Just getting started with your craft business and wondering how to sell at craft fairs? Well you've come to the right place my babe. Selling at your first craft show can be exhilarating, exhausting, humbling, or even open you up to new opportunities that you could have never imagined.

At your first craft fair, you'll get to showcase your products to a brand new audience, connect directly with your customers, and get real time feedback that you can take into consideration to improve for next time and make even more sales.

It's an incredible way to get your work out there, get a taste of how people perceive your brand and make some quick cash (fingers crossed!) Keep reading to find out to plan out and max out the potential of your next craft show.

craft fair booth setup ideas — Photo: Renegade Craft

Choosing the Right Craft Fair

First thing's first: Not every craft fair is created equal. This is REALLY important to understand! (hence the caps).

Each craft show will have a unique audience, product selection and vibe. If you are an avid craft show attendee you will already know this.

Going to a giant craft fair with 100+ vendors in a convention hall in San Francisco is going to have a completely different crowd and feel than a 25 vendor street fair in Kennenbunkport, Maine (think sleepy beach town, older crowd).

Not only would the crowd, location and energy be different, but the types of products and the ideal price range might also shift. There are really so many aspects to consider for each show.

This is where knowing how to find your craft business niche and understanding your ideal customer is going to come in handy. Will your products and brand be interesting to the type of person that will be attending that specific show? Because if it's not a clear match, it might not work out great for you.

For example, selling quirky $8 alien themed bookmarks might go over well at a fair that caters to students and younger people because it has a lower price point and they would be more interested in quirky cute smaller items.

...but try and sell that same bookmark at a higher end show where the price point is much more expensive and the attendees are willing to drop hundreds on one perfect item...it will be out of place. (Also, they probably wouldn’t let you into the show in the first place lol).

One other thing to consider is when it comes to local craft fairs, you might find that your local crowd is just not your target audience at all. Your style might be considered very eccentric if you're from a smaller town. Don't let this discourage you.

Your ideal customers are out there, you just might have to work a little harder to find them. Start an online shop, or travel to a bigger city nearby where your designs will likely be more accepted.

So, for best results, before you put down a big deposit on a craft show booth, make sure to carefully evaluate whether the location, audience, price point, and type of craft fair are right for your brand and business.

Preparing Your Products and Presentation

Once you've picked out the perfect craft fairs, you'll have to make a few more really big, probably critical but no big deal kind of decisions ;)

The first of which is: What products should I bring to the show?

Hopefully you've already carefully selected the right fair based off of the compatibility with your brand, but you can definitely take that up a notch and curate it according to what you think will sell the best!

Think about the type of person that will likely be attending. Have you sold any handmade items to that type of person before? Maybe at another show or online? If so, what products were popular with them?

You will also of course want to bring your best sellers. Even if you've sold them only online so far, this is a good opportunity to test and see how they sell with another type of crowd.

Also consider which of your products play well together. If you have a best selling totebag as well as matching coinpurses, it makes sense to bring both instead of just one of those items.

Here's something that a lot of artists don't put enough thought into when it comes to selling your art at craft fairs: offering different price points.

When you have various products at multiple price points at your show, it gives your customer options...thus increasing the likelihood that they purchase!

Here’s how to set this up. Have a few lower priced impulse buy products available. These usually sell quickly at craft fairs and they add up fast.

Next, have some middle range products that cost a little more. These will likely sell more slowly. Listen to what the crowd is saying about the products and pricing when they walk through your booth. You’ll be able to pick up patterns and learn a lot.

Then lastly, have a third higher end product available. This might not sell at all during any craft show, but what it WILL be doing is anchoring your prices for your buyers. For example, someone visiting your craft booth might see your highest price product, immediately think 'Nope', but then look at your mid range product and think the price is much more reasonable.

If that high end product was not there, then your customer might have never considered your mid range product and gone straight to the lower priced items.

Creating this pricing structure creates a win win situation and will allow you to make more sales in the long run.

designing your booth

Ok now it's time to let your creativity go crazy! You get to design your setup for the show! But hold on...before you get out the glue gun and fake flowers, let's think this through. (I know, I know, I'm such a buzzkill).

Let's take it back to basics for one second and remember: Your craft show booth has one purpose alone - to help you make sales.

So any decision you make here needs to support that goal (yes even if it will mess up your amazing display ideas :)

Above all, your booth has to be functional. Potential customers should be able to walk in easily, view all your items easily (always a challenge with a crowded booth) and be able to purchase easily.

If your setup can't achieve that at a minimum, you might miss out on sales! And of course your goal here is obviously sales, and also to recover those pricey booth fees :)

Once you've established those basics, let's talk aesthetics!

It's time to make your craft fair booth setup the cutest one of them all. Except (here she goes again) in all your excitement, don't forget about your branding.

Remember when I was talking about branding for creative entrepreneurs?

Make sure you go back and review your branding doc so you can stay consistent with your colors, visuals, voice, signage, and all that good stuff.

The whole goal of creating that plan was to make things super easy for things like this! You won't have too many decisions to make now because you've already made most of them beforehand.

We could get into so much more detail here, but that's another post in itself! If you stick to those 2 tips above you'll be in good shape - everyone will be able to navigate your booth successfully and no one will be confused about what your brand is about (and you'll be ahead of the game!)

Making sales and building relationships

Payment Solutions

You picked the right show, you've set up a killer craft fair booth, and now you're making sales! All is right in the world. But make sure you're set up for success.

