# Gift baskets



## Neve (Nov 16, 2014)

So, I'm one day into a two day fair. I figured I never made much money selling single bars so I stayed up late last night making gift baskets. 

All day sold single bars and guest sized bars and not one basket! I was counting on the basket sales to actually make some decent money. 

Any ideas for tomorrow to get these baskets moving?

People were grabbing soaps out of the boxes on the front right corner - oddly enough snapping up all the artists bars and salt bars. No-one ever showed any interest in the artist bars before!

I've made my table fee back, and lunch, tomorrow I need to basically sell all of it. It's the only market I plan on doing.


----------



## The Efficacious Gentleman (Nov 16, 2014)

I think that open baskets are a good way to go - they can put a certain number of soaps of their choice in to it and get a discount on the price of the individual bars. 

So if they only like two type of bar, they fill the basket with them (you set the number of bars permissible).


----------



## Tilia (Nov 16, 2014)

I think the look of the baskets could be better. Personally I want a basket to be beautiful and useful later on. From these pictures it looks like they are in cheap, disposable food containers? And I think that letting your customers fill the basket would help also.


----------



## goji_fries (Nov 16, 2014)

Dollar store baskets


----------



## cmzaha (Nov 16, 2014)

Count your blessing you have made your booth fee and lunch. Baskets have never worked for me. I just take tissue and white handle bags in case someone wants to put something together. Hopefully tomorrow will be good for you


----------



## shunt2011 (Nov 16, 2014)

I too have never had much luck with baskets. The exception is regular customers making special orders.  Good luck on your second day.  Hope you sell a lot.


----------



## pamielynn (Nov 16, 2014)

I've never done well with pre-made baskets, either. People want you to change out "this" scent for that "scent" and whatnot.

This year I teamed up with a local gift basket company. They made me a "demo basket" for free and I put their flyers in my customer bags. I tell people they can take their products to this basket company, point to the "demo" and say "this is how amazing your products will look!". Gets me off the hook when customers ask if I do gift baskets and the basket company is getting a few orders from my customers. 

Plus, when I have had baskets made up at my table, the customers take WAY too long in deciding what they want to buy.


----------



## navigator9 (Nov 16, 2014)

I'm another one who has never done well with baskets. I've never been able to figure it out. I made sure they were really pretty and well priced.....and still they didn't move. People didn't mention anything about not having a choice of what was in the basket, but I don't know, maybe open baskets are the way to go, if you're going to do it.I think I've only sold one, that's right one basket ever. And they're hard to transport, so I don't even bother any more.

What has sold better for me, but not by much, is gift sets. Four of a kind.....like four beer soaps, boxed, with a bow. My single bars fly off the table, but I haven't been able to pin down why the others don't sell. You'd think that at busy holiday time, a complete gift, with a bow, that you just need to add a gift tag to, would be popular. Go figure! (shoulder shrug)

I do sometimes offer a nice wooden soap dish, with two bars of soap, tied with a bow, and those sell fairly well, but people do want to untie the bow and  switch out the soaps for others, so it's better to have one done up so that they can see what it will look like, and make them up at their request. Good luck to you!


----------



## cmzaha (Nov 16, 2014)

navigator9 said:


> I'm another one who has never done well with baskets. I've never been able to figure it out. I made sure they were really pretty and well priced.....and still they didn't move. People didn't mention anything about not having a choice of what was in the basket, but I don't know, maybe open baskets are the way to go, if you're going to do it.I think I've only sold one, that's right one basket ever. And they're hard to transport, so I don't even bother any more.
> 
> What has sold better for me, but not by much, is gift sets. Four of a kind.....like four beer soaps, boxed, with a bow. My single bars fly off the table, but I haven't been able to pin down why the others don't sell. You'd think that at busy holiday time, a complete gift, with a bow, that you just need to add a gift tag to, would be popular. Go figure! (shoulder shrug)
> 
> I do sometimes offer a nice wooden soap dish, with two bars of soap, tied with a bow, and those sell fairly well, but people do want to untie the bow and switch out the soaps for others, so it's better to have one done up so that they can see what it will look like, and make them up at their request. Good luck to you!


