Jiaxin Entry #14
Merry Christmas!
Our City Square Mall Bazaar ended on Sunday and I shall recap on it. Although I was only assigned to be on duty on Saturday, I went down on both Friday and Sunday for a short while when I was on my way to and fro school for training.
Competitors
As I walk around the other booths, I realised there were several vendors selling plants too! That means competition will be tough as 2 of the vendors (one selling airplants, one selling succulents) seems to be position nearer to the entrance than our booth.
However, as I walk towards our booth, I was shocked to find that our neighbouring booth was also selling terrariums. Thankfully, the highlight of their store was mainly their customizable bamboo straw. Their terrariums were limited and were different from ours as it was bigger, and much more expensive (2 for $50).
With our store besides theirs, it looks like our terrariums will be more advantageous as they are cheaper,and there is a wider variety for customers to choose from.
Pricing
Since it was the Christmas season, we decided to spread the joy by holding a Christmas promotion. Our terrariums were priced at $12 each from the usual $15 and we priced our handpainted terracotta pots at $18 each. We also dropped the price of our Christmas greeting cards as this will be the last chance to sell them all out.
As we were selling our painted terracotta pots, Cleo decided to paint the remaining ones at her small side table since Friday morning may be relatively quiet with adults having to work. With on the spot painting, it definitely drew some onlookers and we can better prove to them that our pots are all uniquely hand painted.
At the end of Day 1, I was told our sales were quite reasonable taking into account the traffic flow during the whole day.
Day 2
On the second day, I was on duty. As we were setting up the store this morning, there were already customers walking around the booths. We made a total of 2 sales mostly on the painted pots while many of the other booths were yet to be opened. With that, I was rather optimistic in the sales for the day since we have managed to make sales within a short period of time.
However, sales slowed down through the afternoon and the night. Although there are people walking around, they were just simply browsing and were not buying anything from the booths.
This time, I took over Cleo’s seat and painted on the spot. I did the geometric painting as nothing could go wrong with that.
We wrapped up the day with a lower sale than the day before despite it being the weekend.
Day 3
I suggested for the members on duty to set up earlier as we might be able to get the morning crowd when the other booths were not opened yet.
I visited the booth in the evening, and the crowd were better than the past 2 days. I saw kids pestering their parents to get the unicorn terrariums for them and 2 of them gave in to their child’s request.
I was also there to witness our biggest customer (a couple) who had bought a total of 23 terrariums to be gifted for Christmas. This is our largest sale so far, and it was a proud moment to be there when the other vendors look at us with envy as Cleo customized the names for the terrariums, while I helped SK to pack the terrariums into paper bags.
Reflection
Over the past 3 days, we had built a good rapport with our neighbouring store- a knitting booth. The vendor even kindly knitted a mini Christmas hat to go along with our cactus. Through networking with several likeminded vendors at different bazaars, we often get to learn from their experience and some would even share with us contacts of booth organisers. In future, we may even be able to collaborate with one another.
All in all, the Christmas bazaar was a successful one for us. Although the customer that bought 23 terrariums may be just a lucky encounter, she has contributed greatly to our sales. We now know that terrariums can be a great gift items and we should leverage on gifting seasons like Valentine’s Day to promote our products.
Yesterday, I received a PM on Instagram from the couple who bought the 23 terrariums from us. They were pleased with our service and would like to purchase one for themselves.
As our booths for January are all in the midst of confirmation from the orgnizers, I replied saying that I would update them once we have the confirmed details of events that we will be participating in.
It is through these messages and appreciation from customers that give us greater assurance and confidence to work even harder.
To greater sales in 2019!
Till the next post!
Jia Xin