There's nothing worse than a customer walking up to your table, grabbing an item and saying, 'I'll take this one...do you take credit card?' and you not being able to take a credit card.

Same goes for accepting cash, debit cards, etc. Cash used to be king at in person art fairs, but these days it's crucial that you have a card reader on hand to accept credit and all forms of payment so you can get the transaction completed right on the spot.

One last thing to also keep in mind - if you keep a lot of inventory and are also simultaneously selling the same inventory in your online shop during the show, make sure to track your items carefully so that your online customers don't purchase a product that no longer exists. You can set your systems up ahead of time so that these two selling platforms don't cause problems later.

Customer Engagement Strategies

We've talked a lot about your booth setup, aesthetics, and what to bring to your craft show...but what about the 8 or so hours while you're there? What do you dooo with all that time?!

Hint, you shouldn't just be sitting and talking to your cute next door booth neighbor ;)

The best use of your time is to talk with your customer base. Every person that comes by your table is someone that could give you a little more insight into what they love about/or would love to see with your products.

So engage customers, have those conversations, and find out more about them and what they like. Especially those that are buying from you. Because guess what, knowing exactly who your customer avatar is is priceless.

Knowing this makes it easier for you to find them online, speak to them directly in social media, your newsletter, etc so that when they find your products online they read the description and think, 'it's like she read my mind.'

Marketing materials are also helpful to have on hand. Things to hand out like flyers, business cards, or even line sheets for wholesale accounts (you'll often find shops scouting for new vendors at craft shows!).

Make sure your handouts are on point with your branding, and they have all the right contact info including your socials and website so they can look you up easily online later.

logistics and legalities

Taxes. Permits. Licenses.

Did you just get the feeling that you're in trouble? Heehee…

I think we all experience this when we are unsure if we've set our business up the right way. However, making sure you comply with local sales tax obligations and other permits needed for selling at craft fairs IS very important, because you can be fined for ignoring these regulations.

A business license you only need to get once. Permits for craft shows? Depends on the show. Some craft fairs require a new permit for each show. Others, you can get for a whole season. Do your research to find out what you need to have on hand that day so you don't get shut down!

As for taxes, find out what percentage your local area charges for sales tax. When pricing your items, figure out exactly how this tax will be collected. Will you round your prices up a bit and charge 'no tax' to your customers? Or will you tack it on when you ring them up?

To ease your mind, it's ok if you don't get it right the first time...you'll learn with time. If you do catch a fine, you'll figure it out quickly! :)

after the show: follow ups and feedback

Once you've wrapped up your show, packed all your crafts up, and dragged everything back home, it's time to rest!

Jk, you still got some work to do (hey, remember you chose this life ;))

Ok, you can wait til the next day, but here are a few things you should focus on AFTER your big show:

1. Write down any customer feedback you received. Review it, look for patterns, decide what is noise and what is actually worth putting into action.

2. Follow up with any customers that made custom orders, or orders you couldn't fill at the show for any reason. Get this out of the way and expedited so you can overdeliver on lead time.

3. Update your email list with any info you collected and send out a thank you email. Consider sending a discount code for any customers that bought from you. Getting repeat buyers will help build customer loyalty and could help spread word of mouth to new potential customers too.

4. Optional: Send out a survey to collect feedback on your products. Keep it short and sweet and ask open ended questions so it encourages them to write what they really think. The more data you have for next show, the better!

frequently asked questions:

Are craft fairs worth doing?

It depends what your goals are, but in general, YES. Craft fairs are a great way for a new craft artist to see what products people like, learn more about their customers, network, and get comfortable selling in person before scaling up to larger shows like trade shows.

Follow the advice given above in the post to pick out the right craft fair for your specific business, customer, brand, and products.

Do I need a license to sell at a craft fair?

It depends on the local laws and regulations where you live. Before applying for any craft fair, read more about the requirements once accepted. Usually this can be found on the host's website. You will likely need some type of permit and business license, especially for larger scale shows.
However, don't let this discourage you from applying. This paperwork tends to be relatively inexpensive and quick to obtain!

How do you become a vendor at local craft fairs?

Every fair has different requirements so it varies. With many shows you can apply online and once accepted, pay your booth fee online as well. Some shows are hosted privately and are invite only. Once you become known in your area as a vendor and make some connections you might start getting invited to these events regularly.

You'll find that some shows are very competitive and will require quite a bit of information to apply. For example, you'll have to share your website, images of what you will sell, price points, links to your social media profile, and more.

Larger, more competitive shows will be more likely to limit certain types of vendors. There might be an excess of tshirt and jewelry vendors applying so if you're selling those types of items you'll have more competition. Where selling home decor is less competitive and you'll have a higher chance of getting accepted.

SHOULD YOU SELL AT CRAFT FAIRS?

To sum it all up - if you want to start selling at craft fairs, it's worth it if you can take the time to do your research, pick the right shows, set yourself up for success, make a little (or a lot!) of profit, and follow up with customers after the show.

You can make connections with people that last years, whether that's you're next door booth buddy, or someone who comes by to ask to write a blog about you (like happyfrenchgang did to me!)

You can also be presented with some amazing opportunities if the right people come across your work. Imagine your products being sold in shops!

I hope these craft fair tips have been helpful and you've learned a little more about how to sell at craft fairs so that you can go out there and make the most of your next craft show.

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How to Sell at Craft Fairs: The Ultimate Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs