Trading at markets and events for over 15 years has taught us the effects of appallingly organised events and conversely, the utterly brilliant. So what was the difference?
There are only two things that need to be focussed on when planning a market or event. Stallholder experience and Customer Experience. The perfect event for stallholders is one where they will earn a decent return on their investment, or pitch fee. A good event for customers is where there is a good variety of stalls to choose from and where at the very least, they will be entertained for an hour or two. Throughout the planning stages, maintain the focus on these two factors and you will have the seeds of a successful market where all parties leave happy.
Organising a market does not mean find some stallholders, put up some gazebos, collect the rents and voilà. No. A lot of thought, work, and knowledge goes into planning a good market. A great market will have stallholders beating a path to its door and customers will come in their droves. Period.
Types of Events:
There are different categories of events that may have certain limitations or freedoms that will make them different.
Council Run Weekly Markets are not usually run by folk who necessarily have event training. Neither will there be an understanding of how important a market is for the town as a whole. We see this time after time that a market run by a local council is dying on its feet. This is not because ‘markets are dying‘ as is often quoted by inexperienced market organisers. It is because the council does not have a clear understanding of how to run a good market. If this is you, please keep reading.
Private Regular Markets are run by professional Market Organisers that have been enlisted by a local council. When we say professional, we mean they do it for a living. We have been lucky enough to have traded with some of the best in the business – however, we have also traded with some of the absolute worst! The good thing about these markets is that they will have a much better idea of how to run a market and will usually have a market manager on-site for the duration of the market. The limitation is that the pitch fee will tend to be higher because they will be paying the council as well as have their own expenses. However, the price of the pitch fee is never a problem if it is relative to the amount they will earn.
Event Organisers usually only run large events like Food and Drink Festivals, Music Festivals, Country Fairs, etc. Because of the nature of their responsibilities they will have good experience in this area and will only survive as an event organisation if their events are successful for both customer and their stallholders. So this article is not for them.
Charity Fairs are where stallholders donate a percentage of their takings go to a specific charity. To the uninitiated, this may sound somewhat odd, but it is not because the organisations involved are 100% legitimate and the customer demographic that they attract makes it worth it. A good charity fair is second to none. We once attended a charity fair that had a brilliant reputation. It was a two-day event. It was too far from home to commute back, so we booked a local hotel. However, after two hours of being open and there were still no customers, we did begin to worry. It was a disaster! Why? Because the original promoters stopped running the event but handed it over to a new charity. As they were not legally allowed to transfer their substantial mailing list due to data protection laws, the regular, loyal annual attendees were not reminded that the event was happening and nobody came. The moral of this story is: If you build it, they won’t come – unless you advertise it!
Stallholder Experience
What makes a good market for stallholders? Bottom line? Income. If there is good footfall, a market will be profitable. In order to get good footfall, a few things need to be in place first.
Don’t overfill a venue with stalls, not only will you have health and safety issues, but stallholders need to get out from behind their stalls easily without upsetting their neighbours’ display.
Be wary of the number of competing stalls you have at your event. This can lead to many problems. Firstly from customers who may have bought an item at the first stall only to find a similar item at another stall and who then demand a refund from the original seller.
Secondly, and much more serious is bad feeling between the two competitors. Consider any competing stall carefully, particularly if there are only have 20 or so stalls. If the competing stall sells a very niche product you will be doing a disservice to both of the stallholders. When a competing stall comes onto a market, the original seller’s income drops by half. The new seller may be happy with this half of the income because they wouldn’t know what the full earning potential is, but the original seller will. And they will be resentful. If you want to have a healthy turnover of stalls on a market, then rotate them rather than have them competing against each other.
If you are let down by a stallholder on the morning of the event and a stall has been provided for them, remove that stall from the market asap. There is nothing more uninviting than to see an empty stall at a market. It looks unprofessional and sloppy and gives a bad impression of the market as a whole. If the empty stall is unavoidable (because it is part of a pod of other stalls), then put up a sign saying something like, ‘stall for rent – contact xxx‘. Of course, to keep no-shows to a minimum, collect the non-refundable pitch fees in advance.
Make sure that stallholders can load and unload freely. Nothing is more offputting than attending a market that is difficult to access with all of one’s stock. We once attended an event that was on the top floor of a town hall (we didn’t realise this when we booked it). It only happened once – stallholders refused to come again!
Having a strong character as a market manager will make a good event. If stallholders are aware of any rules and abide by them, with no exceptions, then everyone knows where they stand. Rules is rules!
Customer Experience
What makes a good market from the customer’s point of view? Ease of access, a good variety of stalls, a nice atmosphere, and a safe shopping experience. Added bonuses would be somewhere to sit, shelter in the event of rain, public toilets, and food and drink outlets.
Consider the layout carefully because stall placement has more impact than may be obvious. Is there flow? Is there an obvious path to walk whilst passing every stall? There are many possible layouts, from horseshoe to straight lines to back-to-back to pods of stalls. Your venue will dictate the best options. If running a regular market, the layout may need to change over time as the market gets busier or quieter depending on the season or other factors.
Also, consider the depth of the walkways between rows of stalls. Having wide walkways is good especially for wheelchairs or children’s buggies but having too large avenues can reduce the atmosphere. Arrange your gaps according to how much footfall you expect. (Rainy days less footfall etc.)
