If you are in the market literally to get a market stall set up so that you can sell your new product, then you need these sales tips. Success doesn’t come overnight for anybody, especially if you have a small business. There is actually a 50/50 shot that your small business is going to fail in the first year, but if you have the right networking, the right contact and the right rapport with customers.
You’re less likely to fail. If you’re looking to launch your label or even test the market for a range of creative products, then a market stall is the first way that you should be looking to showcase it. You can gain feedback from your customers and it will be the first step towards opening up your very own brick and mortar shop. Before you take that plunge, start investing in a great quick serve POS system to make your customers payments easier. You need to feel confident that you’ll have a successful market experience. Below we’ve put together a list of tips to help you to make sure that that will be the case.
- Research. You can’t just up your own market stall and start selling. You have to research the type of market you would like to attend and not all markets will suit every brand or product. You need to know that the market that you are attending can cater to the customer base that you’ve been looking for. Not all markets are going to work for your particular product, so if you’re selling jams, you want to find one that is about local artisan foods.
- Really think about what you are selling. You need to have a wide range of items. Let’s go back to the jam idea. If you’re selling homemade jams, make sure that you’re also selling homemade bread so that people can try samples of the jams while they are at your store. You could include marmalades and you can even include honey.It’s important to show people that you’re not just a one product business. You have to show diversification.
- Practice makes perfect. Measure out the stool space that you’re allowed and set it up in your driveway or your backyard. You want to be able to judge it and ask others to judge it for you before you start your market day. Once you’re happy with it, take photos because this is going to save you time on set up for the day because then you’ll be able to match it exactly. You can also check that everything fits into your allocated spaces so that you know you’ve got all the room you need.
- Know what you’re going to charge. We talked about setting up a POS system when you are selling at a market and there’s a reason for that. You need to know what you’re charging, but you also need to be able to accept card payments and not just cash. Not everybody asks what the prices are. They’ll happily just whip a card out, but they also need to be transparent in pricing your products. Need to display the pricing in a way that suits your brand and you need to be able to accept a multitude of payments so that people don’t feel like they have to say no because they’re not carrying cash.
- Create good signage. If you want people to identify your stall then you need to have good signage. That signage needs to be an extension of your existing brand and it should be cohesive across your website and in person. Signage matters if you want people to identify your stall easily.
- Think about your branding. Remember, as we said, you’re branding is an extension of your product. What does your signage look like? What about your packaging? If these things aren’t matching then people aren’t going to be thinking about your brand when they are receiving your goods. Your colour theme, your typography and everything else has to be able to reflect you and what you’re trying to sell.
- Have market specials available. You need an incentive to your customers to attend the market that you are trading at. Limited or special offers can help to do this and especially if they are only available in person, it’s a good way to pull customers in and get that face to face connection with them.