Indoor Merchants

INSIDE MAKER INFORMATION

What does “inside or indoor maker” mean?

There are two parts to Mermade Market - inside makers and outside makers. Together, they make for a truly magical event! The building on the site is used for our “inside” shopping where 45 shops beautifully display their products for all 3 days, retail style, and they don’t stay at their space to sell. There simply isn’t room for that, plus, that’s not what it was created for. The inside portion of Mermade is a huge reason why we created Mermade in the first place! In fact, we didn’t add the outside area of the market until 4 years later. As handmade market customers ourselves, we loved the idea of being able to shop, pressure-free. We do, however, love a dynamic set of makers that are interacting and selling direct to customer. Makers that can sell well, play it cool, and actually thrive off customers who want to “meet the maker” are best for our outside market..so if you’re the type of person that wants to be there to sell, check out our outside information and see if one of those days would be better to sell. For those of you that want a relaxed way to enjoy the market as a maker, or perhaps you get nervous to sell, have a full-time day job, are busy with family life, etc… we gotchyou! There are multiple registers run by Mermade staff available at one, single exit point where customers check out. We carefully track each sale using unique IDs per maker & pay within 1 week of the market’s last day. If you sign up for this, it is required of you that 2 weeks prior to the event date, you send us your inventory list & prices.

SCHEDULE

Set-Up: Thursday, November 14@ 1-5pm

If you show up past 5pm on Thursday, you will be charged $100. If you show up past 5pm, you will not be able to participate in the show.

**** You cannot set up Friday am. !!!!! *******

Show Dates/Times:

Friday Nov 15 / 9AM – 6PM

Saturday Nov 16 / 9AM – 5PM

Sunday Nov 17/ 9AM – 5PM

Take-Down: Sunday Nov 17 / 5PM SHARP

Please to be punctual for both Set up & Take down!

HOW TO DISPLAY

Below are space options for our INSIDE space! To help with space planning, we offer many suggestions & tips on how to use your space in the wisest way possible. For example, creative use of book shelves, lights, and cork boards can help build your space. Consider hanging slender metal pipes over your space to hang shirts. All are better than a table with products laying flat on them. Makers that have come to us for tips finish the show with even more display ideas because they had a crash course on using their space wisely! For some of our makers, it’s their first time doing an event and the first time our customer has heard of their shop, so we want to make a great & lasting impression.

SPACE OPTIONS:

3' x 2' JR MAKER

3′ x 4′ Space

3′ x 6' Space

3′ x 8′ Space

3′ x 12′ Space

Shared Shelf for dedicated Treats

TIPS:

The 3 feet in the spaces above, describes the DEPTH of your space. The other number is the width.

You MUST have your shop name listed somewhere in your space. This allows our staff on the floor to quickly answer customer’s questions & for customers to feel like it is a legit shop, not just some product thrown together.

Add some OOMPH to your space! Think fresh, hanging greenery, potted plants, or perhaps flowers bordering your peg board.

Click below to see our Pinterest Board to give you some space inspiration to get those creative wheels of yours flowing in a new way! This is especially helpful if you’ve sold with us before. Keep it fresh!

Think shelving, think new shapes, think twinkle LIGHTS to show off your amazing product. We offer power to each maker, so be sure to bring your own extension cord with your shop name attached to it.

Try & get away from the idea of a plain table. Blah. So boring! Of course, some products demand a need for a table, so use the table as support then dream up a better display to go on top.

If you are a first timer to our show and feel you may need extra help working through how to display your product, please check in with us! We want your booth to elevate your products and keep the customer at your table longer than a quick, walk by.

INVENTORY

It is highly encouraged that you have extra inventory ready to replenish what is out on your display. Since it’s a 3 day event, unlike other 1 day markets, makers have sold out in the past! It can be a big bummer to see the potential of sales lost for the maker, as well as a loss for Mermade in offering a space that could have been used by a shop that would have been more prepared.

Our Mermade Team stores and manage restock for our inside makers. If you have a shop space where you can store your restock inventory in bins hidden away or even in cute bins on a lower shelf, go for it! We will give you instructions on how to organize your restock inventory, both under your space and in the backroom.

You are also welcome to stop by and restock your shelves, but we ask you do so during the slower hours, usually later afternoon. If you are trying to restock when it’s busy hours, we may ask you to come back later. If you absolutely must come during the busy hours, plan to restock quickly without carrying bulky boxes, sitting in front of your space, spreading out the goods, etc. as it can cause customers to skip shopping your space. As you restock, MAKE SURE ALL RESTOCK ITEMS ARE PRICED! Also note that any change in prices since sending in your inventory sheet, must be reported & emailed ahead of time. Prices cannot be changed on your labels without getting approval from our team first!

HOW TO LABEL

We will create a unique Mermade ID for each our of makers and they will be issued to you when you’re accepted to the market. Then 2-3 weeks before the show, we send you detailed info on how to label your products and how to make sure that each product you sell, is in fact, labeled correctly so we can enter it into the Mermade register.

