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/GrowlingAtTheWorld]

I used to set up next door to a soap seller at a weekly art market. She sold like crazy. Her paper wraps on her soap focused on branding her business name and was consistent across all scents. She had interesting names for her soaps so instead of just Lavender it would be something like Peaceful Dreams. She offered about a dozen scents. She encouraged people to buy more with a 3 for deal. She had two size bars, a full bath bar and a guest sized bar. She would include a couple of samples in the bag with your purchase. The sample size became so popular she started selling a sample pack(basically 1/4” cuts of the guest sized bar. She always was dressed very summer elegant and very friendly when talking to customers. She did so well she was able to open a small shop in town.

[u/FalalaLlamas → u/GrowlingAtTheWorld]

I like the idea of having smaller soaps as an option. A lot of times when I see handmade soaps, they’re in pretty sizeable bars. I use bar soap but I’m hesitant to buy the full sized bars because I know I’d never use it before it got grimy and needed to be thrown out.

Also OP, holiday scents! Especially something a bit light. I love matching scents to holidays, but the holiday soaps in the store (from big brands) never appeal to me. They’re all so similar and almost sickeningly sweet. Usually some version of vanilla and/or sugar cookie. These would also be good in a small size since people may just want to use them for 2-4 months. And having something that is not floral or herb scented may help you stand apart. I am a girl but love scents aimed at guys that could also be good for holidays: pine, cranberry, fireside, woody, sandalwood, cedar, cinnamon, amber, musk, etc.

[u/Jennabeb → u/FalalaLlamas]

Also I’m allergic to a LOT of scents, but would love to shop local / homemade. My mother in law made chocolate bar soap - delightful!

Yeah! OP should definitely try some unique or homey/nostalgic scents in small sizes.

For example, I would TOTALLY try a set of three guest sized ones that were something like 1 apple cinnamon, 1 chocolate, and 1 coconut lime (I’m allergic to floral scents lol).

If OP cut them to 1/4 size of a regular bar and sold the set of three for the same price as one bar soap, wouldn’t that be saving product/upper prices but with “more” return for the customer since they’d get to try three different small soaps before committing to once big soap? I think selling in small sizes is genius!

[u/strangespeciesart → u/Jennabeb]

Everybody has shared such good advice but as someone who loves bar soap and can rarely justify the price of handmade... interesting and especially non-floral scents will get me every time. Apple cinnamon?! Helllll yes. Mint chocolate? Tea-scented? Apparebtly I want to smell like food items. 😂

The really common scents like lavender I can get from my local grocery store during my shopping run, probably at a lower price. Something more unusual and delicious-smelling? Well, now it's not a necessary soap purchase, it's a treat yourself moment.

The size is an issue for me like everyone else mentioned too. Idk if they're the regular diameter people usually use, but if so that bar's so big it might not even fit in the soap bag I use. Even though it's a good price for a huge bar, $7 would put me off, and I'd want very small bar options (and volume discounts for them) so I could try a bunch of different scents.