Online Vendor Fair Tips

Are you looking into participating with Online Direct Sales Vendor Fairs? If so, we have some valuable tips for you. There are a lot of things to consider and look for when signing up to do a Online Vendor Fair or Show.

Here are the things you need to consider before signing up to do a Online Direct Sales Vendor Fair Show.

1. Convenience....are the times posted for the Vendor Fair Time Slots, convenient...what I mean by this....are the time slots great ones that can be utilized by all time zones? We have found that time slots starting at 3pm EST time and running through Midnight EST time are best.
2. Is there a Fair Buzz? Are you seeing Fair Advertising? Are you seeing others talking about it? Does it have a previously established success rate? You want to make sure the Online Vendor Fair is being properly advertised and that their is a "buzz" about it going on through-out the work at home mom communities.
3. Fair Spots should run 30-60 minutes in length. Anything under 30 minutes is a joke in my opinion. I once attended a fair that the vendors had 10 minute spots. By the time they got done with their intro, they cut them off and moved onto the next vendor. Anything over 60 minutes loses the customers attention.
4. Be prepared ahead of time. Type up what you want to say, the specials you are running and so forth. Proof-read it and then copy/paste when its your time to present.
5. Will there be staff or owner of the fair in the chat room at all times? This is important because you will get unprofessional people who run around who invade chat rooms to cause trouble. So make sure the fair host or staff will be present should problems arise. PHYSICALLY present in the chat room! Not available via PM, IM or email.
6. Incentives for Fair Shoppers! Will there be contest drawings? Fair only specials? All of this helps to attract shoppers to the event.
7. Is there a back up chat room? When we hold fairs we have a back up chat room available should the host server go down. This is also an important fact that is often over looked. I also prefer fairs that the owner uses a PAID chat room. They are more reliable, have nicer features and if trouble makers show up, they can be booted and banned. Using Free chat rooms are not as secure as paid chat rooms. Make sure you ask the fair site owner if the room that the fair will be hosted in is a secure chat room.
8. Rules and Guidelines for Vendors. I think this helps to run a cohesive fair. Vendors should know UP FRONT what their responsibilities will be. Vendors should have to agree to them before signing up.
9. Reasonable Vendor Fee's aka the costs. I think it should be less than $20 per spot. You might also be required to offer a game with prize during your vendor spot and/or a prize for a Grand Prize Fair Drawing (if applicable).
10. Reputation...extremely important! There are way too many website owners doing these vendor fairs and not properly promoting them! They are taking your hard earned money and it ends up being a handful (less than 5 people) in the fair and they are ALL vendors! Talk to previous fair participant's to find out their experience with this particular fair before signing up.
11. Variety...again this is important! You don't want to attend or participate in a fair that doesn't have a variety of vendors on board! The more variety, the more shoppers it pulls in. I once attended a fair that had 4 XYZ consultants in 1 1/2 days! Then there were 3 other cosmetic companies also being presented during that time...too many cosmetic consultants! So make sure there is a variety. I like to see fairs that limit it to ONLY 2 reps per company and that those reps can NOT present on the same day.
12. Is this fair being held on a professional looking website? I get irritated when I see these fair owners charging for fair spots but hosting the fair on a freebie website and using a freebie chat room or the website is not professionally done. Customers upon entering a fair site or chat room should see professional looking sites! You want customers to take your business seriously!
13. Is there Vendor Orientation Chats before the fair begins? I feel this is helpful too, especially to newbie vendors! Orientation Chats should occur to explain to you the process of the fair, your responsibilities and so forth.
14. Is there sufficient Pre-Fair communication between the vendor and fair site owner? Are they keeping you informed on things before the fair starts? I feel this is important too...way too many times I see NO communication between Fair owner and the Vendors.
15. Are you added to the Fair Schedule Promptly? How often is the public fair schedule updated? I had a friend who did a online fair and the fair owner took 9 days to add her to the fair schedule! You want to make sure that you are added to the Online Vendor Fair Schedule within 48 hours.
16. Are you provided with free banners, buttons and fair ads? We provide free banners, buttons and ads to our Vendors so they can help us advertise the fair as a WHOLE. This is great advertising and should be utilized. We require our vendors to help us advertise the event. The more we all pitch in to help advertise the event, the better the turn out and success!
17. I also believe Vendors should be screened. Is this fair site owner allowing anyone and everyone to be a vendor? Are they checking out the Vendors to make sure they are legit? You don't want one bad vendor ruining the entire fair for everyone.
18. Frequency of Fairs. How often is this fair site holding Vendor Fairs? If they are weekly, I would yield caution. Too many fairs burn out both vendors and customers.

Online Vendor Fairs can really help to get your name and business out there in front of other people if they are done properly. You want others to take you and your business seriously so its important to ONLY participate with Reputable Fair Site Owners who heavily advertise their events. Way too often these days we see Fair Site Owners only holding Vendor Fairs so they can collect vendor sign-up fees. We will be putting together a list in the near future of reputable Online Vendor Fair Sites & Groups.

The ~Classy Chic Network~