There’s market stalls and then there’s aesthetically pleasing market stalls – the kind that present your brand and products in the best possible light. Let’s be honest - if it looks that good on the outside, chances are the products inside are just as dreamy and your customers are more likely to want to connect with your brand.
A standout in the stall presentation stakes at TVM is Drift Trading Co, the lovechild of Lou Martin and her handy husband Paul (a qualified carpenter/joiner). We spoke to Lou to get the inside tips on how to nail your stall presentation.
Your stall is known as being ridiculously good-looking, how important is a well-presented market stall?
Ha, ha that’s very kind! We do put a lot of effort into our stall. I guess we kind of see our stall as our little shop front – it’s the face of ‘Drift Trading Co.’ We work super hard to produce a quality, handmade product and we want to display it in the best light possible – it needs to reflect our brand.
One of our motto’s from the start has been to continuously improve our stall fit-out – at the end of every market we reassess and ask ourselves how could it work better practically or look better – it’s evolved quite a bit from the early days.
We both actually really love doing The Village Markets twice a month – I guess when you’re working fairly autonomously all week it’s nice to get out and meet your customers – I also think our customers enjoy seeing the face behind the brand. We’ve gained a really lovely repeat customer base and it’s a really great feeling seeing a familiar face walk back into our stall – nothing beats praise for something that you’ve made with your own two hands.
How did you design your stall layout?
Our stall layout has evolved over time as our product range has grown. We’ve always had a stall that allows our customers to walk in and around, rather than just walk past (i.e. past a table front) - it creates more of a shop feel and makes it easier for customers to browse without feeling hassled or pressured to purchase. We use a lot of recycled timber as it’s our thing and it’s where Paul’s talent lies – it also works beautifully with our product story and branding.
Paul had the idea for our current fit-out for quite a while before he actually built it, however the vehicle we had at the time was too small to transport the solid wall structure he had in mind.
The actual construction of our ‘mini shop’ took a weekend for Paul to complete – this is bearing in mind his background in building.
How long does it take you both to setup on market day? Do you have any cheeky tricks to make life easier/less stressful when setting up - given it's a limited time frame?
Hmmm, we are usually the last to finish setting up and the last to finish packing up but we do have quite an elaborate set up! We go pretty flat out for an hour and a half before our stall setup is complete.
In terms of set up tricks, trolleys are definitely our friend when it comes to transporting product and display items to our site. We each have our roles during setup time so that we don’t get in each other’s way and we maximise the time to our best use - you kind of get into a bit of a rhythm after a year or two! We also have a checklist that we run through when packing for the market so that we don’t miss anything.
Drift Trading Co’s Top Five Tips for Market Stall Presentation:
- Think about how you would want your products displayed in a shop – what would the shop look like? What kind of feel or image do you want to portray?
- Make sure your products are displayed at eye height and easy to access. People like to pick products up and touch, feel, smell – that’s the difference between online shopping versus brick and mortar shops – it’s the experience.
- Add some greenery or dried flowers – make it feel welcoming and enticing.
- Make sure your prices are displayed and are easy to read – some people don’t like to ask how much things cost and will end up walking out if pricing is not displayed.
- Keep evolving – make sure you change things up every now and then – even if it’s just simple changes that keep it fresh and interesting.
Thanks so much Lou (and Paul!) for sharing this with our TVM community! Find Drift Trading Co. at TVM this Sunday 1st July 2018 and at every other TVM.
