The Hit-or-Miss Reality of Selling at an Art Market: My Experience
When attending art markets, you can sometimes get an easy sense of if someone’s business is having a good day or not, whether its the seller’s smile as you stop by their booth, a group of customers already buying from them, or what appears to be a never ending inventory of items, it can be common to assume that this is the case for most artisan makers or self taught crafters. Still, more often than not, I have learned that the true reality of selling at markets is not always so fruitful.
That being said, Denver has a lively art market scene, with pop-ups at restaurants, coffee shops, parking lots, or even the occasional large-scale event venue. There are so many sellers who want to make their work known to the community, and even more customers who want to buy things from them. With the volume of art markets in the area being so high, people have caught on to how this chance at getting one’s name out into the public is an effective form of publicity, although this also means that the market application game is extremely competitive. I’ve seen some markets allow 400 applications only to take 50 vendors, or application fees as high as 300$ just to be there as a seller. With the investment of the application, supplies, labor, and personal marketing, art markets have a level of risk present with how likely it is that one could make a profit at the end of the day after doing all these steps. I have learned firsthand that profit depends almost entirely on knowing your audience and location.
My experience selling at a market for the first time taught me that the general public doesn't respond as well to niche items as I originally hoped. In my case, I was selling leather necklaces and jewelry that I truly loved, but it was a bit too gothic for the general public of the Arvada Sam's Club parking lot. I only made a few bucks that day and felt extremely disappointed with myself after I left. After all, I had put so much work into making my art, why couldn’t other people appreciate it like I did? I quickly learned that first markets are for what my friends called “market research,” meaning that I could learn from my losses rather than try to do the same thing again and be equally disappointed. I knew I wasn't the only seller there having a rough day either, a woman directly across from me selling handmade patterned purses and makeup bags was getting the same thing that I was from customers, a lot of looks, but no money.
Being able to do my first market and learn from it was an extremely valuable and emotionally draining experience, but I’m glad I did it. Now that I have this experience, I know what things to change. There were so many factors I hadn't accounted for, like the market location, which was right next to a grocery store, meaning that most of the customers were families and people who would not have sought out this art market otherwise. In return, I have decided to go in a different direction with my jewelry, making more than just what my friends and I like, and thinking about the general public instead, what would Amy from Arvada want to buy while running her errands?
Another thing I’ve learned is that pricing doesn't matter as much as display of quality does, I thought that putting my work at reasonable prices would make me gain more customers, there was plenty of people around me selling out of things going for twice as much as my pieces, especially in jewelry and this was mainly because their displays were simply more professional than mine. The ability to market yourself as a quality artisan is essential, and the more people are impressed by your work, the more they will be willing to pay for it. All in all, my experience selling my art in Denver was a learning experience, but not a profitable one. I did come away with much more of an understanding of how this competitive game works than before, and I know that I will be much more aware of these things in the future.
