First "big" show

I am stepping out of my comfort zone and doing a pretty big event. It is to take place at a "prestige" mall. I normally only do art & craft shows that rage between $30 and $125. This one is a couple hundreds. I am thinking that I should focus more on gift sets instead of individual products since this show will be 6 weeks before Christmas this way I can make my money faster rather then trying to sell hundreds of soap bars. BTW I do have other things then just soap. lol

First question: What price ranges should I be setting?

Second, I have no clue how to display for this. Normally I am confined to a 10x10 canopy that would have 3 walls up unless I am in a corner spot and have 2 walls up. I will not have any walls for this. Not to mention, no place to display my banner that normally goes on the front of the canopy.

The picture is an example of what my outside events look like. This is a picture of when I first started and have much more product now. I am thinking of making some fitted sheets for the benches in black and flared in the back so that i can conceal materials and extra products.

I am thinking that I should have something showing the company's name but have no clue where to place it. I have already emailed the company hosting the event for example pictures but that was pretty late so hopefully i will get a response tomorrow. I imagine that the location of the spaces would be like in the middle isle.

BTW, I have until the second week of November to get ready for this event. Any suggesting on display, products to sell, pricing and etc will be appreciated.

First of all - I LOVE your jars. Just like soap, I love everything glass. Gift sets are a great idea. Maybe even a few extravagant baskets in the $75-100.00+ range. Even if you don't sell too many, I think they would provide great visual appeal. I would suggest a price point for everyone. Maybe some small samplers for $10-15 for the office party gift exchanges; $20-30 for friends gifts, $40-50 for spa gifts for mothers & daughters. You could possibly have a section where people could put together their own set - "choose 3 for x". If you can find some inexpensive Christmas bags with tissue paper you would be set. Just my 2 cents. Have a wonderful, successful event - Maybe Momma can get herself a nice something for Christmas after all of her hard work.

Thanks Cindy. All your ideas are great and will be using them. I just found out that my daughter's boyfriend works at this mall and he said that the area is upper class. So I will surly be doing some up the extravagant baskets too. They are looking at having 50000+ in attendance so I am sure that I could sell a few. I am so excited, I have an event every weekend until this event and for Mama's hard work, I am looking to gift myself a Surface Pro 3.

For where to place your company name - Could you make a frame to hold your banner from? Then you could place it either behind you/your products or maybe to the side in a way people could see. Perhaps just a square/rectangular frame with perpendicular pieces at the bottom to keep it from knocking over. Could be made out of PVC or wood. Or, going off of your picture above, attach a frame that goes from the left edge of your left (back) stand to the right edge of your right (back) stand with a piece across the top, and hang your signage from that. I really hope that makes sense!

As for pricing, I would take your normal items at their normal price and let people build their own gift package, with a discount on the price of the items used. Take along a few exmaple ones. That way people can buy one or two items if they want, or they can buy a gift package which saves them money but only contains items that they want to buy.

I like the buy 3 for x or 5 for x I know I'm the type of person that would buy more because of that.

I agree with letting them create their own gift package. I've mades some in the past and have found that they aren't always good sellers. People like to pick out what they want. I have small plastic bags with a snap and a bow on them and they can fit 3 soaps or a sugar scrub and soap etc. That works so much better.

Creating own baskets

I love all the ideas especially the ones of people creating their own packages. I already started preparing for some packages pre-made. But for "make your own" think I will go with

Small Package:
Pick 1 soap
Pick 1 scrub
Pick 1 body balm
Get Loofah Pad
Get Soap Dish

and so on....

What is in your large jars?

Not sure if this will help, would pvc tubing work for your sign? Kinda like make a square base (x2) and then get large tubing, slightly smaller so they can be inserted and not have to struggle with getting them in/out, maybe even drilling holes and inserting screws so they would fall into the other pvc tubing. Not sure if I read what type of sign you have, so I not sure if this would work for you. This would work if you have grommets.:idea:

Aroma Rocks

Spice said:

What is in your large jars?

Click to expand...

The glass jars are Aroma Rocks/Crystal Potpourri. I made then after I realized that I did not have enough soap/body products for an event. They are now my biggest sellers.

Iluminada said:

The glass jars are Aroma Rocks/Crystal Potpourri. I made then after I realized that I did not have enough soap/body products for an event. They are now my biggest sellers.

Click to expand...

aroma rocks/crystal potpourri, sounds good, is there a link on how to make them?

So you will not have a table at all? I'm just trying to visualize what your space will look like. If you had a table, you could display your banner across the front of it. You could also make a stand, like in this video, http://youtu.be/4U3C5RLTntg and hang the banner at the back of your space.

It's hard to tell from the picture exactly how big your display pieces are, but I'm thinking that many people don't like to have to bend down to look at an item. That's why you always read about using elevation, even on a table, to bring your items up to eye level. Could your display pieces work on top of a table? The display pieces are lovely, but I think raising them up somehow could only improve sales for you.

As far as gift baskets/sets. They have never been good sellers for me. Even at holiday season. Not sure why. Single bars go like crazy, the gift baskets just sit there. I have had some luck with smaller gift sets, like a four pack of different beer soaps, and I'm still working on coming up with some gift sets that work, but that's been my experience over a number of years.I agree with the buy so many and get one free idea, I offer those deals, and they always go over well. Good luck to you!!!

The 'make your own gift set' really appeals to me and my craft-fair posse provided it is easy enough to carry and ship. At the last one we went to, I noticed that we are all drawn to booths that already had a bunch of shoppers and excitement going on (like a sample feeding frenzy). We spent the most time (and money) making our own gift sets of homemade edibles. Each of my daughters got a gift for themselves and their boyfriends' moms. The gift sets were packaged in a box with paper shreds on the bottom like the kind you'd see from hickory farms.

I think the same thing might work for soaping-related booths.

I am another one that finds gift baskets just do not work. Customers like to pick and choose. Have a few nice bags/boxes or baskets available if someone wants to make up a set.

For your sign, try getting a big poster frame from Michaels (with a 40% off coupon, of course!), and making a sign to go in it, then sitting it on an inexpensive artist's easle.

For your space, depending on how big it is, can you bring your tent and take the canopy off? They still make great space definers, even inside.