Choosing the right products to sell at the flea market depends on many factors. Do you want to cater to the general public or will you target a specific niche of shoppers? While everyday items can bring in the dough, jazzing up your flea market table with trendy items can help increase profits. Learn how to follow trends to make more money at the flea market.
Target a Niche
Before researching trends to choose new flea market products, you must decide who you are trying to attract. For example, if you want to attract more men to your flea market table that sells car accessories, you must find out what is the hot trend in the automotive world. If you are trying to sell costume jewelry to teen girls, you might want to add some Hannah Montana or other similar trends.
It is impossible to target every shopper with a trendy item on your flea market table. You can, however, target multiple niches if you have multiple product lines.
Finding Suppliers
Finding wholesale suppliers for trendy merchandise is not as hard as it might seem. Since the trends are hot sellers in many niches, there are more wholesalers or middle men who want to sell them to retailers. While it may be difficult to buy flea market merchandise direct from the source, especially for licensed items, you should be able to find a supplier whose prices allow for profit.
Use to Attract Customers
Hot trends will only attract people to your flea market table or booth if they notice them. Place the eye-catching trendy objects in the front or at the corner of your table. Display them higher than the other merchandise on risers or racks. Do not shy away from making signs that display the trendy product name.
When Trends Change
When I first started selling at flea markets, every third table was chock full of Beanie Babies. A year or two later, these cute stuffed animals lingered at the flea market, but now had signs saying "Buy One Get One Free," and other desperate loss-leader type of sales. The problem was that too many people jumped on the trend and held on for too long.
When a trend dies, your profits from that trend vanish as well. While flea market vendors must stay on top of emerging trends if they want to make more money with them at the flea market, it is impossible to forcast everything. When sales of a particular trend product line begin to decrease, it is time to get rid of that merchandise as quickly as possible and hunt for the next trend to follow if you want to make more money at the flea market.
