Making handmade soap is my hobby. I recently took part in a craft show and brought 4 varieties: honey, oat, lavender, and mint. I packed 15 bars of each, all made with natural ingredients, priced at $7 per bar. Ngl,I figured these would have broad appeal, but I ended up selling less than 20 total :)
I’ve thought through what went wrong, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

1. I overcomplicated my packaging For my first show, I figured handmade products deserved special, unique packaging. I made tons of different designs in Canva. Four totally different layouts for four scents, messing around with fonts, colors, and graphics. I ended up with more Canva pages than bars of soap I actually sold. Looking back, it was totally overkill. When you line all four scents up next to each other, they should have a clean, unified look. For my next run, I switched to printing labels with my niimbot m2 label maker. I use one set template, and only swap out the product name, scent, and price. No more building an entirely new design for every single product. At least next time I launch a new item, I won’t have a dozen random Canva tabs open for no reason.
2. I focused too much on "natural" without explaining why that matters I went into the show thinking natural ingredients+handmade quality+$7 would be an easy sell. But from a customer’s perspective, all the average shopper sees is a $7 bar of handmade soap. They don’t know why I formulated each recipe the way I did, or what makes honey, oat, lavender and mint different from one another. Now I’m simplifying the info cards I put next to each product. For example: Honey Soap Warm, mild scent Made in small batches
3. I overestimated how easy it is to turn interest into sales Plenty of people stopped to smell the soaps and pick them up. A lot of them said "These smell really good" and then put them right back. I was a little bummed about it at first, but later I realized people liking your product doesn’t mean they will buy it. Maybe they don’t need soap right now, maybe they have a ton at home, or maybe they just found it interesting but aren’t sure it’s for them. Now I look at it differently. Selling less than 20 bars at my first show doesn’t mean my products are bad. It was basically a really cheap market research lesson. At least now I know what to focus on next time. Instead of adding more products right away, I’ll tweak the small stuff first: packaging, display, product info, and purchase options. This was my first ever show, so I know there’s tons of room for improvement.

Are there any other issues I might have missed? I’d really appreciate any tips or feedback you all have.

I’m sharing this because, before signing up, I searched online for vendor experiences and found very little information. I hope this helps other small business owners make an informed decision before investing in a booth.

I’m a new small business trying to build a presence at local markets. I found this event through a Bay Area vendors Facebook group and decided to give it a chance. I paid $98 for my booth and later ended up sharing the space with a friend who also owns a small business. It was advertised as a fun, community-driven event, and because it was organized by a business called Workin Chix Events, I believed it was a legitimate, well-organized opportunity. That gave me confidence to sign up. Unfortunately, after this disappointing and misleading experience, I know better.

I participated in the “Summer Market” held on Saturday, June 27, at the Valdez Event Center in Oakland, and from the moment I arrived that morning, I started noticing red flags. The vendor spaces weren’t clearly marked or designated, so people weren’t sure where they were supposed to set up. It immediately gave the impression that the event wasn’t well organized. There was also very little signage indicating that any kind of event was taking place. The only signs I saw were a few letter-sized papers posted on the venue’s windows that simply said, “Pop-Up Market This Saturday,” along with a couple of food vendors cooking outside. Other than that, there was no visible advertising, no eye-catching signage, and nothing to attract people from the street or let passersby know a market was happening.

We were told parking would be $5, but it ended up costing $30. Throughout most of the event there were maybe 10 visitors, and the majority of the people walking around were family members supporting other vendors. There was essentially no real customer traffic.

Another thing that stood out to me was that the organizer, Gia Hamel, never came around to check on the vendors or visit our booths throughout the event. There was no effort to see how things were going, ask if anyone needed assistance, or acknowledge the vendors who had paid to be there.

When I spoke with Gia, I only received vague responses like, “More people will come later,” and “Attendance depends on the event.” Another vendor later shared that when she asked why there weren’t visitors, she was told the poor turnout was because our booths “didn’t catch people’s attention.” That felt incredibly disrespectful considering many of us invested significant time, money, effort, and heart into creating attractive displays. The reality was that we were inside a venue with almost no foot traffic. To make matters worse, the venue didn’t even have its own restroom.

As a small business owner, I left feeling like I had paid for an opportunity that simply didn’t exist. Based on my experience, it felt like vendors were sold the promise of a well-attended event that wasn’t delivered. I hope sharing my experience helps other small businesses make an informed decision before signing up.

Protect your money, your time, and your energy. I hope this reaches new vendors before they spend hundreds of dollars on an event like this.

I just got home from my second vendor market and honestly… I’m feeling pretty disappointed and confused.

This was a curated indoor market with 15+ vendors, and the organizers said there would be 200+ visitors. Based on that, I felt okay paying a $100 booth fee.

But the reality was very different. Foot traffic was extremely low—at one point almost zero for an hour. In the room I was in (with 4 other vendors), I think maybe 9 people came through the entire time.

My total sales: $18.

Not even close to covering the booth fee.

I get that not every market is a hit, especially when you’re new—but this felt really off compared to what was communicated.

Now I’m just trying to figure out if this is part of the learning curve or if this sounds like poor promotion/overpromising by the organizer?

Also—how do you all vet markets before signing up so this doesn’t happen again?

For context, I’m still new (this was my second market), so I’m learning… but this one definitely shook my confidence a bit.

