FindSpace.in blog: Dark side of flea market events. Part 3 of 3: How we can overcome the problems together?
I suggest you to read part 1 (click here) and part 2 (click here) of this blog series before reading this part 3 blog.
I will be adding more solutions / suggestions based on the feedback I get from both event organizers and vendors. Keep checking this blog regularly for updates.
Ratings & Reviews: Do not hesitate to ask for an opinion about the event or about an event organizer. A good place to start would be to ask in a Facebook group. You can also check out the ratings of event organizers and past events here. Your contribution to the flea market community and your fellow vendors should start by rating your past events here. You can better understand flea market event ratings here. If everyone starts contributing to the ratings and reviews system then in no time we can have complete information of all event organizers and their past events.
Stall Pricing: Read and research about the location and then decide yourself what a fair price would be for your stall and if your business allows you to pay that price. If you are a vendor new to flea markets then you should get an opinion from a seasoned vendor.
Footfall and target audience: Just because a venue boasts of a good or poor footfall does not necessarily mean it guarantees or discards your potential for doing business at the spot. The composition of the footfall matters, it really does. Suppose the event is at an art centre; I believe it’s quite evident that even if the footfall is poor at the venue, artists and handicrafts can expect decent sales because of the presence of their targeted audience there. A good way to dissect the footfall is among number of men and women, age and whether they are serious buyers or window shoppers and then decide if they appeal to your product.
Gather analytics at every event: A very effective marketing strategy is to study and plan according to the analytics of any business venture and it definitely applies to a flea event. Any customer that you meet in an event you should record the sales, the audience that visited your stall and showed inclination towards your product, the ratio of buying crowd to that of window shoppers, the chunk of footfall which attune to your product, your top selling product, the margins that you are making on sales, potential products that your audience are interested in and the quality of product that you are providing. All this information may not be really helpful for the event that you are participating in currently but thorough analysis and tweaking your marketing and sales strategy according to the data you collect will definitely reward you with increased sales and better rapport with the audience.
Customer registrations: A very important and acing routine is to record the details of your customers and informing them about your future events. Not only will you add to the footfall of the event it will also build you a loyal customer base in the long run. Also taking feedback can make a healthy loop to make your business grow.
Promotional stalls: Try to add more promotional stalls into the mix which will not only bring in additional revenue but also will increase the average sales per stall.
Organize: Event organizers should be on top of their game. An event organizer should not allocate a stall for a cup cake vendor where the icing might melt.
Sponsors: When was the last time you tried for a sponsor for your event? Any amount of money that a sponsor will bring additional revenues.
Stall allocations: Design the stall layout in advance and allocate the stalls on first come first serve basis. Too much work? Who said event organizing is easy.
Vendor communication: It would be nice for an event organizer notify all booked vendors about the weather forecast and other precautionary measures.
Rental Payments: Do not encourage vendors who do not pay you at least part rental in advance. Phase them out gradually by infusing a new breed of vendors into your events. Stop depending on the same set of vendors and work on getting new vendors.
List of vendors: Make a list of vendors who think irrationally and bring negative energy to the whole event. Do not be afraid to share this list with other event organizers who you gel well with.
Footfall: Give your vendors factual information supported by data instead of arriving at an estimated footfall illogically.
Ratings & Reviews: You can also check out the ratings of vendors and past events here. Your contribution to the flea market community and your fellow event organizers should start by rating vendors from your past events here. You can better understand how flea market event ratings work here.