vending at mural fest

Last weekend I packed up big a suitcase full of wooden displays, curtains and tablecloths as well as a VERY SMALL box of crystal tiaras and gave vending at an art market another whirl. If you recall I tried it once last summer and it was a total bust, but this time it went a little bit better. This market was part of a larger event (the Vancouver Mural Festival) with a street party, bands, a beer garden, and food vendors with thousands of people in attendance.

I was pretty anxious at the start of the day that it would turn out to be a waste of time & money, but in the end it was pretty successful for me. I debuted a couple new products (two different style of barrettes) which I almost completely sold out of, and also sold about 1/3 of the tiaras I brought with me. It was pretty exhausting (I’d forgotten what it was like to have a job where you have to stand up for most of the day!) but all in all it was a pretty great experience. I would definitely consider doing more events like this!

Some things I learned from this market…
– Have a variety of products at a range of price points! I actually already knew this (from selling both full-size and mini-size banners, remember those???) but with the new barrettes it was starkly obvious. The crystal tiaras are beautiful (sorry for tooting my own horn but… u kno) and pull people in, but not everyone has a lot of tiara occasions in their life, so a smaller & impulse-purchase friendly item at a lower price was a great way to still make a sale.
– Short haired people like crystal hair accessories too, and while I’ve been planning on making headband-style crowns for a while I haven’t gotten around to it yet and I’m KICKING myself because I feel like those would have been good sellers as well.
– Don’t drink an extra large americano with like four shots of espresso when you are already anxious/nervous because you WILL have regrets.

For now I’ve listed all the rest of my unsold new merchandise in my shop and will be adding more (including barrettes) as I make them, as well as new hairpick-style tiaras I came up with this week for a customer’s wedding.

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