How to Connect With Customers and Make the Most of Your Next Market
Amplify your marketplace presence
For the last three years, I’ve been hiding in my cave of an at-home office and strictly selling online for my e-commerce store. Thank goodness for the USPS and at-home package pickups, because my extroverted energy has downshifted into an introverted hibernation during the pandemic. But this winter my hibernation finally ended.
Preparing my intentions for 2023 using the Being Boss Intention Setting resource, I realized I thrive around other people and knew I had to make some changes to my workspace and sales methods. Excited to meet my community in person I started to sign up for selling at curated markets.
As an e-commerce store, I’m thrilled to have a physical presence in a curated community of small businesses where I can connect with shoppers in person. Since I’ve never had an actual storefront, taking part in a market is a great opportunity for me to connect with buyers and other businesses, and I want to make the most of sharing a physical space with them all.
If you’re a fellow creator that is ready to pull down your mask and share your smile and goods with the community at a spring market, here are some ideas to amplify the presence of your traveling storefront.
Sign them up on the spot
Let’s start with something simple that every booth should have, a sign-up sheet. Capturing email addresses isn’t just for pop-ups on your website, they are an opportunity to stay connected. If you’ve picked the right market to participate in, ideally the hard part of finding interested customers is already done and the day is spent starting conversations with curious shoppers. Make sure you hold on to them by having some way to capture their email address. You can walk them through signing up on their phone while they are at your booth, or go old school with a clipboard and pen. Whatever you do, keep the conversation going after they leave your space.
Welcome repeat buyers
Use your booth as a way to meet people from your current newsletter list. I send out newsletters weekly and share more than coupon codes and product updates. Being on my newsletter list offers peeks into my life including raising my kids, rituals for each season, and the good and hard sides of being an entrepreneur. In my vulnerability, I’ve found some lovely pen pals every week. We have only spoken online, but it feels like such a personal connection. Fostering those relationships, I’ve made sure to invite them personally to any in-person shopping opportunities. If they do come, I will have goodie bags set aside for them. I want to thank them for being a part of my journey and for letting me be a part of theirs.
Compliment complementary businesses
If you’re part of a market that has a variety of other sellers, think of ways to connect with complementary businesses. Based on what you sell, find some other businesses you can point your customers toward that would support your journey together. This is all about being a resource to the community you’re in at the market.
Do your homework ahead of time and review what other businesses will be there. Introduce yourself and let them know you’ll be sending customers their way because of your connection. Maybe you’ll even find your new business bestie.
If you are selling mugs, look for a shop selling coffee or tea. If you are selling earrings, you could point your customers to other accessories nearby. If you’re proud of being a locally made product with a physical storefront, perhaps you print out a checklist with other shops in your physical vicinity so that a customer can make a future trip of visiting all of you at the same time.
Engage their kiddos
As a parent, I tend to bring my kids when I go shopping at markets. If your audience includes parents, you may want to consider making space for their kids too. Do you have space to include an activity for kids? Does your product translate to little ones in some way? This can be such an open-ended exercise that stretches your creativity muscles.
At markets, I sell wellness tools like tarot cloths, decks, and magical sticker sets. I leave out tumbled crystals and kid-friendly tarot cards for families to interact with on a shared altar space at my booth.
If you don’t have items that are very child-friendly, you can also use your raw material to make a kids’ activity. Make clay earrings? How about putting some model clay out for kids to sculpt while their parent tries on a pair? Do you sell paintings? Can you leave out colored pencils and a custom black and white printout for kids to color while their family is perusing your work?
Go beyond a table
Most markets allow you to use your square footage any way you want. Stand out and get creative with yours. While the majority of businesses lay out as much product as possible on a covered table, consider some other ways to present your brand. Make the space your own. Go beyond the walls of your booth and consider how your customers will use your products in their everyday life. Use your space to transport them to an environment that embodies your brand.
Sell mugs? Can you set up your booth like a breakfast nook at home? Amidst coffee machines and sugar packets, display your mugs as if they’re already using it in the morning. Make a tarot deck? Set up your space like an altar and display your card of the day and offer one-card pulls as people walk by. Paint the picture for them already working with you.
Lean into social media
Give your booth a social media presence. Imagine the composition of your booth as part of a social media post. Is there an element of your brand or products that can be blown up to help it translate on camera? Photo-savvy shoppers are always looking for an interactive element to insert themselves into. Do you have something that could find focus in their feed?
There are so many ways to connect with your customers in person, and joining a market may be a great addition to your sales channels. If you are signed up at a spring market, or considering paying for a booth soon, I hope you can use these ideas to make the most of your marketplace presence to go beyond your booth.
