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How to price your items is a common source of confusion when handmade artists are starting to sell at craft shows. Not just business-wise (how much to charge to make a decent profit?) but also physically (what’s the best way to label my products?). Let’s look at the different aspects of pricing- from tagging to selling your goods.
Label Items Clearly
At a craft event you always want to make the price of your products easy to find for customers. You can use individual tags, small signs, or make a price chart. I prefer a chart with a list of my items and the cost, but it’s up to you depending on what kind of items you make. If you sell plush stuffed animals it wouldn’t always be easy to individually mark each one, but if you sell necklaces it might be easier. Make sure to write clearly and have all your tags attached before the show- it can be very stressful to try to label when setting up.
Extra tip: Also be sure to indicate on your chart or general signage if sales tax is included or not in your posted prices. Many shows actually require you to display this information, so include it to be on the safe side.
Keep Consistent Pricing
Another issue I see raised often about shows is if prices should be the same as those in your online shop. There are many pricing formulas available for handmade products and it’s an individual decision, but I would always recommend consistency across all of your revenue streams, including craft shows. For example, if a customer takes your business card and then looks at your online prices later and they are way cheaper, they might be annoyed you were charging more at the event. Or a store owner that sells your products on consignment might attend the show and see you’re undercutting the prices you have at their shop. If someone is buying multiple items it’s okay to give them a little discount, but for individual purchases try to keep them priced the same across the board.
Offer Specials
While I think pricing should be the same amongst your various selling channels, it’s okay to have a special deal just for craft shows. If you want to do a “buy 3 get 1 free” or a gift with purchase, that’s a great way to encourage sales. Prominently market the promotion in your booth with signage, and be ready to tell customers about your show special!
Extra tip: Encourage attendance at your craft show by promoting your offer on social media beforehand.
What other pricing tips do you have for a craft show or event?
Rebecca George
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This doesn’t tell me how much to price certain things like mirrors that were made over or dressers that were redone. do you have that type of info?
Hi Mary, I recommend you look up pricing formulas as well as doing some online or store research and see how much other similar items are selling for. Hope that helps!
Thanks for put that all out there. I want to sell something at the fairs so I can make money, and this real would help me when I ready. Also one Idea for people, You could do soap bars. (That’s something you don’t see much of any more its always lots of Jewelry)
Where I’m at, I see lots of soap… I would love to try my hand at it, but with all the competition I don’t think I would sell much. I have a friend who makes goat milk soap, lotions, etc. from her own goats. Hard to compete with that.
I also find that unique or repurposed items don’t always go. Most of the brand name stuff draws too many people. I like all artisan shows.
I sell hand made cards the cost of supplies are from .25 to 1.00. What should I charge for them
Thanks
The simplest formula for how to price your handmade products is easy but cold. Figure out the cost of ALL your materials per item; figure out the cost of ALL of the time you spend on each item; add the two figures together and tack on 5-10 percent for profit, and the final number is your optimum price for each item.
To explain more: first, figure out what your direct materials costs are per item completed. Then figure out all your other overhead costs (things like market stall fees; cost of display methods & “furniture”, business cards, signage; sometimes, the cost of taking time off work; sometimes, baby-sitting costs; etc.) and break these down per item. Decide how much you are paying yourself per hour, and figure out how much time you spent to get each item completed, so you can calculate your time-cost per completed piece. The time costs really should include *all* the things you spend time on to get the item completed, not just the making time.
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The reason I call the formula “cold” is because, if you’re like me, you’ll find the price is just shocking. And that’s before you add in all those little hidden costs — things like gasoline or bus fares spent on getting to shops and back, or to parcel service offices and back; time spent making items that don’t work out; time and materials wasted making mistakes; even the really little costs (usually), such as price tags, bags, and freebies or samples.
We live in a world of mass production, which keeps costs down generally, and skews every non-maker’s expectations of Value for Money. Even a very efficient craft-worker rarely can match commercial prices. (The only solution to the dilemma here is to have a very good product that really cannot be made by large companies, and sell it in a receptive market.)
Anyway, all the calculating requires a lot of nit-picky bean-counting. Decide how much of that you want to do, or not, and where you are willing to take little losses. I usually mix my shopping for supplies in with my personal and family errands, so I simply write off most of my supply-shopping time (including online shopping time), along with “invisible” costs like those gasoline costs/bus fares, or meals eaten out. I also don’t include the time spent on R&D, designing, making patterns, making prototypes, making mistakes, time spent pricing and packaging, or photographing my goods in my cost calculating.
One example of bean-counting: since many of my one-of-a-kind pieces are made with recycled jewelry, bric-a-brac, and fabrics, I keep storage drawers full of large ziplock bags with “Cost: X dollars” labels inside; flea-market and thrift shop finds immediately go into the appropriate bags. Beads are counted into jars and per-bead costs calculated, which also helps me track how much I’m saving (or not) over brand new beads.
All of this takes more time. I honestly can’t be bothered keeping track of all the minutes spent doing short business chores, so this is where I choose to make the sacrifice in my final prices. It’s not a hugely business-like approach, but my working philosophy is that at least I’m doing something I love, meeting lots of nice people, and having fun.
And I do have fun, aggravations and all!
I too use a lot of recycled material, for example I use pill bottles as vases for my miniature flowers, I simply wrap the bottle with material and stuff the extra inside the bottle, if you use enough fabric the material will fit snugly inside, then I dab glue on the stem of the flower and stick in the bottle. Another item I use is tuna cans for bonsai miniatures and orchids, I wrap the can with pretty paper, done.