How to Stand Out at Large Vendor Markets

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If you have done vendor markets for any length of time, you may have noticed a trend when it comes to large vendor markets.

(If you are just starting to do vendor markets, check out my YouTube video on my top 20 tips for vendor markets!) 

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What I have personally noticed is that I don’t do as well in larger vendor markets. (My definition of larger vendor markets is 50 vendors or more.) This is sort of surprising to me, because logic tells you that the more vendors you have, the more people will show up to check it out. But I have a theory as to why this happens, and I am going to tell you what I did to combat this issue at my last market.

I think the reason I don’t  usually sell as much at large vendor markets is because a TON of people tell me,

This is not a good thing for sales. If there are more than 50 vendors, I have found that those people almost never come back, either because they are too tired, or they forgot about you by the time they reached booth 150.

I have also found that a lot of shoppers are browsing first and taking in a lot of stimuli; so they may just be walking by and looking into each booth to see if they even want to go inside, or they are making a quick round around the entire event before coming back. This means they are swiveling their heads from side-to-side, checking out each booth and there’s a good chance they aren’t seeing everything there is to see because their attention may have been snagged elsewhere.

I have been a part of large vendor markets enough times to know that this is a consistent problem. I hesitated to sign up for the market I most recently did because I knew there were going to be on the upwards of 160 vendors. I went and scoped it out the year before I signed up to see if there would be any more makers like me (I definitely recommend doing this before signing up for markets if you can), and even I was a bit overwhelmed at the number of vendors there. I also got lost and I couldn’t have told you where the other vendors were if I tried.

However I decided to try out this market at least once, because I could tell that people came to shop. Almost everyone I saw that day I scoped it out was carrying a bag of some sort from their purchases. Another reason I chose to try it out is because it draws over 10,000 people and it’s literally just a vendor market in the middle of a huge field in the middle of nowhere. There is also no other attraction there (like a fair, or a show, etc.), so that was another thing that led me to believe that those people came just to shop. It’s so off the beaten path that people probably wouldn’t just come to browse.

The first thing I did was look for a unique canopy tent. Almost every vendor at this market has a white tent. They all literally looked the same. So I set out to find a unique canopy tent that would make me stand out from the sea of white.

Actual photo from the large vendor market I did recently. As you can see, almost all tents are white.

I found this uniquely shaped canopy from Quictent that was a two-toned tan and cream canopy. The unique gazebo shape and the tan colors really make this canopy stand out. I also chose this particular canopy because they allow a 12 x 12 space at this event, and this canopy is 11 x 11, so I had a bit more room for my merchandise.

Photo credit: directly from Quictent’s site

Another thing I liked about this canopy is that it has windows that you can open or close to create a draft so that it doesn’t get super hot inside the canopy. It also has a really neat raised area in the top center of the canopy that has a mesh area for air flow, to help keep a nice breeze. I thought this feature would be exceptionally convenient for airflow since we are still in a pandemic.

I will say that I have found this particular canopy style to not be all-weather friendly. It did rain off and on that day at my event and it would occasionally cause rain to come into the top mesh area when a strong gust of wind would hit it.  If you live in a particularly dry and hot area, this canopy would probably be perfect; but for me personally, the canopy caused a bit of a problem when it rained.

It still served its purpose extremely well, however. I got several compliments on my tent that day. Everyone that passed by my tent looked my way, and I think the color and shape played a large role in that. If I get another canopy from this company, however, I will choose one that doesn’t have a hole in the top (like their Privacy 10 x 10 canopy) and I will still get a unique color (they have several colors to choose from).

I also found the quality of the canopy frame to be extremely well-made and I was very pleased at the obvious differences in the frame quality when compared to other tent frames. You can see more about the canopy in this video.

If you decide to make a purchase on their website, be sure to use the code DANAQUICTENT8% to receive a discount!

Another thing I did to draw people’s attention was I purchased flashing battery operated lights. If you haven’t noticed, almost all social media is trending towards videos instead of pictures. I think it is for obvious reasons—because they are moving and get people’s attention better than static images. I tried to apply this logic to real life and bought these lights to hang around my tent inside.

You rarely have electricity at these events, so I purchased the battery versions. I also chose these because they come with a remote control that can change the many light settings and turn them off and on easily. It is universal, so I only needed one remote (all boxes come with a remote, however, so you will have extras if you buy more than one box like I did).

I cannot tell you how many people complimented me on my lights! They were a huge hit and they 100% did exactly what I intended them to do. It happened to be a mostly overcast day that day, so they really stood out. But the thing I loved best about them was the flashing abilities (it was a mild flash, so it didn’t send anyone into a seizure).

The blinking or flashing of lights totally got people’s attention. It also created a great ambiance in my tent, which I not only got to enjoy all day, but also made my customers want to hang out in my canopy longer (which is GREAT for sales, I might add!). I am going to use these lights at every large vendor market from here on out. I am convinced they got people’s attention. If you want to see how they looked in my canopy, see my video.

The third thing I did to stand out at this vendor market was I played music. I had to be very careful here, and I will tell you why.

Because my tent is not really all that big in the whole scheme of things, I didn’t want to have music playing loudly inside the tent. So I purchased a shower Bluetooth speaker that had a speaker on one side only. I did this for the sole purpose of placing the speaker on the front corner of my canopy to project sound outwards but not inwards. So I turned it up and it did not make it hard to hear inside the tent.  I also wanted the shower version because it is water proof (hello, rain), but also it comes with this handy, sturdy clip for hanging in the shower. I used it to hang directly onto my tent frame.

I cannot begin to tell you how well this technique really worked at getting people’s attention! I decided to play Nora Jones station on my Pandora app and it created a nice ambiance AND it made people more relaxed (which you definitely want if you are going for a boutique feel). The relaxed atmosphere caused people to shop longer, which resulted in more sales of course!

These 3 techniques I used to stand out definitely worked. In fact, they worked so well that the people across from me were getting a bit upset (as made obvious by their body language) because when people passed by our booths, they ALWAYS looked in my direction instead of theirs (and I am not saying that I am happy that happened, because I would not want to take sales from anyone else of course). At one point, the vendors across from me started to approach people as they passed by in order to tell them about their product.

There will always be customers at these events that will make a full round around each booth before making any purchases. You want to make your booth stand out and above the rest so that they do not forget you and they come back and make a purchase. I believe I was easy to spot because of the shape and color of my canopy, and then the music and lights helped them to not forget me when they were thinking about where they wanted to go again. It ended up being the BEST one-day market I have ever done to date, which I am super happy about!

I hope these tips can be of some use to you in your future vendor markets!

What are some ideas you have that would help vendors stand out in large markets? I would love to hear your thoughts! Let me know in the comments below!

Happy hooking!

~Dana