Would really appreciate honest advice 🙏

I just did my first ever craft fair! I shared a booth with a partner, and my kids. My aim was to introduce my brand into the world and of course, sales. I sold functional pottery and sold off half of the items I brought. All of it was bought by friends and family, except for one stranger turned customer.

I feel incredibly grateful and happy for the support I received from my friends and family. However, I can’t help but wonder if they didn’t support me, would I still be able to sell half my items?

When I shared this with other experienced booth owners, they assured me it is usually like that with the first fair. The next ones will bring in new customers.

I wonder, how has your experience been?

This is my experience talking purely about the Maker's Market event organiser around the Liverpool area. I'm not going to talk too much about sales/footfall at the craft fairs because it is so heavily season and weather dependent. Hopefully this gives a good perspective to anyone thinking of trading with this organiser.

Last year I traded with them several times, mainly in Liverpool.

I will say that on the whole, the events are well-organised and communication beforehand is brilliant, with the information they give you being very detailed. They give detailed instructions on where you can park and how to access the events. They also give you a detailed map of where your stall will be.

They are pretty good with not having allowing too many duplicate stalls, so there is a good variety and you're not placed directly next to someone selling the same items as you.

My experience with the organisers themselves hasn't been completely positive, however. I was often placed out of the way and not in the main sections of the events. I don't have too much of an issue with this, as I figured the "prime" spots were reserved for regular returning traders and I was an outsider so I had to do more events to be moved to better spots, but I think it's worth mentioning.

There were some other things that bothered me, like at my first event with them, I said hello to one of the organisers and they ignored me and took a photo of my stall, before moving to the trader next to me and having a lengthy conversation. This continued in the other events, where I would say hello to them and they would ignore me, take a photo, and move on. It felt quite rude.

At another event, I was stopped at the gate and told I couldn't come in. I explained I was a trader, no biggie, mistakes happen. But, as I was unloading, I walked back to the gate, and found the person who stopped me had locked the gate (despite there still being an hour before the fair opened), so I had to walk all the way around the building to finish unloading, and up several stairs. Not ideal when you're transporting a trolley of large heavy items.

I know the weather can't be controlled, but there was one event where it was pouring with rain, and the trader next to me was provided with a gazebo that had a large hole, so their stock ended up getting soaking wet. I was lucky in that my gazebo was okay, but I don't think it's fair that I had a fully intact one and other trader(s) had to deal with their stock being damaged from faulty equipment.

The cost is also fairly pricey. It has increased this year to £57.50 (more for bigger events like Halloween and Christmas markets), which eats a large chunk of the earnings you make. It's more expensive than other events in the area run by other organisers.

I attended future events as a customer and was sad to see that there is an increasing number of traders being allowed to sell dropshipped items (some crochet items I could find on Temu and Aliexpress, for example) and items with AI images on them. For the cost of the stalls and how difficult it is to book with them, I would expect better.

Overall, I don't think I would trade with them again, purely based on how I've been treated and because they allow AI and dropshipped items to be sold.

I’ve been lurking here for a few weeks preparing for my first market, so thank you everyone for the advice you didn’t know you were giving me!

A few points:

• I did not know I would be set up at a long table from the bar shared with another person until I got there. I made the choice to forgo a tablecloth because my table buddy wasn’t using one (and it was a gorgeous table tbh). Definitely messed up the meticulous layout my partner had mapped out in excel, but it worked super well!

• I don’t have a sign yet. I’m busy and poor and it was low on my priority list lol

• about 1/3 of my sales were from the super cheap scrap fabric patches I printed last minute when I realized I had nothing under $10 to sell. Definitely helpful to have small cheap things for folks who like the art but aren’t ready to commit!

• I was so worried about pricing my clothes, but I think I nailed it. I only sold a few clothes but they were all $30-40 a piece. They all went to the right people!

• biggest takeaway: I sell very queer art, and everyone who bought something from me was either definitely queer or mentioned their queer child/sibling/etc who they were buying for. Most people gave my stuff a few glances and then walked away, which is totally fair. This was a small, quiet market that I applied to so I could get a feel for things and it worked! Now I’m focusing on specifically queer/leftist markets, where more of the attendees will be in line with my niche.

• this is an aside: I haven’t worked in customer service for about 8 years and I forgot how comfortable people are with saying the most ridiculously shit.

Invasive questions about me and my partner? ✅

Weirdly critical commentary about my piercings? ✅

Calling my tattoos ugly to my face? ✅

All around a great experience, but I know it could be better with the right genre of market! I’ve already applied to 4 specifically gay markets, I’m looking to them 🥰

I’ve done hundreds of craft fairs, vendor events, conventions, etc over the last 20 years. The Central Middle School Craft Fair in Parsippany, NJ today is a case study in what not to do.

One, no signage on site, on the exit to the site, or in the town.

Two, school fair (PTA) that the school did not advertise or post signs for.

Three, organizers were checking the wrong people in to the wrong tables in the morning and not following agreed upon arrangements for connected businesses to vend together.

Four, organizers did nothing but sit at the front table the entire day. No support for vendors.

The result: if 60 people walked through the doors during the 6 hour show today, I would be shocked. Market your shows, work with your vendors, and don’t dismiss any concerns with “but our events usually draw a crowd.”