Wholesale Matters

After the show. . . 5 Tips for Buyers Market Exhibitors

When you get back to your studio, it's time to FOLLOW UP.

1. Many sales are made AFTER buyers head back to their galleries.  So make a telephone call to the buyers who visited your booth but did not write an order. (You did collect their business cards, correct?)  Today's  "just-looking" could be tomorrow's sale.

     2.  Send a brief thank-you note to buyers who placed orders with you.

     3.  Send an e-mail or note (and photo) to buyers who ordinarily purchase from you, but who were not able to attend BMAC this year. Many were affected by snowstorms. They'll still be interested in your new lines.

     4.  Did you contact your regular buyers before the show?  If you didn't, contact them now, and let them know you're still interested in them.

     5.  Update your FREE NICHE Marketplace page. Retailers who could not attend BMAC are browsing in this electronic directory, searching for new products.

    

Buyers Market in the News II...

If you know someone who wrote or blogged about the show, let us know!

Here's a story that ran in Trade Show Executive magazine online...scroll down to the section that begins "Philly or Bust."

Empty your pockets, the lady said...

If you were "held up" at the Buyers Market of American Craft by show producer Wendy Rosen, it was for a good cause.

She asked dozens of artists and retailers to pull out their dollar bills...

so she could rubberstamp them.

FindAmericanMade.com

The rubber stamps say FindAmericanMade.com  (a few say FineAmericanMade.com).

Type either into your computer and you will be taken to the AmericanStyle magazine online directory of Preferred Galleries. 

It's a national list of great retailers who sell U.S. and Canadian studio-made fine craft. 

Each listing has a photo of the gallery and contact information. Some even have click-throughs taking you to the gallery website.

 

Sell More Fine Craft

The magazine has been maintaining this searchable listing for some time. The question has been, how do we lure consumers to it?

 How do we help them find your store, if you're a retailer?

How do we help them find the galleries that carry your work, if you're an artist? 

 In other words, how do we help you sell more studio products and art?

 

Let's Put Our Stamp On It

Wendy believes this promotion can "go viral" if we all stamp our dollar bills and put them back in circulation.

At the Preferred Gallery Luncheon, a few buyers charitably warned Wendy that defacing U.S. currency is a crime.

For the record, let it be known that Wendy has offered to go to jail if necessary to promote craft.

 

What's the point?

The point is to put the stamp where the public will see it.

The point is circulate the message far and wide, 100 percent FREE.

So if you don't feel comfortable stamping your money, do this:

• When you pay your bills, stamp the back of your envelopes.
• Stamp the back of your business cards.
• Stamp your shopping bags and the bottom of your gift boxes.
• Stamp your postcards, your greeting cards.

Tell everybody where to go... to find fantastic U.S.-made and Canadian-made art.

 

 

 

You asked for photos of the Design Challenge Winners

Here are the photos of the C.R.A.F.T. Design Challenge Winners.

Kristin D. Godsey, our judge, has added captions to help us all learn from these designs. 

Thank you to all who competed during the Buyers Market of American Craft.

Congrats to the winners!

                                                                                                                                                        

Of all the entries, this one was the most balanced and pleasing to the eye. The grouping makes sense—it could be your nightstand or, more importantly, your nightstand if you have fantastic taste and a great eye. (So you’d better buy it all!) Each piece of merchandise stands out nicely, and the only prop, the books, are used perfectly in a way to set the scene without stealing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The large C.R.A.F.T. display sign could have easily overwhelmed this display, but it doesn’t because of the excellent arrangement of the other items to create interest and symmetry (without being too symmetrical). The items themselves are each given the opportunity to shine—nothing is blocking anything else, or overlapping—but altogether, the composition has nice balance and whimsy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another nice, uncluttered display, and while it would be better if the plastic risers weren’t so visible, the variation in heights and the placement of the merchandise are very nicely handled. The small pile of rocks as propping suggests the rugged scene without going overboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jewelry displayed on the tree is clever and effective, as is the placement of the rounded, metallic objects in a circular pattern in the scene. I like the use of the flowing, earth-toned fabric, again with just a smattering of rocks, to create a simple statement.

 

See additional posts about the contest below.

Seen at the Buyers Market...

Monday, Feb. 15, 2010

Many artists reported seeing old friends and meeting new buyers this winter.

While storms may have affected attendance early in the show, many buyers were not deterred, and many were replenishing their inventories.

Colleen Jersild, whose makes charming felt mice (Despite Distractions, Booth 2510), said, "This has been my best show ever. I love my booth and I want that space forever."

Here are a few photos of action on the show floor. Enjoy!

Photos by Jim Burger for the Buyers Market of American Craft.

American Craft Week is Coming: Get on Board!

What's it going to take to excite the American public about the importance and value of American craft?

First, all of us in the craft industry have to stay excited about it ourselves.. and unite our strengths to carry that enthusiasm with one voice. 

The moment is now.

At the Buyers Market of American Craft this weekend, fine craft retailers Ann Pifer (The Grand Hand, St. Paul, Minn.) and Diane Sulg (Maddi's Gallery, Charlotte) urged retailers, artists, galleries, guilds, colleges and others in our industry to participate in American Craft Week, a promotion created by the Craft Retailers & Artists For Tomorrow and Craft in America.

