How To Cross Merchandise in a Craft Show Display

Imagine I have a loaf of bread I want to sell you. But you don’t really need a loaf of bread.

Has showing you the bread inspired you to buy it or given you ideas for what to make with it?

Your mind might wander to a few popular recipes that use bread: french toast, stuffing, bread pudding…

But on the spot, you probably don’t have a clear idea of what you’d make or the other ingredients you’d need to make it.

What if I place cheese, butter, and a can of tomato soup next to that loaf of bread?

Now you might be thinking about a grilled cheese sandwich.

By grouping those four items together, I’m helping you fill in the blanks and getting you to imagine how you can use my product.

I’m basically spoon-feeding you a meal idea that makes the bread more enticing and encourages you to buy more than just the bread.

This is the power of cross merchandising.

And you should be applying the merchandising technique to your craft show display.

What is cross merchandising?

Cross merchandising is a strategy that places complementary products next to each other to help tell a story and encourage each shopper to buy more than one item.

Bread on its own is a little uninspiring and doesn’t “tell a story” (i.e. inspire a meal).

If you’re not sure what you would make with the bread, you’re less likely to buy it.

But if you have a clear picture of what you can make (and can imagine how it will taste and smell), you’re more likely to buy the bread and the other ingredients. 

The goal of cross merchandising is to sell multiple items to one customer.

If you think about a grocery store, you’ll find all breads grouped in one section, all cheese in another section, soups in another aisle, etc. Products are cross merchandised on endcaps or free-standing display fixtures and pull items from different sections that work together to make a meal.

 

How to choose products to cross merchandise

When choosing products to display or merchandise together, start with:

1 – Products for the same customer

Your products may all be for a specific target market, but you likely offer options to appeal to different segments of that target market.

For example, let’s say I make dog collars, dog leashes, and dog bandanas.

All of my products are for dog owners.

However, I may offer those collars, leashes, and bandanas in a variety of colors and patterns to appeal to the different styles dog owners have.

One customer is going to be drawn to either pastel colors, bold colors, or neutrals. They’re not going to buy a pastel pink collar, a red leash, and a black and grey bandana. 

But they might buy a pastel pink collar, leash, and bandana; so those items should be cross merchandised.

Look at the products on your craft show table and group products that share a product feature.

For example:

>> on a table full of jewelry that incorporates different gems and stones, I might gather all my pieces that incorporate pearls.

>> on a table full of art, I might gather all the pieces that are primarily blue.

>> when sorting bags, I might gather all bags that are pastel.

Remember, you DON’T want to group by product type. Cross merchandising pulls from different product categories/subcategories to encourage multi-item purchases.

If you’re unsure which product feature to group by (e.g. jewelry could be grouped by type of metal, stone, style, etc.) consider the feature your target market cares about most when buying.

 

2 – Products that can be used together

Once you have a group of products one customer is likely to buy, let’s filter them again and choose products that one customer can use together.

For example, let’s say I’ve gathered all my pastel-coloured bags and I have tote bags, duffel bags, shoulder bags, crossbody bags, cosmetic bags, iPad cases, wallets, and coin purses.

Someone is not going to use a tote bag and a duffel bag at the same time.

But someone might use a tote bag and a cosmetic bag, iPad case, wallet, and coin purse at the same time.

These are perfect products to cross merchandise together.

 

What if none of my products can be used together?

Let’s say I make hair accessories, such as scrunchies, headbands, and hair clips. Typically, the same customer wouldn’t wear two or more of those items together.

In this scenario, I would simply focus on grouping products based on them being for the same customer.

If I have a wide variety of colors and prints, my cross merchandised display might be a hot pink scrunchie, hot pink headband, and hot pink hair clip. Or, if I’m creating a cross merchandised section, I could merchandise all my pink products in it.

Although one customer won’t use the items at the same time, a customer who loves pink will be interested in all three items and may buy them as a set.

 

How to group in a craft show booth

Now that you have your cross merchandising products, you need to show them together in your craft show booth. Your cross merchandising can be confined to a small display or it may influence your entire setup.

Display

If you don’t have many products that work together for cross merchandising, you can simply create a small display that sits in your zone 1.

This can be enough to grab attention and tell a story.

Sections

If the majority of your products can work together, then you may consider breaking your table into sections and merchandising by collection (i.e. each section is for one customer).

For example, if I’m selling dog collars, leashes, and bandanas and have pastel colors, bold colors, and neutral colors, I would have one section for each category of color. 

 

Bundles

To encourage even more multi-item sales, you can bundle products into a gift set/box and sell them at a (slightly) discounted price.

For example, a soap vendor may bundle their lavender soap, lotion, and lip balm into a set and sell it at a slightly lower price than if a customer purchased them individually.

 

Let me know in the comment section if you have any questions!