Selling at Your Booth
Once you are fully registered as a vendor and have all of your merchandise and displays ready to go, it is time to make money. Here are some simple tips to ensure regular sales:
Accept more than one payment method
With different programs such as Square, it is easy to take credit card information right at your booth so you are not restricted to cash-only sales. Many shoppers do not carry cash on them, and some programs offer the added benefit of creating receipts that you can send directly to each customer rather than having to handprint them.
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- Opening a business checking account lets vendors accept checks as well as credit cards, but you may find out about insufficient funds too late once the market is closed for the day. Unless you have a way of following up with customers in these types of situations, you may want to avoid accepting checks.
Rearrange merchandise regularly
If you notice some products are not getting as much attention as the rest, or that customers are not noticing certain items that are buried at the back of your booth, rearranging your merchandise gives them an opportunity to be seen and shoppers will think you brought out new products.
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- Be sure to rearrange your products as you sell them, either by restocking or rearranging what you already have out on tables so there are no bare spots.
- However, do not rearrange too often on a given day in case a customer comes back looking for something that caught their eye earlier and then they are not able to find it.
Offer good customer service
Shoppers are more likely to come to your booth and look at what you have to offer if you seem friendly or open to conversation. Look and be willing to answer any customer questions or describe certain characteristics or the value of particular items. This means vendors should absolutely not be sitting down on their phones and ignoring consumers when they walk in.
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- When offering good customer service, be careful not to be too aggressive. If you are constantly asking shoppers if they need anything or following them as they look around your booth, they will easily get annoyed and walk away. Give them time to look around before you start offering up information about certain products.
Be prepared to haggle
Some customers come to flea markets expecting the prices on merchandise to be a starting point for bargaining, rather than a set price. Not all shoppers do this, but be prepared ahead of time and know how much you can come down on prices and what your absolute minimum is in order to make a profit, and do not be afraid to stick to it.