For example our unique ID will look like this, followed by the price: MM34 $15

Please have every single product clearly labeled with your vendors ID and the price. Make sure they are large enough to be seen quickly at the registers. However, do NOT have your tag larger than the item you're selling.

Please affix tags neatly and professionally, so they stay put and we can be sure to give you credit for every single sale. If your price isn’t on tag, and there is a line of shoppers, we may have to guess what the price is based on your other items.

IF YOU DO NOT LABEL YOUR PRODUCTS CORRECTLY OR AT ALL, WE WILL TAKE OUT $100 FROM YOUR FINAL PAYMENT.

Shared Shelf Treats

If you are a “treat” maker, this will be your space! A single (or two) shelf space(s) will be dedicated to your products on a tall bookshelf that sits directly next to the 4 registers. Our loyal Mermade customers looks forward to this because it’s a treat while they shop or wait to check out, a reward for their mini shopping buddies, and the perfect gift to say thank you to their babysitter for taking the kids while they shopped solo.

We’ve learned a lot in the past shows and these treats should not be priced more than $10. Our team makes sure they are replenished often as they sell out quick. We have the option to store excess product for restock in a fridge if needed! If you aren't coming often to restock, or you live far away and aren’t able to restock the fridge/shop space often, we suggest you apply only as an outside maker.

We select only 4 makers max for this shelf, so we don’t overwhelm our customers. Only one maker for each category (i.e. one cookie maker, one chocolate-y treat.. and so on). If you sell multiple treats, we may ask you that you only make one if it conflicts with other makers’ items.

You will be required to get a TFF. That’s listed on the application page with instructions. Please do not apply for it until you are accepted.

Jewelry Makers

Tried and tested truths: you cannot sell your items inside plastic bags. Intentions are good with keeping everything organized, but sales show us that people steer clear of them and . it can look/feel tacky. However, we do require that you provide the customer with some sort of take home box or baggie. Customers will bring them to the registers to package up after purchase. If you don’t, we will take $20 off your final sales because we will would provide them all 3 days. We know customers appreciate it so they don’t have to throw their beautiful necklace that will get tangled up in with the other merchandise they buy. I repeat: LEAVE BAGS OR BOXES FOR THEM AT YOUR SHOP SPACE!

Junior Makers, 14 + under

We love, love, love including junior makers in our market! They are the perfect addition to our space. Often these kids have been shoppers with their parents at past markets & leave inspired and empowered to start making product, just to sell at Mermade. We are only able to do this option if we get at least 2 approved makers that have a good-fitting product. You are allotted 2 feet WIDE of store space and 3 feet deep. We give you the space shelf so all you need to bring is your finished products!

Also note, if you have a company that’s been up & running for a while, but you are under 18 yrs, this option doesn’t apply to you. Even if your parent applies for you & if we can see your product is already off to a great start, then you can get your own space. The junior space is very small & not meant for a larger business. If it’s money you are nervous on spending (under 18, looking at you)- then perhaps look into the “boutique” section.

Advertising

Upon your acceptance, we will send you a stack of postcards to share with customers, family, friends, etc. as well as versions to email and post online. Be sure to leverage all social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, websites and blogs. The more people that know of the market, the more will come see our collective awesome-ness! We recommend avoiding advertising too soon, or else followers can forget or can get tired of hearing about it by the time the market starts. We’ve found that 1 month prior is a great time to start posting/talking, with a few reminders has we get 1 week out and for sure the day of. * 2021, not sending these flyers bc of Covid

Social Media Marketing

If you would like your shop to be featured, send an email to us @ hello@mermademarket.com and we’ll get your situated. We have options in our applications for guaranteed social media shout outs, giveaways & swag if you want to get in on it! We really enjoy reposting & sharing in your excitement using your beautiful photos you post. We can’t do it for every shop in the market year time, but know that we appreciate and love seeing your posts with @mermademarket tagged! If we don’t get tagged, chances are we won’t see it and can’t repost. If you’d like secure a spot on our high-traffic social media pages, then please inquire on your application.

Liabilities

Please know that we do our absolute best to keep your items safe! However, in the unfortunate event that something goes missing or is broken, we cannot be held responsible. We WILL have after-hours security between each event day and we also closely monitor the venue during open hours because we are constantly cleaning & walking around the spaces.

FAQ

Custom product options and forms are not commonly filled out by our customers inside, so if you feel like you would need this to be successful in sales, outside is a better fit. You can have a sign at your shop space that says something like "We offer customization!" or supply a sign up sheet/mailing list to customers so they can learn more.
If you can’t be there to set up your shop space or cannot find someone to help you, then you cannot do the inside portion of the market. There is no other set up date or option besides Thursday 1-5pm. Nov 14. Once the show starts Friday morning, it is GO TIME and there will be no time for any sort of set up.
The entire event is free for customers. Inside & outside. Parking. All of it!