Brandmade: How we select our stallholders

Have you ever wondered how we find our designers? Well, we can tell you that as Handmade has grown in reputation and quality, so have the number and quality of registrations from potential stallholders.

Handmade Canberra Market Stallholder Wilde Aroma

Know your customer

At Handmade, one of our mantras is “know your customer.” We actually have two sets of customers – the visitors and shoppers at the market and the stallholders themselves, so it’s very important for us to consider both. We understand that it’s not just a question of taking the first 290 designers who ask. Instead, we have to match the designers to the shoppers, ensuring there’s always something new and interesting to look at and a curated range of product types. This curation is what makes us stand out, but it’s also one of the most difficult parts of our job. We have to make sure the products are seasonal, that in-demand favourites are present to avoid disappointment and that the brands on display fit in with our ethos of friendliness, high quality and variety – it wouldn’t be a very interesting market if we had 290 candle makers for example.

How to stand out

So what do you need to do as a designer to make the cut? Well of course, your product has to be handmade here in Australia and it has to be beautiful. When looking at our applications, the first area we go to is the set of photographs that the designers provide us with. We ask the businesses to pretend that no one has ever seen their products before and to collect together images that sum up their offering, so that we (and the customers) know what the business is all about. If these are beautiful, professional and show off the range of products, these designers automatically hit the “maybe” pile. Then we look at the written description of what they do. Does it sum them up and portray the feeling of the brand? If so, the designer is still on the right track to get a stall. We also look at their social media and online presence. If they haven’t been active for a long time, have no web presence or following, it tells us that they’re not talking to their customers, and all of you reading this will know that Handmade is a fairly social entity so we like those who chat!

Once we’ve narrowed it down, the curation really starts, so we know we can give visitors to the market a breadth of product types and a good proportion of new designers. An average of 30-40 new designers attend each market. We make our final list, offering places to those we feel can best represent all of our values and quality of product and service. We also offer potential places to those that we put on the waitlist – whose products are beautiful, but who we just don’t have the space to accommodate. Many designers come off the waitlist and into the market over the lead-up to the event as a result of designers having to drop out for various reasons, so the waitlist is a positive place to be. We understand that sometimes the Handmade Market is an integral part of a small business’ income, but like us, all small businesses need to grow and change their offering to succeed. The ones whose products evolve over time and who are unfailingly upbeat and committed are the ones you’ll see at the market time after time.

So now you know what’s involved. We are confident that we can provide visitors and stallholders with a happy, friendly, varied and beautiful shopping experience. We also want Australia’s amazing range of designers and producers to keep applying, keeping Handmade’s standard one of the highest in the business.

For more tips on how to sell at handmade or join us as a stallholder, pop over to our Sell with Us page.