 I am totally with you on this. A few times I tried putting a bar on a soap dish in a nice gold bottom clear box with a ribbon. Did not sell but a couple of them. I simply gave up on it. I do have success at selling our marshmallow and our decorative glycerin soaps in a christmas coffee cup. They go over quite well during the season. But my cp soap sells best as single bars so they can pick and choose. A couple of yrs ago I watched a poor girl sell 3 gift boxes in 2 days. It was all she had and it simply did not work for her although her gift boxes were put together and were beautiful. They all had matching fragrances and she had decorated the insides of the boxes with pearls, christmas decorations etc and all color matched. I felt extremely sorry for her


----------



## Neve (Nov 16, 2014)

Well today I am not even selling singles. Slow morning


----------



## HorseCreek (Nov 16, 2014)

I'm afraid that's how the season is going to go. I had a big craft fair yesterday (my biggest money maker for the year), and I sold not much more than half of what I sold last year. I was really bummed!


----------



## Neve (Nov 16, 2014)

And that is exactly what happened... I made half of what I did last year  I didn't have soaps last year I had headbands and hats at a higher price point than single bars of soap. So although I had probably more sales, I made way less money. I was counting on the gift baskets and there was just no interest in them. I wanted to at least get back the $300-odd dollars I spent on supplies and then some. Biggest market of the year, a market a lot of people go to, and total fail. Ugh.



HorseCreek said:


> I'm afraid that's how the season is going to go. I had a big craft fair yesterday (my biggest money maker for the year), and I sold not much more than half of what I sold last year. I was really bummed!


----------



## girlishcharm2004 (Nov 17, 2014)

Never sold a gift basket.  I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to make them because I don't even like buying gift baskets of _any _kind. Ha.


----------



## cmzaha (Nov 17, 2014)

I am very sorry to hear your market was not better for you. It is so darn discouraging. And who said the economy is turning around....


----------



## Relle (Nov 17, 2014)

I did gift baskets as a job for a while and sorry to say, your baskets need to be a lot more presentable than they are to get sales. Doing flat trays just doesn't work and they need to be more up market.


----------



## pamielynn (Nov 17, 2014)

Relle said:


> I did gift baskets as a job for a while and sorry to say, your baskets need to be a lot more presentable than they are to get sales. Doing flat trays just doesn't work and they need to be more up market.



And THAT'S why I refer people out . Making baskets is one skill I simply do not possess. I am always amazed at what talented people can do with a basket and a bunch of product. 

My basket making skill stops at a popcorn bowl with free movie passes and microwave popcorn, LOL.


----------



## Susie (Nov 17, 2014)

cmzaha said:


> I am very sorry to hear your market was not better for you. It is so darn discouraging. And who said the economy is turning around....



The federal government keeps telling us it is turning around.  You know...those folks that want their party to go back into power after these elections.  I am not picking on one party or the other.  If the other party were in control, they would be telling us the same thing.


----------



## Neve (Nov 17, 2014)

I wasn't able to find cheap baskets and I had half a day to put it all together. We were required to have some holiday theme on our tables.


----------



## Relle (Nov 18, 2014)

You don't need a basket as such to put together a gift presentation. You can use any form that will hold your goods - bowls, any kitchen type equipment etc. you just need height at the back and then layer it forward. Plenty of shredding will do this and if you don't have shredding use tissue, just bulk it up to make it look full.

 I can usually get a basket done in 15 mins, but that's with a lot of practice, so with 1/2 day - I would say 4 - 6 would have been enough to cover you for a Holiday theme.


----------



## Saponista (Nov 18, 2014)

I went to a craft fair last weekend and saw some great holiday themed ideas. One person had combined two candy canes with a wooden soap dish and a bar of soap on top all packaged together with a bow to look like a sleigh. They looked lovely, were a reasonable price and were selling like hot cakes. They also wrapped bars of soap in brown facecloths and stuck on eyes and a nose with pipe cleaner antlers to look like Rudolph. They were selling well too. Perhaps you could try some gift packages that are cheaper and smaller than a basket.


----------



## Neve (Nov 21, 2014)

I had smaller packages. Twin packs of soap tied with raffia. Set of three minibars. A nice round men's soap with packaging. It was odd - almost everyone was diving into the salt bars and artists bars. The artists bar which was previously ignored almost sold out. 

I've since sold three gift packs by advertising on FB and people liked how they looked. 

The reason I wanted a table full of gift packs was to try and make a decent amount of money. Selling single bars doesn't add up to much. I was going for higher value sales and that didn't happen. People bought singles. But the three people who came to my house to look at leftovers spent about $45 each and all bought a gift basket. 

