After a show-free December, I was anxious to get the cash register ringing at Coconut Point, Howard Alan's first event of Florida high season (or "last-show-of-the-year", depending on your perspective). I'd invested not much money but quite a bit of time during the break installing the Square's point-of-sale software and Fresh Books cloud accounting and reporting software, putting all my items into its inventory and price point systems, and figuring out how I could tweak them to get an at-a-glance view of the business in 2013. I was really looking forward to seeing how that improved the customer checkout experience.
Unfortunately, but through no fault of the Howard Alan folks, I didn't gather much data--or moolah, either. Instead of my speedy, high-tech gizmos, I could have gone all retro and serviced my few customers with a stone tablet and abacus beads and not missed a beat.
The crowds came strong, as they always do, to this jewel of the Southwest Florida shopping scene. And some folks sold very well, indeed. But I was among the downtrodden on this trip, selling less than I'd sold at the much smaller Naples Thanksgiving show, and about two-thirds less than past experience here had led me to expect.
I didn't do a great deal of walking around during show hours, but I did a lot of asking around during load-out. And it seems that the folks who fared best (sales of $4K and up on the weekend) were selling at high price points: Large paintings and photographs for the high-ceilinged, Mediterranean-style homes in this area (at price points of $800 and up); expensive glass sculptures, and the like. Some folks, like myself, who didn't meet expectations were selling at middle price points, and, as more than one artist said to me, "the middle class folks weren't buying." A jeweler near me had sold one item as of early Sunday afternoon; a painter finally had a $1200 buyer (for a half-dozen reproductions) in mid-afternoon of Day 2 to get her, more or less, in the black. A photographer friend had a decent show, thanks to a single large buyer. Another artist nearby, like myself, struggled to crack $1K.
I had lots of traffic through my booth, to be sure: About a half-dozen folks who are about to close on new homes, but not quite at the "furnishing stage"; some potentially nice marketing opportunities (about which more later); but no buyers of my (typically) 24x30 inch canvases of Florida bird life, at price points from the low $200s to high $400s. (Last year, I sold seven.)
Matted prints moved slowly, too, as browsers didn't seem impressed with a "15% off both if you buy two" offer. I might have done better, had I adjusted on the fly.
Lots of the stores surrounding the show had 20 to 50 percent off signs in their windows; maybe that's what the middle-income shoppers were looking for. But the word around the tents was that, if Joe Sixpack was made nervous by fiscal cliffs and bills from Christmas past, the upper-income buyers weren't. And that may be an observation worth paying attention to as the winter season continues.
"Go big, or go home," as they say.
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Other notes:
*This is a Friday, all-day, setup show. Easy and well-managed. Artist parking was tightly restricted this year to the row at the far edge of the movie theatre lot that hosts it. It's a brisk seven-minute walk to the near edge of the show, but an artist shuttle was provided to help out, and it seemed to do the trick.
* It's a busy, busy shopping center, especially with the show falling only four days after Christmas. (I overheard a clerk in the Barnes & Noble store referring to "gift-card-from-Grandma season.") A few visitors mentioned that parking for the show was a bit of a hassle.
* Give yourself lots of time for tear-down: The shopping lots stay filled late at Coconut Point, so if you're hoping to find a spot on the edge of the show and dolly out, it can be a long wait to find space. Many artists just ordered takeout from one of the restaurants and waited until they could pull past the barricades and up to the front of their tent.
* Show quality was very good, as usual for an HAE "A" show. Maybe a little heavier on photography than in years past. Quality may have benefited even more from the lack of a competitor down the road in Naples: The von Liebig's first Fifth Avenue show isn't until next weekend.
Comments
I just came across this slideshow from the Coconut Point show to further round out Geoff's post: http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/inside-coconut-point-new-year-s-w...
No, I did not do Coconut Point. For some reason, we were put on a waitlist for this show as well as this coming w'ends show in Las Olas. I'm off to a prosperious New Year. (LOL)Sorry about the confusion~also, thanks for the above link.
Christine, the topic about show fees is here. Thanks for asking.
I'm a little unclear about what you wrote: Did you do Coconut Point, or were you on the waitlist?
Well done & I too would like to chime in on the "next topic" about entrance fees. Have you started that thread yet? Also a big thanks to Geoff for the update about this past Coconut Point show. It was one of two shows that was sent to the "waitlist." Therefore, following the "no shows"rule in December, like most of us, could have benefited from a couple extra grand. All weekend I wondered the turn out for what is typically a well attended show. I can't help but think some jewelers did well~sorry it didn't turn out so positive for others.
You'll never hear me tell anyone, anywhere, not to start a debate. :-) I just don't want to divert this thread, in case folks want to read about Coconut Point.
Wanna start one on the discussion page?
I grant your point, Nancy, but there's some debate about the impact of an admission (or donation, or extortion, or whatever you want to call it) on customer quality. Do customers at "fee shows" actually spend more? Do fee shows draw a higher percentage of buyers, as opposed to browsers?
This thread isn't the place for that debate, but I'd love to see somebody do quantitative (not anecdotal) research on those two specific questions. Maybe somebody already has. . .
That may have been what I was remembering, Jim! (Damn, 2012 is getting to be a blurry memory already. . . )
The February Coconut Pointe show was the same weekend as Barry Witt's new February Bonita Springs show last year. I was at CP and it seemed as if the crowds were better at CP than down at Bonita, from what I heard from other artists. But sales were diluted for both shows.
Let us know how Miromar goes. Not doing a show that weekend this year. See you at the Cape Coral show.
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