heart with a sort of satisfaction that I have not experienced before.