Craft Fair–How Many Pieces?
I am thinking of entering a craft fair in August. It’s sponsored by a well-known local magazine at a well-known downtown venue and should be fairly well attended. It lasts for 12 hours. I make rosaries and prayer bead sets ranging in price from $12 to $200 or more, mostly on the lower end of that scale. What do you think is the minimum number of pieces I should make for the fair? I’m not worried about making too many, because I can put what I don’t sell at the fair on my Etsy store. Advice, please…
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I’d suggest only one rosary at the $200 level, 2 for $100.
Maybe 25 at the $12 range, then 20 @ $15, 15 @ $20, 10 @ $30.
That’s $1500 of sales, maybe $500 inventory, assuming 2/3 labour.
I have two approaches to craft fair inventory.
Approach 1. Start with the cost of having a booth at the fair. I want to make at least twice that much money, so that I come out without a loss. Then I figure that if I’m lucky, I’ll sell 10 percent of what I bring. So I need to bring inventory in a dollar amount that is 20 times the cost of my booth.
Approach 2. Unless you are at an extremely well targeted show for what you are doing, you can expect approximately 1 out of every 100 people to actually look at your booth with any interest. If your product is good, and your prices right, you might sell an item to a third of them. So start with the number of people expected and try to have enough in inventory for that number divided by 300 or so. (For a really big show, that won’t be possible, but you probably won’t have as high a sales rate either. Only so many people can fit into a booth in a 12 hour period, and if too many try, most will walk away without buying.)
Items under $20 sell the best at craft shows.