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Results From The Experiment

11/27/2011

3 Comments

 
Picture
my simplified display and inventory at BAZAART
I'm back from my indie-craft experiment at BAZAART. It was definitely different from my usual show experience. I learned a lot! Some was good and some not so good. 

Here's what was good about it ... it was much easier to pack and set up for the show. Usually, packing pottery for a show is a complicated 3-dimensional puzzle, trying to get all of those pots of various sizes to fit into as few boxes as possible. It takes a while. Packing my simplified indie-craft inventory was a breeze. All the pots were small, and many were the same size. The entire inventory fit into two boxes, neither was full or very heavy. I was able to bring a smaller display. My usual display is three or four tables, plus two shelves. For this show, I brought two tables and one shelf. I only needed room for nine different items, and I could keep extra quantities stored until space became available. Two boxes of pots, and half my usual display fit so easily into my car. I could actually see out the rear-view mirror! Normally, packing the car is another 3-dimensional puzzle, but not this time. I set up the display in less than two hours. It usually takes 3 to 3.5 hours. I took it down in one hour. That usually takes 1.5 to 2 hours. Overall the good news is ... taking an indie-craft approach to pottery selling is a lot less work.

The show was very busy, about as busy as last year. I was writing up sales all day, and barely had a chance to sit down. But here's what wasn't so good about the results ... because all of my items were under $50, the grand total of sales just didn't add up to last year's. In fact, my sales were only 67% of last year's. That's a big drop! Last year, my sales included a $250 platter, a $175 vase, amongst other high-ticket items. This year, I didn't have a single receipt over $100. And that was the difference. Last year, the pricier items were 39% of my sales. This year, I didn't have them. 

Was it worthing trying? Yes, I needed to find out what would happen. But I'm not sure it's worth repeating. This doesn't mean I won't apply for other indie-craft shows, I still might. But only if I think my normal inventory would seem appropriate. 

This reminds me of one of my conclusions from The Hourly Earnings Project. When I compared the hourly rate of a big art festival vs. a small art festival, I decided that the small art festival was nice and easy, but anything worth doing takes a lot of hard work. I'll add a new, but related, conclusion now ... if you aim smaller, that's what you'll get. 
3 Comments
Vicki link
11/28/2011 02:30:53 am

Hi Mea, thanks for posting this follow-up! I was really interested by your last post to hear what the results were. Shows are so difficult to figure out, and they require so much work, I love that you ran this experiment. It's interesting that even though you were busy and sold a lot, the total money earned was so much less than before. I wonder how it would have turned out if you had added just a few of your more expensive pieces - would they have been purchased and added significantly to the bottom line, or would they have sat around as eye-candy while shoppers still purchased the less expensive things? It's crazy how much of a difference those big-ticket items make, one purchase gives more profit than ten smaller things, but of course they are harder to sell.
Very interesting, thanks again!

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Hilary Huntley link
11/28/2011 04:36:39 am

Hi, I feel like a lot of people attending my shows are torn between the $100 bowl that they really want and the $45 bowl they can afford. Having that higher price item on display seems to make it more reasonable for them to purchase the "expensive" $27 mug. There are always a few people who attend that are looking for a more pricey pot so I make sure to take a few....even to the Farmers' Market!! I find that even though most farmers' market type sales are under $50, there are always people looking for a wedding gift or a really nice thank you gift before they leave the island to go home. The range is the key for me.
I am very impressed by your display, the wonderful drapes, the sameness of the materials and table tops that make the clay stand out beautifully!! My big solo show was this past weekend and I had 15 tables with 15 different tablecolths on them!! Ug, i need to re-think this and work towards a more elegant display. thanks for posting and good luck with the final show of the season.

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littlewrenpottery link
11/28/2011 07:35:08 pm

I do like your simplified display, I think its really important to have items out that are different price points to suit every pocket. From the seriously expensive to the small inexpensive gift. Handmade should always be affordable!

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    Mea Rhee (mee-uh ree),
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