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Merchandising: Two Kinds of Demonstrating Tips To Help Boost Sales By Michelle Sholund - a CraftLister.com Craft Expert about page personal website  based on 109 ratings Viewed 1591 times Printed 4 times
Demonstrating at shows - there are two ways to demonstrate your products and how they are made at shows.
1. Hands-on/Making of products: This is a type of demonstrating that not only gets people's interests going, but draws a crowd and helps in sales. How does it help in sales? Showing that what you make is authentic and original shows off your unique selling point and talent without saying a word - perfect for those who just are introverts. Also it shows the promoter and other crafters that you are legit and do make your own things. The down side is not everyone can make their own products at shows - especially when you require electric, large tools and lots of extra supplies. What do you do now? Use pictures! One to two large photos of you doing smithing, woodworking, or sewing in your home shop is how you can skirt around this. Large photo signs are like billboards that just put people in a trance and want to take a closer look. The plus side is it is a good way to kill time at a slow show - it is better to look busy than be bored or hanging on to each person who passes by thinking "Are you going to buy?"
2. Merchandising. Merchandising is a way to arrange your products, generally in a subtle way, to highlight them and demonstrates how they can be used. Think about this - now a days when you walk in a mall what do you see at Bath and Body Shops, Victoria Secrets, clothing stores? Large posters and then a big display right up front of what their special is. It is what is used to draw people in and then browse to see what else is there. Does this make you want to come in and check out what the buzz is all about? Chances are it at least paints a picture in your minds eye o "That's different" or "Neat I wonder how much it is..." When it comes to merchandising you can create this at your booth by means of hands on merchandising or through photos.
Hands on means having a couple of one type of products on display (using different heights and props to enhance things all for the purpose of suggesting reason why someone may want to look at it and buy it. Say you sell soaps... Take a couple of bars and put them in a category say by scent... Next to those bars have flowers corresponding to that scent - like lavender flowers in a vase along side one bar of soap in a soap dish with a basket or tray of soaps for people to buy all together or using a towel lined basket with assorted soaps all loose to make people want to touch and see what the assorted fragrances are. Say you are a fiber artist - if you make scarves wear them or have a mini quilt on your lap at shows to demonstrate the durability of the quilts and how warm and soft they are. If your craft is in jewelry again wear them and talk about how light they are or whether they have heft and how they compliment different types of clothing - a great ice breaker for someone who is browsing at a jewelry booth is to say "Have you seen this?" and show off what you are wearing too. The other idea is to again use pictures to show how your products look on people, in a room of the house, in the garden, in a car, etc. When setting up your display incorporate pictures - a great size is 8x10 or 11x14 photos - with your products all grouped together next to each photo. Wood working and painted and photographed art sticks out in my minds eye on this one. If you make signs - take a few photos of where people would most likely display those signs, sculptures, or furniture and dress it up. Say you make wooden tables - have a few chairs with it and some table placings, maybe a simple centerpiece and shoot your pictures. This will show how functional your products are and plants the seed that "this is how this will look so good in your home." Same thing with photographers - a lot of times people are hung up on which room a photograph should go in. Through 1-2 photos of your best selling artwork in a person's house in two different rooms clearly demonstrate how some just one piece of your work is great in any room of the house - or office! Say you do dried flowers, take a photo of your garden or market where you get the flowers and have that with the finished product. That doesn't necessarily demonstrate too much but it does show what you do is genuine, homey and one-of-a-kind and better yet doing a before and after photo of arrangements side by side is better yet.
When you start (or have been selling at shows) a light bulb should go off in your head realizing that products don't sell themselves - the people who make them do and you have to know what people want in order to sell to them what you make. Demonstrating how you make your items, showing where you get your inspiration to create, and creating a "window" to how your products are used helps thus creating a bridge to get people to want to come in a booth and shop. The more people notice the more they will come in and browse resulting in sales. Good luck and happy demonstrating!
Michelle (Grammy) Sholund
Sholund Consulting, LLC
(crafts person, personal craft business consultant, promoter)
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