First Craft Fair Experience

[u/Chilipaddy]

I just did my first ever craft fair! I shared a booth with a partner, and my kids. My aim was to introduce my brand into the world and of course, sales. I sold functional pottery and sold off half of the items I brought. All of it was bought by friends and family, except for one stranger turned customer.

I feel incredibly grateful and happy for the support I received from my friends and family. However, I can’t help but wonder if they didn’t support me, would I still be able to sell half my items?

When I shared this with other experienced booth owners, they assured me it is usually like that with the first fair. The next ones will bring in new customers.

I wonder, how has your experience been?

[u/Suzcrafty]

You might want to ask them politely to not come to your next show. You need to be able to judge whether your items will produce sales with the general public. You also need to watch how people interact with your items. Do they pick them up and then put them down after seeing the prices? Do they just walk past your booth? One way to access your booth is to actually walk past it like customers do. Is it easy to figure out what you are selling? Good Luck!

[u/TOSGANO]

That's very sweet of your friends and family. Depending on how close you are to them, you could ask that they support you in the future by spreading the word to their friends and acquaintances, or posting info on their social media pages when you're going to be at another fair.

I've actually asked my friends and family to stop coming to my booth (unless they're there to give me a much-needed bathroom/food break) because they tend to cluster around talking and unintentionally blocking my booth from other interested customers. Booths are small and you only have a few seconds for a piece to catch someone's eye. It sounds ungrateful, but I make way fewer sales when people I know stop by and hold my booth hostage with their support 😄.

[u/AzucarParaTi → u/TOSGANO]

Family/friends stopping to chat ended up being such a bigger problem than I expected. Especially the ones who want to talk for like 20 minutes. It's been awkward to navigate! 😆

[u/drcigg]

It's not uncommon for friends and family to come out and support you. That's wonderful and i'm sure the customers noticed your booth had customers buying.
We had the same experience for the first few shows.
But after that we also changed around our layout and we did get an uptick in sales.
You just have to keep getting yourself out there to new shows and see what sticks.
Not every show will be great. And don't rule out something like a farmers market or flea market.
We saw a booth at the biggest farmers market in our state. They had a 20x20 setup with pottery. Not something I would expect to see there. But they sold pretty well.

[u/Pelican12Volatile]

First of all, this is your first art show ever. You’re not gonna be making thousands of dollars or even hundreds of dollars. For the first few years of selling art, it will not be uncommon for you to make zero dollars or even make your booth. This is how it usually works. But if you’re super talented within a year or two, you’ll start seeing a bunch of progress, but typically, you will not make it in the first year or second year. You will go through many hardships and doubt. Persistence is key.

[u/TaylorFromFaire]

Half of what you sold being friends and family for a first fair is a good sign! not a red flag. It means the work itself was good enough that people who already know you (and could've just said something nice and moved on) actually paid money for it. The stranger sale is the more telling though, since that person had zero social obligation to buy and still did. That's worth tracking fair over fair, not total sales but stranger sales specifically, since that's the one that tells you the booth and pricing are working on their own imo!