‘Tis the season! How to choose which markets to apply for?
Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry… No not quite that season yet but folks it is the second most important season in a small biz calendar - Application Season. For those of you who are keen on applying to established christmas markets, the applications will be coming out very very soon - some are even live already - and then it doesn’t stop till the Autumn!
We know it can be really tough to navigate for small brands trying to get a foot in the door, or working out where they want to be in the mix of events, markets and pop ups all clamoring for you to “APPLY NOW!” So we’re kicking off the season with some real talk about applications, and we’re starting at the beginning, of course, with how to choose which markets to apply for in the first place!
You can spend a lot of time on applications and any operator worth the pitch fee will spend a lot of time considering who/what they think will sell well at their event - after all, that’s the most important thing in curating a market. So if you are pitching the wrong events, it doesn’t matter how great your product or business is, you’re not going to get in. So hopefully we can save you some time by sharing some of the key things to consider before you start that application!
1.
Consider what type of markets are right for you. We’ll delve deeper into this another time but there are some basic differences in types of markets that speak to purpose and will have an impact on how they operate and advertise their events. Regular /Street Markets, run by local authorities or independent operators, are regular markets happening in the same public space weekly or monthly. They bring in a regular local crowd doing their regular shopping with a relatively consistent offer. These will often have a “festive special” and invite additional traders. Concessions Markets are the selection of stalls you might find at a different kind of event, like a festival, entertainment spaces, cultural hotspots and other seasonal activities. These tend to attract a reliable amount of customers and you have a “captive audience” but they have also often already spent money and time on a core activity, and so it will be product and location dependent whether these are right for you. Retail Pop Ups are stalls within shops, shopping centres, bars/eateries and tourist attractions. Places that invite market operators to bring variety to their established permanent offer. Again they tend to have an existing/reliable audience, who are often looking to shop, and who will come from further afield. Independent Seasonal Markets - this is where Pexmas sits at Christmas! We operate entirely independently; hiring a venue, designing the operations, curating the stalls and doing all the marketing. For these, the market is the focus, people come for that in the first instance, the audience will often be local and they tend to be supporters of small businesses /makers. There is no guarantee of footfall, this all sits on the operator and other stallholders to be doing their part to make it successful.
2.
Who is your Audience and are they attending this event? We’ve already touched on who might be at which sorts of markets, but who is your target audience? What events are they attending? Where do they live? How do they do their shopping? What sort of disposable income do they have? When you know who is buying, then you can look at where to find them. If the market operator doesn’t explain who their audience is in their published information, then contact them and ask! Just because an event is cool, or has a big footfall, or people on instagram are raving about it, doesn’t mean it will necessarily have shoppers for you. Of course, sales are only one outcome from a market… but thats a whole other post!!
3.
Footfall. Everyone is obsessed with stats, like instagram followers or website clicks, so OK let’s talk numbers. Last year, Pexmas at Christmas welcomed over 10,000 visitors over 2 days. That’s a busy market for the location, space and the number of stalls, which was just over 100 per day. Sounds good huh? It is - but only if you thrive in a busy environment and your products, stall display and branding will catch your customers’ eye in amongst all that bustle! Good market operators will try and match the stalls to the crowd but we only know what you tell us, so it is up to brands to work out if they personally will find that sort of busy vibe suitable for them. Your products, your story, your energy might be a better match for a market that allows for more browsing, conversation and mindful purchasing - like our Spring Fling or Brixton Sundays or a totally different kind of market altogether.
4.
It’s everyone’s least favourite bit - the logistics! What is the stall / pitch like? Will you be able to display your products the way you need to? What is provided as part of the fee, and what do you have to bring yourself? How easy is it for you to do that? Are you going to have to spend loads on transport? Are your products at risk in high winds? How long do you have to set up? Is there reliable wifi? So many practical considerations and they are so important to your experience at market - trading is flippin hard work! We always give every bit of info up front, because for us transparency is important - we want you to fully know what the deal is before we take your money! But if you’re considering applying to a market and you’re unclear about what you get for your fee, or unsure about what the restrictions might be, do ask them before you apply, so you can save your energy for the ones that are going to serve you best.
5.
Curation of the market is so important. Of course everyone’s brand and products are unique in the independent small business world (or they should be!) but sometimes there are similarities between traders and of course there are clear “categories” of products that create competition between traders. Some competition is unavoidable, as customers do want a choice, but how market operators curate and limit that choice for the customers is super important to how well you will sell at the market. Sometimes a market just allows you to book a stall, without any curation; sometimes there will be a very long involved application process with stages and they will give lots of info about how they select the stalls. Some markets of course are specialist and only sell one type or theme of products. Again, if you’re not clear on how markets select their stalls, ask them before you apply! Look at their previous market line ups and talk to other sellers who have traded with them before to see if you will feel both comfortable and special at the event if you are selected - that’s the sweet spot.
Phew - that’s a lot to get started with! But this isn’t an exhaustive list by any means - what else do you consider when you’re deciding on whether to apply to a market?
If this was useful for you, keep your eyes peeled for more from us soon - another post of Application Tips next week, as well as the launch of our mentoring programme very soon (eek!!) and we’ll be running our annual Intro to Markets webinar in July which gives a full round up of all the basics for new / new ish market traders.
Like we said - the season is upon us! Best of luck to everyone applying to markets this year - Wishing you all a very Merry… App-mas?!