Selling at Markets: What I’ve learned

I thought it would be super helpful to lay down all the lessons I’ve learned so far from selling at markets in London this summer!

I approached these events knowing I would learn a lot from each one, and so I stared off as bare bones as possible with the potential to make decisions and alterations based on real life lessons.

What I wanted to learn was a) how to display my work and b) what would sell!

I’m still learning now, but I have found a way to narrow down my stall to display my best work in the best way I know how!

THE DISPLAY

From the beginning I knew I would be making changes in response to everything new I learned during these markets. For this reason, I started my market without buying any new decor.

I thought it would be too easy to spend money on lots of official looking stands, displays and signs - but then be in trouble if the sales weren’t coming in!

I also wanted to have a specific reason for each new thing I added to the stall - allowing me to fully understand what I would be doing with each element.

I had an IKEA pegboard that I had used previously as a spice rack (I had intended to use it in my art studio but had never set it up). It was the perfect starting point to add variation to the table!

As well as that, I had wooden boxes and other items like that around the house that were just organisers that could be temporarily taken away.

Rather than buying table runner with my signage (that I was sure I would want to change quite qucikly) I hand-made and painted my own sign out of coloured paper that suited the colour scheme I wanted to create in my display! I feel this was a great choice, to showcase a level of care within the artworks people would be buying.

The only things I had bought was months ago - a wooden ikea plate holders that had been propping up my smaller paintings in the art studio and a green ikea blanket that would act as my table cloth for the stall!

Now that I had secured the beginning display items, all I had to do was create the products!

THE PRODUCTS

This part was harder than I expected. It feels like it’s impossible to know which artworks will strike a chord with people!

While I had lino prints that were limited - mostly due to the nature of lino prints taking longer to make than giclee art prints - I had a huge number of paintings I wanted to turn into art prints.

Since I was unsure, I felt like it would be ideal to only sell A5 giclee art prints at the beginning, with only two in stock of every design I chose, and there were a lot of designs!

This way, I would note down every sale I made, and that design would be allowed to turn into an A6 or A4 size - adding variation in my products for sale.

Some artworks that sold surprised me! Others didn’t.

Doing real-life market research really helped me understand who my customers are, what they like, and what they’re looking for!

THE MARKETS

Now I was ready. I had my display set up and I had my products.

All I had to do was take it all there and sell!

FIRST MARKET

What I learned:

• Market stalls can easily look cluttered and overwhelming! I thought that variation would be better than strict order, but I realised that more order was needed than I expected.

• Wind can blow away the stickers easiliy! I used the spice rack shelves to shield them from the wind later on.

• The colourful art prints were standing out much more against the black and white lino prints, drawing people in.

• Transporting the stock was going to have to be perfected. I thought carrying one strong box would be good - but it was so heavy! Paying for a taxi would have completely covered whatever profit I would have made, so getting public transport to and from these places was a must.

• In the future I aim to figure out how to make all this fit into backpacks while also making sure everything is secure and not knocked around!

SECOND MARKET

What I learned:

• At the last market I was one of only a few art stalls (the others sold soap, photography, crocheted tops etc). The theory we had was that customers wanted to support and buy from multiple stalls but withought breaking the bank, where as at the last market they had fewer options for art to chose from and would splurge on an art print.

• My gouache paintings seem to be a crowd favourite! Learning this has helped me understand more about my style and given me some direction in my artworks.

• Having the misprints available to buy for cheap may lessen the value of my products in general. While I didn’t want to waste them, they were so cheap that it may have deviated people away from buying a proper sticker in favour of a mis-cut one.

• My stall’s table cloth (really a blanket from ikea I’ve had for years) is quite small and doesn’t cover a 6ft table!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’ve now had a few more days selling at markets and it’s been such a whirlwind of activity I can’t document every market day I’ve had this summer! However, it’s always an upward curve moving towards better :)

I’m so looking forward to selling at more markets! Above all, what I learnt was that I enjoyed doing this!

I had been worried that this would be tiring, scary, and difficult to do. I thought I would perhaps be awkward and maybe put people off by coming on strong.

Instead, I felt at ease - chatting to customers and vendors alike and even getting some advice from them, making connections!

Even if you’re not applying this to selling at markets, my advice is always to try try try. You might worry that something won’t work out - but you will not know until you give it a go!

It’s always good to remember that you’re never expected to start off perfect, and if you try something and don’t like it, you can also leave it be!

Now that I know I have a knack for chit chat and selling, I’ll be doing it so much more!

See you at more markets in the future!!!