Out & About: Top Five Tips for A Successful Pre-Loved Bazaar Sales!

About a couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to participate as a vendor in Markets, the 19th edition at Jaya One. This was actually my second time having a booth sale to sell my pre-loved clothes and my brand new beauty product. My first ever booth experience was at ClosetStyles one where I shared my first day experience here >>> Out & About : The Star Closet - Celeb & Bloggers Bazaar by ClosetStyles. Do click on the link to read more.

It’s only been two bazaars which I had the opportunity to participate in but each of the bazaar had been an awesome exciting experience for me. Based on my observation and experiences, I thought it’ll be handy to share some tips on how to have a successful sales at these type of bazaar. I have came up with these tips from my experience at these two bazaars.

* * * * * * * * * *

Smile, often.

I know this is actually really obvious, but the thing is when you have a friendly face and it appears more approachable. That way, potential customers would be likely to come over, just to have a look at the things you have on display. When that happens, you have an opportunity to strike a conversation (this will be elaborated further in the point below). It doesn’t cost a dime to smile and you’ll even feel better by smiling. So, remember to smile smile smile!

Have a conversation.

This is a tip which my sister and her friend, Jue Shuen told me about, when they were helping me to man my booth. What they did was simply to chat up anyone who dropped by the booth and then show them what were selling. Of course, they went on to promote the items on sale, if necessary. When they did this, they actually managed to sell more things. Why? Simply because you build and create a rapport with them.

Be prepared to give discounts.

Somehow, when you’re selling your own items such as pre-loved clothes and beauty items whether brand new or used, people will ask for discounts still, even if prices are already stated on the items already. When they ask, there are two possibilities whereby they are actually interested in the products but wanted to see if they can get it at a cheaper price. Or the other one is when they are interested only if the price is reduced to what they would be ready to pay.

So, you also have to option then… to stick firm to your prices or to actually give them a discounts. I think when it comes to giving discounts, it would be very subjective. If your aim is to clear everything, then giving discounts would be the way to go. For me, if these items were not sold… it would just continue to collect dust in my room as compared to exchanging it for cash instead, albeit at a lower amount. Of course, there are items which are already cheap for what it is worth, so I wouldn’t give any further discounts on it. This brings me to my next point, on the pricing of the items.

Mark up your items.

This is the simplest solution to counter the discounts you would be expected to give from customers who ask for discounts. From my experience, I have had many customers who willing paid for the full price of the items I was selling and of course, there were the bargain hunters around too. Sometimes, I had to give massive discounts up to 50-70% of my already discounted items. Whilst I didn’t actually make a loss (since I have already written off the costs of these items and this is not a business to me), selling those items for extremely low prices can be quite the heartache. I sold off a really nice pair of brand new boots for only RM12 :(

And so, it’s simple. Mark up your items to an acceptable price. Say if I was actually willing to sell the boots at RM20.. I should place the price at around RM25. If someone asked for discounts, I could say, “Okay, RM23.” If they negotiated more, I can push it lower to RM20. My point is simply to sell your goods with an intention of giving further discounts but yet the prices are still reasonable.

Have an interesting concept.

The last point is one that I came up with after my observation of a fellow blogger friend of mine, who had an interesting concept to sell her pre-loved clothing. What happened was that she had boxes and boxes of clothes and to sell them, she sold Ziploc bag at RM10/each and allowed her customers to stuff as many pieces of clothes in it. If you can zip the bag, then you can take home whatever clothing in that bag. This concept is actually borrowed from the clothes buffet event, you can read more about it here ; http://www.carmenhong.com/2014/05/event-malaysias-largest-clothes-buffet.html. I blogged about it years ago. But it works! My friend’s booth attracted a lot of customers and I’m sure it helped to clear her items out too!

As for me, what I did was simply to have pre-loved clothes in a box and offering them at RM5/piece. From my experience at both booth sales, I realise that customers tend to have a tendency of rummaging through boxes for cheap finds. I had both my clothes on rack and in boxes ….. it was always the one in boxes which sold more. So there’s a valuable tip for you, right there!

* * * * * * * * * *

And that is the top five tips on organising your first pre-loved bazaar! I’ve been lucky and blessed to be able to participate in the Markets at Jaya One, as a vendor after years watching it grow year on year. The experience have been an amazing one being able to sell my items to make spaces for new things, to know that my loved ones are so supportive of me from helping me to set up the booth and accompanying me, to meet all my friends who dropped by to say hi to me and to meet all the lovely customers who have purchased from me. I hope you enjoyed the items you have gotten and gave it a new home! 

I’ll leave you with some of the pictures from the bazaar at Markets 19 at Jaya One, which was held a couple of weeks back! I took some pictures of my booth and a whole tonne load of selfies with my friends and family.

  

And that is a wrap for my bazaar experience at Markets 19 at Jaya One! Like I mentioned above, once again I just wanted to say how thankful I am for my family and friends for always being so supportive of me! I really couldn’t have done this without my awesome support team. Thank you again to the Jaya One team  for the opportunity too. It’s been a blast!

I know I didn’t mention much about the other Markets’s vendors but just briefly, I actually fell in love the meatballs from Meatball Kingdom which is the most amazing meatballs I have ever eaten and one of the creamiest mashed potatoes too. I didn’t have much time to shop because I was on booth duty, having to care my booth but I saw so many clothes vendor, selling their pieces at a steal! Now, I cannot wait to attend the next Markets 20 bazaar which will be held on 15th & 16th October, The School, 11am – 7pm.

So, if you missed this one, be sure to catch the next edition! I’m already counting down the days till October comes. That is just a few more months more! Hit me up if you’ll like to go together. :)

Till next time,

xoxo