We once attended a market that had a horseshoe layout of about 15 stalls. There were hardly any customers and it looked too open. It gave the impression that customers were the ones on show for the benefit of the waiting stallholders. It would have been better to put a few stalls in the middle to make it less open and intimidating.
Give the market soul. The way to give a market soul is to allow the personalities of the stallholders to flourish. When setting up stalls, it is best not to create a barrier between stalls by way of gazebo side sheets but keep the communication between stallholders open. Allow for banter and indeed, encourage as much banter as possible. Customers love a good laugh as much as the stallholders and loyalty and ownership by customers will also grow.
Having good access to a market will help its popularity. When considering the venue ensure there is adequate nearby parking, good access, including disabled access and that people know where to find it.
When you live in a place, you are familiar with well-known landmarks. Outsiders are not. The bonus of a market is that it attracts new people to the town or event. Keep this fact in mind. If people don’t know where your event is taking place, ensure signs are put up pointing folk in the right direction. You can never have enough signs.
Having a good variety of stalls, that will appeal to the audience that you want to attract is essential. Be choosy about the kind of stalls to accept. If a business is unfamiliar, ask for photographs. Be selective. There is nothing worse than accepting a stall onto a market only to find their products are below par and that a more professional business was rejected in their stead.
Ensuring a safe environment for shoppers and stallholder is vital. Having a market manager on-site throughout the day is a minimum requirement for this.
Increase Footfall by Marketing
Some markets have been operating for years by the same operators. We have seen the decline of the markets that they are operating but their own assumption is that ‘markets are dying‘. Not so. Markets need to be promoted. All the time. From banners before the market comes to town, to signage at the entrance of town, to signage around the corner pointing towards the market.
And the Social Media presence needs to be promoted. We don’t know of any market operator that really understands the value that social media plays in the presence of people at an event. It has a HUGE impact and what’s more, can be free! Having a dedicated person or experience media agency to do your promoting should guarantee increased footfall. Of course, also remind your stallholders to regularly post when they will be attending – which most of them will do anyway but don’t rely on their input here. They have paid a stall fee and will expect a minimum amount for their money. Having people to sell to is one of those requirements.
Get some flyers made with future event dates ready for stallholders to distribute including some encouragement for customers to like the market itself.
We attended a one-off event organised by a Warwickshire market operator. It was at a National Trust property and was a two-day show. There were about 20 stalls in total. The weather was glorious. We thought, National Trust property? It’s bound to be a good one. We were all set up with lots of stock made. We paid a good sum for our pitch. BUT NOBODY CAME!. (a bit of a theme here) Not a single bit of marketing was done for this event. Nothing. Nada. Not even a sign at the entrance to announce it. When we objected and requested that as a minimum a sign should be put up at the entrance, we were told that the NT didn’t like signs being put up outside their properties! We worked with that same market operator on another occasion and their level of service came up wanting again. Lesson learned but too late!
He who whispers down a well
About the things he has to sell,
Will not make the shining dollar
Like he who climbs a tree and hollers.
Anon
From Good to Brilliant!
In our industry, there can sometimes be a large chasm between good events and brilliant ones. Brilliant events create a buzz around their brand (Froome Independent / Stockbridge Market, Edinburgh / Borough Market, London / The Suffolks, Cheltenham) making them a destination market. A reason to visit the town that hosts them. Success breeds success in this game and once you manage to create the initial buzz and keep up a good market by always introducing new, exciting stallholders and inventing, inspiring and innovating wherever you can, then its popularity will grow organically.
Two of our recommended markets are run by independent folk who either want to promote their town or because they want to promote a part of their town. This shows in their passion to promote their events and in the massive footfall that both attract.
Having music in the form of a busker (better if they are any good) or background music of some sort can really add to the atmosphere but you don’t want it so overpowering that stallholders and customers can’t hear themselves speak. The most brilliant event that we ever attended was a two-day Food Festival at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. They put on jugglers, marching bands, trapeze artists, mechanical elephants, clowns and acrobats. It was as much fun for the stallholders as it was for the paying guests.
Adding Detail
In order to retain the essence of your event and keep it consistent with the ethos may require establishing certain rules. Stallholders, by their very nature, are independent spirits and don’t appreciate rules that much, so setting these at the beginning and not changing the goalposts midway will be important. For example, set your payment terms clearly and make pre-payment mandatory. Get non-refundable pitch fees upfront and you are less likely to end up with no-shows.
Having rules about stall appearance, like mandatory ‘skirts’ on stalls, with all bags and boxes being hidden from view will improve the look of the whole event. Many upmarket events expect a minimum in the way of smart appearance. One stall looking second-rate brings down the appearance of the whole.
Offering hot food by way of food trucks or coffee carts is another fashionable way to retain people at an event, especially if there is somewhere for folk to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. Always remember our mantra: People attract People.
Happy Trading!
| Pre-Event Checklist | Tick |
|---|---|
| Pre Event Social Media | |
| Pre Event Signs | |
| Day of Event Signs | |
| Access | |
| Parking | |
| Arrange Layout | |
| Erect Gazebos | |
| Measure walkways | |
| Ensure variety | |
| Safety | |
| Music | |
| Check Appearance | |
| Encourage Soul – communicate | |
| ‘Who is here‘ Social Media | |
| Have market advertising flyers ready at each stall |