Shop Bargainista had our first pop up a few weeks ago! Were you able to make it out? If not that’s ok because we want to tell you all about our first pop up experience as a first time vendor, how we prepared for it, and so much more! If you missed this one, Guess what?! Our next pop up at Melannaire Marketplace on 4th St. LIVE is Saturday, September 18th from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm and we hope to see you there!!!
Preparation:
Let’s start with preparation. This was my first pop up so I had no idea what I would need, how I would set up so I went to YouTube for some inspiration. I watched a video of another small business about her first pop up which was extremely helpful. I will link it below. She talked about a ton of things that I would not have thought of, for instance a portable charger and even having cash for transactions. I’m such a card person, I didn’t really even think to accept cash too. If you’re thinking of doing a first pop up, watch it in addition of reading this post because there was lots of helpful information.
https://youtu.be/GtEKsyzI6So
Our first Pop up was on 4th St. Live’s for Melannaire Marketplace. This particular pop up was in support of small black businesses. I’ll go into more detail a little later in this post. At this pop up, a 6 ft table, table cloth and chair was provided in the cost of being a vendor, so that was convenient. So keep that in mind when I talk about my preparation and what I packed for this particular pop up.
What Do I Need:
My first step was organizing items I felt like I needed:
I knew that my table would be a full display of Shop Bargainista accessories so I made a list of everything I needed for the table.
· Bracelet Display
· Multiple Necklace Displays
· Ring Display
· Earring Display
· Sunglass Display
· Tray Displays
· Acrylic Stands for height
· Velvet Hangers
· Price Tags
· Marker
· Tape
· Scissors
· Business Card Holder
· Signage
As far as signage, I used a gold letter board. I like the letter board because I can change up what it says on it. I didn’t feel like I needed any type of pop up sign or anything since I had both sides of my table covered. I bought two gold frames from Dollar Tree and typed a little about us and our mission and put that in one frame and in the other did connect with us and put our social media info. I ordered most of my items from Amazon or purchased from Michaels.
Gold Frames: Dollar Tree
Letter Board: Ross
As for surrounding the table, I knew on one side I wanted to have a clothing rack and on the other my mannequin Estelle. The best way for me to practice my set up was in my family room. I cleared my table, added two stools to the end of the table. The length of the table came out to be around the length that my actual table would be at the vendor pop up so it worked out perfectly. Here’s a picture of my practice set up vs my actual set up. (see below)
Additional items that I brought for set up.
· Clothing rack
· Mannequin Estelle
· Purse Display
Practice Makes Perfect:
Since you know all about the preparation, I'm attaching a pic so you can see how I practiced my set up right from my living room. I do very well seeing things visually. I took a picture of my mock set up so when I arrived at the pop up, I could literally just set up from my picture. It really helped a lot.
I packed everything in plastics bins. Let me tell you, set up was no joke. 4th St. Live is located in the heart of Downtown Louisville, KY, it’s busy and it was a lot lugging everything so this is where I can give some advice. It was perfect how I packed everything in clear bins, but I highly highly recommend portable wagons if you’re going to attend a vendor pop up. I watched people transport via a wagon and that seems to be a much easier option by far so I’ve already ordered pink ones!
So now that we’ve covered how I packed everything, my practice set-up, the items that I packed, let’s talk about the financial aspect and additional items I packed.
I purchased a pink cash drawer. Yes, it had to be pink, I have square for my method of payment so I brought my square insert and my iPad. I also brought my laptop (in case I needed to charge my phone in it, a portable charger too. In my cash drawer I kept a roll of each coin, 50 ones and everything else 10’s and 5’s. I only had two cash transactions, everyone pretty much used a card which is what I honestly expected. I also had cash app available as a payment method.
So transaction items were as follows:
· Cash drawer
· Cash
· IPad
· Square insert for iPad
· A pen
Marketing Materials:
As for packaging of Shop Bargainista bargains, something that the YouTube video recommended was having multiple different sized bags. I had stickers made for the front of my bags, wrapped all items in tissue paper, added a 4x6 barg card (thank you card) to each bag, as well as my business card. I want people to have the whole experience when shopping with Shop Bargainista.
Entice the customers:
Something else I did was have a giveaway at my table. I used a candy container, peeled the old sticker off and put my label on there. In order for you to qualify for the giveaway, you had to follow @shopbargainista on Instagram, fill out your information and tell me your preference of silver and gold. So having a giveaway or something that entices people to your table is also something fun to do.
I think for the most part I’ve covered everything. My biggest take away was ordering a wagon. I felt I had done so much preparation through the week leading up to the pop up that I was ready when the actual day came (Side note create a price sheet too, if you have so much merch you're not sure what the price is) Now that I’ve covered that, lets actually talk about Melannaire Marketplace at 4th St. Live and how it went.
Melannaire Marketplace:
A family friend told me about Melannaire Marketplace and I took a look at it on Instagram. There goal is to highlight black businesses and let the community know that black businesses in Louisville matter. Once doing some research into the organization, their mission and goals, I filled out a vendor app and on August 14th 2021, I was on 4th St. Live at the Melannaire Market and let me tell you what an incredible experience. In addition to being on 4th St. LIVE on the 3rd Saturday of each month, they also have the Melannaire Market at the Mall on Broadway every Saturday from 12:00pm to 5:00 pm, it's all about supporting black businesses! To have the opportunity to be highlighted on such a platform as 4th st. LIVE as a small black business owner was just such a wonderful experience. Everything was set up beautifully, there were so many phenomenal black vendors, great music and lit people, I mean just overall such a bomb experience and I look so forward to doing it again. I haven't set up as a vendor at the Mall on Broadway, but I've gone to show support to my fellow black business owners.
I truly admire Nachand Trabue. She is the founder of the Melannaire Marketplace, the talented woman who honed in on the need for black businesses to have a place to flourish. I've had the opportunity to speak with her a few times and she has the most genuine down to earth spirit and truly wants to see black businesses succeed! Oh and did I mention she started all this in the middle of the pandemic last year?! That speaks for itself. She created something beautiful in the midst of a storm. I'm attaching a link below for your viewing, it's all about how Melannaire Marketplace got started. Make sure you watch it, it's truly so inspirational!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CTVB-2yAm_k/?utm_medium=copy_link
Overall, my experience at my first pop up was more of a success than I could have ever imagined. Make sure you check out. @melannairemarketplace and @4thstlive on instagram so you can learn more about black businesses to support and activities to do around Louisville.
Until our next post,
Xoxo,
Shop Bargainista
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