Can you Spot the Mistake in my Booth?

Yesterday I mentioned that I made a mistake with my booth design during my last set up. Can you spot my mistake? It led to customers skimming my booth, without really looking at the work.

Lets see. Lights? Yes I do need some on the tables, but that was not the problem. The brown skirts are distracting, but still not the issue here..... Maybe a look at what I consider good designs and a look at booths that made the same mistake (at least from the pictures it looks that way).


These booths that made the same visual mistake I did.. Can you spot it yet?

 

Ok, what if I show you what I consider a better booth?

I am not an expert on craft show by any means. I just know what has worked for me in the past. Each and every time I try to do a U-Shape setup, I have trouble and don't make good sales. The reason, because it is hard for people to really see my work when they walk by.

But when I put a table of my work out front (as my good example booths have done), I have noticed that people tend to follow the tables into my booth. I actually prefer the Z-Shaped setup. And I have done very well with it in the past. During the show before my November 7th show, I thought had little choice but to due a U shape, due to the booth size. And since I had the same width as the previous show, I did the same setup. And that is where I went wrong. I know the Z-Shape works for my work, and I should try to continue using it! 

There is also a psychology behind it. People seem to have an easier time committing to walking into a booth, if there is a small barrier. (I have no idea why, just a trend I have noticed). Even tested this a few years back during a 2 day show. The girls beside us had an open u shaped booth when they setup. On Saturday they made a handful of sales and were really bummed (especially because I was making sales hand over fist right next to them).   On Sunday, I talked them into re-arranging their booth so they could be behind the tables. Sunday is always the slower of the two days at this show, and this year was no exception on attendance. But for the girls next to me, you would have thought they had an entire bus load of people there to buy from them. They quadrupled their sales from the day before.



For the record, both booths that were beside me did a lot of sales. And both of those booths had merchandise facing/sitting in the aisle.  And I had all my merchandise facing inside my booth.