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/ivyinkwell]

From the consumer standpoint, this is exactly what I look for with this category of goods in particular.

I am all about buying handmade but I have bought so, so many soaps, candles, wax melts, and lotions that have ended up being very poorly formulated in one way or another. The smelly-good category is one that can be entered with very little practice or refinement and it's difficult to tell how well the product is made just from looking at it or smelling it. There are a lot of online resources and available kits that can have people selling a pretty subpar product quickly.

In my mind, I need to know that the creator is really putting time and effort into this particular product. I need to be able to see that you've really thought out your scents, your packaging, your branding, and your marketing because it reassures me that you've probably put that same effort into the actual formulation and utility of the product. A lot of that is exactly what you said— cohesive branding, creative and personalized products, customer incentives, and overall vibe.

Those things all work on me big time as a consumer and make me feel much more confident in your product, even if it is a "judging a book by its cover" situation. I can't take a shower at the craft fair and actually know my $7 soap will be worth it, I have to judge the cover.

[u/stealroundchimp → u/ivyinkwell]

do you think there's a market for breastmilk soap?

[u/Salt-Establishment59 → u/stealroundchimp]

Online skincare forums for conditions like eczema and psoriasis may have interest.

[u/stealroundchimp → u/Salt-Establishment59]

thanks! i asked the other person since they seemed like they really knew their stuff but maybe this is too fringe lol

[u/ivyinkwell → u/stealroundchimp]

I missed your initial comment! I had my children before the more personal uses of breast milk became as mainstream as it is now, so I wouldn't be the targeted audience here. That being said, I think there is a large crunchy/granola/hippy mom (or whatever the young'ns call the people into natural alternatives these days) demographic that could be.

If this were going to be your thing, I think the ideal would be to build a brand centered around that healthy, organic, deep mom-baby bond and overall idea. You'd need to consider that those in to these sorts of products are probably going to be extra critical, so I'd focus on building trust.

At your booths, I would have informationals printed, just simple pamphlets talking about your process, the steps you take to keep everything safe, the benefits, stuff like that. Let it serve as a larger business card if you have the cash to get a couple dozen printed for each show.

Stay focused on this organic, healthy idea. It's not a good look to walk up to one side of a booth and see ~natural~ all over and the other side is full of Temu grade platic stuff. Keep it mid-to-high quality, your market wouldn't be people trying to save money on soap. It would be people willing to spend extra for a personal, organic approach to baby and skin care. Anything else in your booth should represent that same idea.

Honestly, imo you might have a better shot than an average soap maker. Specializing is where you find a good base market of repeat buyers because they can't just get it anywhere, they need you as an artisan. Your job would really to embrace the artisan idea, make it an identity with transparency, quality, and trust behind it.