I'm officially done with markets I keep trying them and I don't do well in them. People spend their money at the jewellery tables.


----------



## cmzaha (Nov 21, 2014)

Saponista said:


> I went to a craft fair last weekend and saw some great holiday themed ideas. One person had combined two candy canes with a wooden soap dish and a bar of soap on top all packaged together with a bow to look like a sleigh. They looked lovely, were a reasonable price and were selling like hot cakes. They also wrapped bars of soap in brown facecloths and stuck on eyes and a nose with pipe cleaner antlers to look like Rudolph. They were selling well too. Perhaps you could try some gift packages that are cheaper and smaller than a basket.


I know where I live in California we cannot and in any food items without have all the permits for selling food. We can give it away, but if added to an item being sold it is a no


----------



## Saponista (Nov 21, 2014)

I guess I can see the logic behind the permit for selling food. I wonder if that applies in the uk and the lady I saw with the candy canes just didn't realise.


----------



## navigator9 (Nov 21, 2014)

Neve said:


> The reason I wanted a table full of gift packs was to try and make a decent amount of money. Selling single bars doesn't add up to much. I was going for higher value sales and that didn't happen. People bought singles
> 
> I'm officially done with markets I keep trying them and I don't do well in them. People spend their money at the jewellery tables.



Have you tried buy so many and get one free deal? I sell 5 and get the 6th free, and I sell a LOT of those.


----------



## Spice (Nov 21, 2014)

cmzaha said:


> I know where I live in California we cannot and in any food items without have all the permits for selling food. We can give it away, but if added to an item being sold it is a no



What part of Cali do you live in, I live over by Sac.?



Neve said:


> So, I'm one day into a two day fair. I figured I never made much money selling single bars so I stayed up late last night making gift baskets.
> 
> All day sold single bars and guest sized bars and not one basket! I was counting on the basket sales to actually make some decent money.
> 
> ...


Your soaps are beautiful! The baskets need some work. They look like meat trays to me too. Im not an artist and I have a heard time decorating, if I would be doing baskets I would use old baskets with xmas colored shred and fill them with soap. I find that when buying for others, its the , "I dont know if they will like it," is what makes the deal.


----------



## Consuela (Nov 21, 2014)

The only time I ever did good with baskets, was at a market I attended, 10 days before Christmas. Boyfriends. Husbands. Last Minute Shoppers. "Quick I need something for my girlfriend, You got a $50 basket?" or "I need something for a staff gift exchange under $25".

And by good, I mean that I made 15, and I sold about 10. And it was only ever that ONE market. I have NOT had luck with baskets since. 

And tying bows? I think I'd rather slit my wrists. Some people are good at bows - I am not. Usually I would sanction my Mom to make a ton of bows for me to have on hand - then if I got a request, I would make a basket... 

If anything - have a couple of baskets. Just a few. If they're hot sellers - and people start asking - start taking orders for them. You can always make them at home and they can pick them up or you can deliver. But hauling lots of baskets to fairs....is severely annoying....and if you make too many baskets - breaking them open again to get your product out...seems like a waste for all the hardwork of wrapping and bowing.

(Even if you were just watching tv while doing it all...)


----------



## Neve (Nov 23, 2014)

Well they are taking up space so I think I will pull them apart now. It would be nice to keep the pumpkin pie fragrances together but I don't want to spend any money on real baskets. Not unless I can find them for 50c anyway. The don't look quite as bad as the crappy iPhone photo seems. Especially the ones just in cello bags. I did them that way because friends sold big with that kind of packaging last year. And I didn't have time for anything better. Really truly didn't have time. The rest of the table looked good so that helped. Actually maybe too much it took the focus off the baskets!


----------



## navigator9 (Nov 23, 2014)

I forgot to mention that I do sell some tiny "baskets", actually frosted take out containers, that hold 2 bars of soap. These do OK, not terribly well, but OK. I line them with colored tissue, and they have a pretty bow and tag on them. They make a nice, small gift. As dismal as sales are on anything but single bars, I like to give people a choice, just in case they're looking for a gift item.


----------



## samirish (Nov 27, 2014)

I think they would move better if they had more color..like maybe a colorful bow.


----------



## Jstar (Dec 5, 2014)

navigator9 said:


> Have you tried buy so many and get one free deal? I sell 5 and get the 6th free, and I sell a LOT of those.



I agree with this..people LOVE freebies.

To quote my brother:

"If its a rock and its free, I want it"


----------

