How to Display & Sell Customized Products at a Craft Show

Customized or personalized products are one of the benefits of selling handmade. Selling products that shoppers can put their own touch on isn’t something many big companies offer.

If you sell customized products that take longer than a few seconds to customize, you may be wondering how you’d ever make it work at a craft fair. Below are several ideas to get your wheels turning and decide if you can make craft fairs work for you.

Tips for making sales & a display

1) Accept customized orders before the event

When promoting an upcoming craft show, advertise that you’ll be accepting custom orders within a time period before the event. And that customers can save on shipping costs by picking the items up at the craft fair.

This limited-time opening for custom orders will create an urgency to buy and will help boost pre-craft fair sales.

Consider:

• Take payment for the orders as they’re placed – you may take a deposit or ask for full payment before a customized order is started.
• Create a policy for those who don’t show up – in case someone places an order and then forgets to show up and claim it, have a policy in place. You may want to state that they will be charged shipping and receive the product via mail if it’s not picked up before the event is over. Or you could allow them to pick the item up from you if you don’t mind customers coming to your home.
• Send out a reminder email – send a couple of emails in the days leading up to the craft fair reminding people to come pick up their custom orders.
• Create a pickup system – you don’t want to neglect new customers and shoppers at the event so be sure you keep your pre-orders organized. Collect important information during orders, such as first and last name, so you can package, label and organize them so they’re easy to find and don’t get mixed up during pick up.

2) Accept (limited) customizable orders at the event

Another great way to create hype around the event is to offer customization while at the craft show, but for a limited time or having a limited number of spots. For example:

• For the first 10 orders of the day – this will give you the most control over how many you accept
• Between certain hours – for example between 10 am – 11 am you’ll accept custom orders that will be ready that day. 
• For those who print a coupon from your website – you would need a way to keep track so you have a good idea of how many people are thinking about claiming their on-the-spot custom order. If you’re getting lots, you can shut the offer down.

Consider:

• Adding a disclaimer that creation times may vary. If each item takes you 5 minutes to personalize and you’re accepting a maximum of 10 orders, you may want to state that depending on order volume, completion times may take anywhere from 5 – 50 minutes.
• Having a helper so they can tend to shoppers and ring through orders while you make customizations

3) Accept customized orders to be shipped later

If you want to keep your customized sales up, you can allow shoppers to place their orders at the event and have them shipped. It’s a good idea to cover shipping costs, as no shipping fees are one of the reasons people prefer to shop at craft fairs. You may cover the shipping costs by reducing your profits or simply adjust your pricing to cover some or all of the shipping fees.

4) Offer ready-for-sale items

If your business offers customizable products only, I would encourage you to brainstorm products that fit with your brand but don’t require customization.

For example, if I personalize jewelry with a customer’s name or initials, I may also sell letter pendants, rings, and charm bracelets. They still fit my brand but can be purchased and worn without my customization.

5) Show prototypes

Make prototypes of customized pieces that you can use for display purposes. Shoppers need to clearly imagine how the finished product will look; size, texture, shape, etc.

You can create an entire display out of “display only” items. But be sure you communicate to shoppers that you do have lots of inventory for sale, even though there are only a few products on display. You’ll need clear signage and enough prototypes/display items to create interest and get shoppers to stop. 

6) Create a system

Just because you’re not filling your entire table or booth with products for sale, as most vendors do, doesn’t mean you can’t create a fun and exciting display.

If the majority of your craft fair display will be focused on taking custom orders, make it fun for the shopper.

Set up your table so it walks them through the process; just like Subway walks you down the line as you have them build your sandwich.

Create stations that walk a shopper through the steps of picking their product and customization details.

>> Station 1 may be the products they can choose from (for example, a jewelry maker may have un-customized necklaces, rings, and bracelets).

>> Station 2 might be where they fill out a customization form (for example, a jewelry maker may have a form customers can fill in with their details, and the initials or name they would like stamped on the jewelry they chose).

>> Station 3 could be the payment station where you go over details and take full or partial payment based on the customization they’ve selected.

Be prepared with an organized system so you have all the details you need to accurately create a customized piece and get it to them once it’s complete.

Craft fairs can be chaotic environments so it’s best to have the customer write down the customization they want so you don’t miss, or mishear, anything. 

Regardless of what you’re selling, craft fairs will always have a trial and error process to them. As you introduce new products or lines, you need to adjust and play around to see what works and what doesn’t. This will be especially true when selling customized pieces, as you’ll need to find what works best for your business.

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Erin (Creator of Made Urban)

Hey, I’m Erin 🙂 I write about small business and craft show techniques I’ve learned from being a small business owner for almost 2 decades, selling at dozens of craft shows, and earning a diploma in Visual Communication Design. I hope you find my advice helpful!