Yesterday, I participated in a local festival and sold my bags. It was my first time selling my sewing products. Although I could sell only one, it was a fulfilling moment. Let’s talk about it.
The local autumn festival
A small rural facility for travelers hosted the autumn festival in which I participated. The facility consisted of a restaurant, a souvenir shop, a fitness room, multiple meeting rooms, and a spacious courtyard.
The handicraft exhibition and sales took place in the fitness room, as shown in the following photo.
I anticipated that many groups would participate in and sell in a small space. Such a selling opportunity would likely attract many handicraft teams.
However, to my surprise, there were only 4 individual groups in the handicrafts booth. All groups were small, consisting of just 1 or 2 members. The team I accompanied, which is my parents’ group, was one of those groups.
The handicrafts-selling booth was set up in the fitness room. In other words, our group could use ¼ of the spacious fitness room. In addition, since one of them was a painting class, only three groups displayed handicrafts.
I didn’t expect that there would be so few teams exhibiting and selling handicrafts.
The fulfilling moment when my bag was sold
It was a fulfilling moment when my sewing work was sold for the first time.
The first bag that sold was a small, remodeled shoulder bag, which was my 7th bag (this one).
Picture this situation. A middle-aged woman came alone, saw our works, and became interested in one of them. She looks carefully and tries it on. Then, she put it back, left, and went to another area. However, about 10 minutes later, she came back again, watched the bag, tried it on again, stood in front of the mirror, checked it repeatedly from different angles, and considered it for about 10 minutes. After that, she decided and said, “I will take this.”
It was a dramatic process from the creator’s perspective. The moment when a person comes to like something is fantastic, especially if it is our work.
I realized that it was the natural process for the buyer. We often cannot decide immediately when we buy sewing work, like clothes and bags. We carefully consider whether it suits us before deciding. I had forgotten about it.
She will use it in her specific activity. I hope she will use it for a long time. It is one of the fulfilling rewards for the creator. It has been a long time since I felt such satisfaction.
Even beginners can experience a heart-moving moment like this. If there are these joys, there is no need to rush to become a professional.
The result
However, not everything was perfect. That was the only bag that was sold on that day.
There was a reason. There were too few customers who visited the handicraft booth. The fitness room was the inconvenient back spot, a place we could not enter without taking off our shoes. 90% of visitors at the handicraft booth were elderly, half of the visitors in my booth were friends or acquaintances of my parents, and almost all of the sales in my group were clothes.
Clothes sold well, while bags didn’t. To my recollection, that was the only bag that my group sold, including those made by my parents. Considering that fact, my result doesn’t seem so negative.
Modifying my strategy
Although the sales were few, I could still feel a response from the visitors. That response was valuable for me. It provided me with feedback.
There are mainly two pieces of feedback: about total sales and my strategy.
First, a certain percentage of people paid attention to my works, even though there was a small number of viewers. That was not bad based on my past experience selling digital works. It indicated that if the total number of visitors increases, sales will grow proportionally.
Although only clothes sold well at this event, I will continue to make bags for a while. Even if I had sewn clothes, I probably would not have sold a single one. That seems a reasonable judgment.
Second, my prediction and strategy were correct in some parts but wrong in others.
Remodeled bags interested customers more deeply than others. Distinctive remodeled bags, even if they were rough, seemed more attractive than neat bags.
In this aspect, my initial prediction was correct. Remodeled bags attracted much more customer interest than the usual bags at a special event like this festival.
However, remodeling was far more influential than neat patchwork. That was the point I had not expected. I was overly focused on the beauty of patchwork. That showed me my misunderstanding.
The technique becomes effective when the essence is fulfilled. Thanks to that experience, I understood what is more essential.
Conclusion
Anyway, it was a wonderful experience, although I could sell only one.
It was a fulfilling moment when my work was sold.
I am also considering participating in other sales exhibitions, although there are many issues to improve.
This experience taught me various things, so let’s talk about them in later articles.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
