Marketing Tips for Craft Vending in Tourist Destinations

Every tourist wants to take home a souvenir of their visit to your country, region or city but not ashoppingll are interested in the mass-produced items that are readily available at airports and in hotel lobbies. Many tourists want items that are locally made and representative of the culture but at the same time able to be displayed as part of their home’s décor. This is good news for vendors who aspire to create and sell their unique craft items. Marketing to tourists requires some skill and knowledge. The following tips will help you to maximize your income with tourist dollars.

Know what your average tourist is shopping for

When demand for certain items is high it is just common sense that you provide those items. While every other craft vendor may be selling the same items, try and make yours more unique so tourists will choose the items you are selling over your competition’s offerings. You also want to have items that no one else is selling so that once you have your customer in your shop you may be able to interest them in additional items. Tourists tend to like items made from native woods, with textiles and other natural fiber crafts also being popular.

Price competitively

While we all want to extract the maximum price for out crafted items it is important to attach a price tag that tourists see as being fair. It is equally important that your prices are competitive with other vendors selling similar items. Tourists are often very savvy shoppers and will compare prices before purchasing. Where this rule does not apply as strictly is for one-off, unique items that cannot be purchased anywhere else but in your store. These items can be priced higher but still must be at a price that the tourist is willing to pay. This may take some trial and error to research the right price point but can be lucrative once you find that ‘sweet spot’.

Cater to gift giversthailand-gifts

Tourists will often buy for themselves, but more often they will buy gifts to take back home for family and friends. To this end it is a good practice to offer your customers the choice of having you add gift tags and wrapping. Inquire as to the gender of the recipient so that you can gift wrap in appropriate paper or stock a good selection of gender-neutral wrapping papers. Your customers will appreciate this service as it relieves them of the need to undertake the gift wrapping task themselves.

Be sure to promote yourself

There are many ways to get the word out about your shop, products and name. While business cards should always be readily available to customers it is also important to make sure that a potential customer who is about to leave your shop without purchasing is presented with a business card. They may be planning to return to your shop at a later time and a business card will be a gentle reminder. Other ways of promoting your shop is on hang tags, price labels, gift wrapping, gift tags, and with complimentary items such as bottles of water and pens.

Offer delivery service

This is particularly important when customers are purchasing larger items. Often tourists will spend several hours shopping and may purchase a large number of items before returning to the accommodations. Offering to have their purchases delivered to their hotel is a service that will be appreciated. Try to have the item arrive at their hotel before they return.

Free items

One of the ways to make sure your shop is remembered is to slip a free item into the packaging when the customer is purchasing. It doesn’t have to be an expensive item but make sure it isn’t overly cheap either. Just the surprise of receiving something ‘extra’ is sure to improve your shop’s image for your customer.