Crafty Market Research
How Craft Sellers Do Market Research
Do you have a great idea for a new product? Will anyone buy it? How should you price it? This article offers simple but effective ways to get answers to these questions before you lay out a lot of time and money making products that might not sell.
FEW CRAFT SELLERS do any market research before venturing out to sell their wares. Most beginners, and many long-time craft show sellers as well, simply make a bunch of things they want to make, offer them for sale, and hope people will buy. That may be okay if your instinct about what’s likely to sell is finely tuned; if not, you could lose a substantial investment of time and money for materials if you create a large inventory of products you can’t sell.
Most sellers get a handle on the market for their work simply by browsing shows, competitor’s websites, and networking with other sellers, but here are four other things you can do to research the market for your latest product.
1. Ask for Comments
Ask friends and family members to test a new item and give you feedback. Some crafters also send samples of their new items to one or two of their favorite retailers, asking for comments about the product’s sales potential. One crafter who teaches and sells locally says she uses her friends and students as guinea pigs for new products. When she makes something new, she puts it on display in her classroom for everyone to see. She says it’s a good indicator when folks ask if she’s going to teach a class for that particular item.
2. Check Price and Functionality
Start a pricing reference file. It’s easier to set prices if you know what “the going prices” are for items similar to yours. Record what others are charging for your type of products at craft shows and gift shops, and check marketplaces on the Web where art and craft products are being sold, such as Etsy and eBay.
TIP: You can gain a wealth of marketing insight simply by typing in certain words on a search engine and visiting the sites that come up on the list. If you have a website or crafts blog, do some market research by asking visitors to fill out a brief questionnaire on your site.
3. Test it at Market
When selling at retail shows, display one or two of your newest creations to see whether they sell or not. One seller told me she makes a dozen pieces for a show and if she sells more than half of them, she goes into full production with the piece. “Since location and time of year have a lot to do with sales, I’ll sometimes give a piece a few shows to see if it creates any interest.”
4. Listen and Observe
You can get instant feedback on consumer preferences simply by listening to people who browse your booth at a show and noticing when they make statements such as “I wish you had this in a different color.” Listen intently to what customers say, particularly when they offer criticism. “I learn much more from good criticism than anything else,” one seller told me. “When the person is right, it can be very humbling, but you get over it, then look back and see how much you’ve grown.”
REMEMBER . . . If you can’t get the price you need on a particular product, don’t stop making it, just look for a new market for it. The same item offered at different fairs or shops across the country might sell at a much higher price, depending on the economy of the area, the sophistication of buyers, and the way the product is presented to them.
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