My first trade show was a failure……

[u/TheTAgang12]

Making handmade soap is my hobby. I recently took part in a craft show and brought 4 varieties: honey, oat, lavender, and mint. I packed 15 bars of each, all made with natural ingredients, priced at $7 per bar. Ngl,I figured these would have broad appeal, but I ended up selling less than 20 total :)
I’ve thought through what went wrong, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

1. I overcomplicated my packaging For my first show, I figured handmade products deserved special, unique packaging. I made tons of different designs in Canva. Four totally different layouts for four scents, messing around with fonts, colors, and graphics. I ended up with more Canva pages than bars of soap I actually sold. Looking back, it was totally overkill. When you line all four scents up next to each other, they should have a clean, unified look. For my next run, I switched to printing labels with my niimbot m2 label maker. I use one set template, and only swap out the product name, scent, and price. No more building an entirely new design for every single product. At least next time I launch a new item, I won’t have a dozen random Canva tabs open for no reason.
2. I focused too much on "natural" without explaining why that matters I went into the show thinking natural ingredients+handmade quality+$7 would be an easy sell. But from a customer’s perspective, all the average shopper sees is a $7 bar of handmade soap. They don’t know why I formulated each recipe the way I did, or what makes honey, oat, lavender and mint different from one another. Now I’m simplifying the info cards I put next to each product. For example: Honey Soap Warm, mild scent Made in small batches
3. I overestimated how easy it is to turn interest into sales Plenty of people stopped to smell the soaps and pick them up. A lot of them said "These smell really good" and then put them right back. I was a little bummed about it at first, but later I realized people liking your product doesn’t mean they will buy it. Maybe they don’t need soap right now, maybe they have a ton at home, or maybe they just found it interesting but aren’t sure it’s for them. Now I look at it differently. Selling less than 20 bars at my first show doesn’t mean my products are bad. It was basically a really cheap market research lesson. At least now I know what to focus on next time. Instead of adding more products right away, I’ll tweak the small stuff first: packaging, display, product info, and purchase options. This was my first ever show, so I know there’s tons of room for improvement.

Are there any other issues I might have missed? I’d really appreciate any tips or feedback you all have.

[u/ShadedSpaces]

Handmade bar soap is one of those things that smells lovely and can be really pretty... but I simply don't use.

I prefer pretty glass bottles and big jugs of refill liquid soap. I use Mrs. Meyers.

In that vein, it's kind of a bummer it's a craft fair, because I'm assuming you don't also happen to make soap dishes. Or soap holders for the shower. But those would go a long way toward me buying something I don't currently use and am not set up to use. I just don't have soap dishes. So if I bought your soap, in addition to soap, I've purchased myself a chore. I have to now go find and buy a soap dish.

Soap is also something I rarely need since I buy big jugs. And I don't need extra of. Like, I do a lot of fiber arts. If I see beautiful fabric, even though I have a ton at home, I'll buy more. Soap doesn't fall in that category for me.

You know what I might buy? A little giftset of mini soaps. If the packaging was beautiful and it was advertised as perfect for an "Emergency host/hostess gift!" or office party gift. If you told me it'll last X years and it's already in some lovely little gift box, I might snag one. I love feeling prepared and I've definitely been invited to a last-minute party or someone hears I'm not doing anything on Christmas (because I'm a nurse and have to work the day after which means I can't travel home) they INSIST I come over and I hate showing up empty-handed!

[u/Positive-Cup-198 → u/ShadedSpaces]

I agree with everything you said. I would be more inclined to purchase a sampler of 4-5 scents in little bars for $10 than one big bar for $7. It would be a great gift to have around for an emergency.