Selling Personal Expressions Products at Crafts Malls
By Stephen Bucaro
A craft mall is similar to a craft show except that they have a permanent
store location. They provide booths that crafter's can rent. Each booth is the
crafter's own personal retail store. You display your products in your booth
and the craft mall takes care of everything else. You don't need to be present
at the craft mall to make sales. All you need to do is set up your booth and
keep it stocked.

Countryside Craft Mall, 40700 Van Dyke, Sterling Heights, MI
Craft mall's provide a variety of different size booths. A small booth,
two foot wide by one foot deep by six foot tall, costs as little as $25.00
per month. Larger booths are available with a higher rental charge (prices
vary by store). The mall also charges you a service fee as a percentage of
the price of items sold. At a regular interval you receive a sales summary
and a check for products sold at your booth.

Memories of Home Craft Mall, 1309 Athens Rd. Princeton, WV
Craft malls are always located in high traffic areas and the mall owners
advertise in local media to attract traffic to the store. The craft mall provides
professional store managers, support staff, sales collection, and payment of
sales taxes. If you choose to open a booth in a store or at stores not near where
you live, you can access your sales information through the malls web site.
Making sales at a craft mall is a process of trial and error. Months with
gift-giving holidays are more profitable than other months. You'll need to
experiment to determine which of your products sell best. Most craft malls hold
regular "dealers nights", where the stores crafters and support staff get
together and share creative ideas and business information.
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