This important campaign asks all of us to hold events and promotions that excite the American public to discover fine craft. Each in our own creative way, but all in the same 10-day period from October 1-10, 2010, we're to offer the public activities, exhibitions, studio tours, demonstrations, open houses, trunk shows, and more. 

We will all share the American Craft Week banner and logo, but we'll make it our own, make it fun, and make it accessible in our own communities. 

The Rosen Group, producer of the Buyers Market of American Craft and publisher of AmericanStyle and NICHE magazines, has signed on as a sponsor. 

AmericanStyle will carry the message to the collecting public, and NICHE to the retailers.

Also signing on as supporters are CODA, the American Craft Council, Artful Home, WholesaleCrafts.com, and many more of the nation's craft organizations and industry groups. 

The momentum is growing. You heard it here first.

We can all make this happen if we join our voices into a mighty national chorus supporting fine craft that is Made in America.

Stay tuned for more news about American Craft Week in the days to come.

   

Buyers Market in the News...

Want to see some of the coverage that we have had during the Buyers Market?

NICHE magazine for retailers of handmade luxury goods and fine craft has been covering the seminars and awards at the Buyers Market at its Facebook page.

Jennifer Heebner, senior editor at JCK Online visited our show and Global Design, and blogged about  trends. She also wrote a story on the eve of our opening in Philly. See it here.

AmericanStyle magazine reported on the NICHE Awards at its Facebook page.

 

 

 

Networking at the Buyers Market

A dynamic seminar on sales techniques for retailers of art jewelry held Friday at the Buyers Market attracted leaders of the newly formed mid-Atlantic chapter of the Women's Jewelry Association.

 

Shown here are Suzanna Stull, the chapter's marketing board member; Karen J. McKinney, its vice president of events; and seminar speaker Hedda T. Schupak, who serves as the chapter's advisor.

 

This chapter replaces WJA's Pennsylvania chapter, which has folded. New members are now being recruited from Delaware, Maryland, Southern New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. (There is a separate Washington-area chapter.) Among the new chapter's challenges will be finding an effective way to serve such far-flung membership with events, services, etc.

 

They thanked the Buyers Market for supporting their plans to hold a reception after Thursday's Jewelry Preview, which was canceled due to the blizzard. Buyers Market had offered the group guest passes and will be looking for future opportunities for partnerships.

 

For more info, visit http://www.womensjewelry.org/MidAtlantic.

 

Eye Candy! Great Store Design at the Buyers Market

 
Awesome store design can be achieved on a shoestring budget, guest speaker Kristin D. Godsey said today during a seminar on visual merchandising.

Good design needs editing, she said: Remember Coco Chanel’s famous advice about wearing jewelry: After you’ve dressed, take one thing off before you leave the house. In other words, simplify, don’t clutter.

Kristin is the associate publisher and executive editor of VMSD, the oldest  magazine of the visual merchandising and store display industry. At her seminar, “Sensational Store Design on a Shoestring Budget,” she showed slides of award-winning store design, including photos from the files of the NICHE Top Retailer Awards program. 

Amazing designs from New York City store windows and cutting-edge boutiques were shown, too. She urged craft gallery retailers to borrow ideas from the professionally done visual merchandising. Some quick ideas that you can do cheaply and easily:

• A spring display with a string of pearls pouring from the spout of a watering can
• A table of dolls all wearing pieces from one line of jewelry
• A stack of terra cotta pots and silk flowers in different sizes, used to make a garden corner for your outdoor sculptures
• A display of watches and clocks, backed by an inexpensive poster of the famous Salvadore Dali painting of melting clocks (The Persistence of Memory)

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: C.R.A.F.T. DESIGN CHALLENGE

On Friday and Saturday, retailers and artists stepped up to the pedestal.Each had 10 minutes to create a store display, using artworks provided by Buyers Market exhibitors and a collection of fascinating props. All of the props were items found commonly in the home or in a retailer’s back room or at a dollar store. C.R.A.F.T. Design Challenge at the Buyers Market: old books with gilded covers, tissue papers, scarves, tile squares, rocks, wood blocks, lace doilies, feather boas and more.

The winners each received donated prizes from Buyers Market artists and C.R.A.F.T. members. First prize included a donation of $250 BMAC Bucks to spend on the store floor, courtesy of the Buyers Market, and a free membership in C.R.A.F.T., the Craft Retailers & Artists For Tomorrow association. For more info about C.R.A.F.T., see www.craftonline.orgor visit the C.R.A.F.T. booth on the Concourse.

Kristin D. Godsey, associate publisher of VMSD magazine, and Donna Milstein, education coordinator for C.R.A.F.T., announced the winners Sunday [pictured above].

And the winners are:

First place: Lori Magno, Modi di Magno, Winchester, Mass.

Second place: Sue Shapiro, Shapiro’s Gallery, St. Pete, Fla.

Third place: Christie Minervini, Gallery Fifty, Traverse City, Mich.

Fourth place: Stephanie Schorr, Craftsman House, St. Pete, Fla.