Shop listing and going to craft fairs, tips wanted

I am sewing like crazy over the past few weeks , getting ready for my craft fairs. And my problem is that I can’t list the stuff, because if it sells, I won’t have enough, but if i don’t list it may not sell at the fair…arghghg
Neither folksy shop nor craft fairs have been very successful, but then out of a blue i have a sale, or one fair just happens to almost make me rich :wink:
I want to stick to fairs cause that seams to bring custom orders, and hopefully my leaflets will bring a few people to folksy, but at the same time i just want to have plenty in my shop, at the moment it doesn’t reflect what i make and what i have for sale.
How do you juggle it? Do you have separate stocks?
Any tips wanted :smile:
xxxx

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Which outlet do you stand a better chance of selling your wares at? For me it is always craft fairs so I take new stock to those first and then if it doesn’t sell I list it on folksy. I spend Jan / Feb listing all the stuff I made Oct/ Nov for all the christmas markets. Also how long is it going to take you to photograph and list your items properly - would that time be better spent making more stock for the fair?
If you want custom work is it going to be better to have a wider range of stock to tempt people with? Again I would suggest taking stock with you to fairs over listing it on Folksy if that is the case.
You could always list items but then put a long enough lead/ shipping time so if it sells via Folksy you can make it to order so to speak. This would only work if you can get/ have enough of the material to make a second one but would protect your stock levels to take to fairs. Most of my items are one offs - I couldn’t replicate them if I wanted to as the pattern on the stones is unique and I’ll never find another the same - so I put my shop in holiday mode so that I can’t sell the same item twice.
Hope that is in someway useful.
Sasha

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There is a setting one.your listings were you can.hide items.
So I hide whatever items iv taken to the fair then if they sell I replace the item on folksy with another by editing the item.
And then make it so ppl can see it agian.

I do much better at craft fairs. bit I’m still fairly new on here. I started last September /November time.

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Hiding individual items is good, as hobbitgirlie suggested, or another way is to put your entire shop on “Holiday” settings before you leave for the fair and switch off as soon as you get back, removing whatever items you’ve sold. This is quicker if you have a lot of items, and Folksy browsers can still see the type of products you have, even though they can’t buy at that point.

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I agree with @NightOwlCreative and @hobbitgirlie1880 just hide the ones you want to take to the craft fairs. I’ve started doing that more often now. Before we had this facility I used to put the whole of my shop on Holiday mode.

I take all of my stock (300+ pieces) to fairs hence putting the entire shop in holiday mode - jewellery is small so I can get most of it on a 6 foot table and still looking good and then have a few in reserve to fill the gaps when I sell something. I can sell 10-15% of my stock at a good fair and due to natural variation of stones and handmade beads I feel that I couldn’t replicate a piece close enough to be happy selling it with the original photos/ listing for at least half my stock. Having bought stones where the one I’ve recieved doesn’t match the photo on the website and been very disappointed I wouldn’t want to disappoint any customer by the item not exactly matching the photos and with my plus account there is no cost associated with generating a new listing rather than editing an existing one (and the chances of me forgetting to change something when editing a listing is quite high).
But yes if you can’t take all of your stock or you have items that can be easily remade then just hide the ones that you take and can’t be remade so that some of your shop stays open and can be bought from.

Thank you all, these are all very helpful tips.
I think what I will do now is just take the items to fairs and list what i have not sold. Or list it as made to order, hence it may be slightly different due to fabric availability.
And I am still working out what is selling on fairs, so far it has been all over the place…
Thank you all xxx

I list everything on Folksy and then put my shop in holiday mode while I’m at fairs so that I can remove anything that has sold before putting my shop back on line. My feeling is that I want to sell what I make and I don’t really mind where it sells. If by some miracle I suddenly sell loads of my stock just before a craft fair then so be it - I will have less to take to the fair but at least I have made a sale. If you hang onto items just to take to the fairs then you are limiting your sales options. Mind you I do have the plus account so it doesn’t cost me to list everything.

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I agree with Roz, I don’t care whether it sells here, on other sites or at fairs, I just want to sell it. If it means I don’t have so much stock to take to fairs, that’s not a problem, as long as I have some.

On the day of the fair, I put my shop in holiday mode, so I don’t have to worry about what I’m taking, what’s being sold etc. I check all my stock back in again at the end of the day and update my shops before ‘opening’ them again.

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Ok, now I have a plan, for this and the next craft fairs :slight_smile:
holiday mode sounds like a very good idea.
Tx xx

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try listing them as made to order items. that way you can still list them for people to see. and you can have the item for the craft fair.

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I tried the holiday mode while doing a stall yesterday and I think it works better.
Thankyou for telling me about it.

Good to hear, @hobbitgirlie1880, I hope your fair went well.

Julie

Hello Julie.
Yes my fair went well.
I sold lots of items. I’m about to put my shop in holiday mode so I can give it a good sort out.
And hopefully get some better pictures now the sun has come out to say hello.

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