The Crafts Report: Crafts Retailer, April 2006

he best thing about offering trunk shows in your gallery is that everyone benefits — the gallery, the artist and your customers.

Customers get the opportunity to see a broader body of work than is normally available in the gallery. Gallery owners get the opportunity to grow the customer base and increase sales for a particular artist by promoting the trunk show to the community. The artist’s work is set apart from the rest of the merchandise. In addition, gallery staff can often meet the artists and develop a more personal relationship.

The biggest expense would be the time and costs for the artist to get to the gallery. Having the artist present is certainly nice and it does have advantages, but are the advantages great enough to incur the costs involved? Who foots the bill is usually decided on an individual basis, but the costs are often more than many galleries or artists can afford. I believe this is why trunk shows aren’t more popular.

Keeping costs in check
At Craft Company No. 6, we’ve tried to find ways to lessen the financial burden on galleries and artists, while still providing those same benefits.

For example, we don’t require the artist to be present and instead train staff responsible for selling the work in great detail about artist background, processes used, availability of special pieces and how to take a custom order if that is an option.

Most of the trunk shows we host are for jewelers, because that’s our biggest selling department. Besides, jewelry trunk shows are easy to deal with in regard to shipping and display.

That doesn’t mean we don’t host shows featuring larger items, but those shows require significantly more time and expense, so before you agree to do one, be sure you’ve got enough clientele to attend and make it worth your while. For us, one clear example is the Sticks Furniture Trunk Show, which we’ve hosted for the last two years. Our Sticks representative and a Sticks artist come for the weekend of the event to work with our customers taking custom orders. Because of the costs involved in shipping, we don’t have extra work sent for the weekend that would have to be returned if not sold. Instead, we schedule the bulk of our fall orders to arrive in time for customers to see new pieces at the trunk show. The show is primarily about taking custom orders. But this is the exception rather than the rule.

Since we’ve been doing trunk shows, particularly for jewelry, we have found that not having the artist present can be an advantage for certain customers who are more comfortable dealing with familiar gallery staff. Some customers will actually avoid looking at work when the artist is standing there, as they do not want to offend them by not buying something or asking a question that might be perceived as ignorant.

Trunk shows have really helped us grow our customer base and develop collectors for certain artists’ work. In addition, it allows us to see new work from artists who don’t exhibit in wholesale shows. Most successful are our Jes MaHarry trunk shows. We have approximately four MaHarry shows a year — one during the holiday season, one for Valentine’s Day, one before Mother’s Day and one to compete with a local craft show in September. Since the artist lives in California, she does not attend the trunk shows, but occasionally one of her reps will come and help out.

Here’s how it works
We receive a large volume and assortment of jewelry and display it for usually a three or four-day period, starting on Thursday or Friday and ending on Sunday. Prior to the opening of the trunk show, we call our best MaHarry collectors and invite them to come for a private preview, which gives them the chance to have first pick of the work and makes them feel very special. After the show ends, we choose pieces that we will buy for gallery stock and return the rest.

This past holiday season, we had a jewelry trunk show planned almost every weekend. Our jewelry staff chose artists that they felt had the potential to develop a following. They also chose artists that they like to work with, and who would stand behind the show. Keeping expenses to a minimum allows the artists and our gallery to take more risks.

Getting the word out
Publicizing trunk shows in a cost effective manner is a challenge. To save printing and mailing costs, we did one large color postcard for all the shows on our schedule, with one photo for each artist in a calendar listing with the show dates. We mailed it to our entire list of over 30,000 customers. We also placed several newspaper ads and an e-mail newsletter with color images for each individual trunk show the week prior to its opening.

We work hard at getting customers to sign up for our e-mail newsletter — this is a great way to reach a lot of people at minimal cost. We also make phone calls or send notes to customers who have bought work from the featured artist in the past reminding them about the upcoming show. We even encourage them to make an appointment to see the work.

Discounts
There are many different views on discounting work among galleries and that is an individual choice. I personally do not feel that it diminishes the artist’s work and know that it’s a common practice to offer discounts to collectors with the big nationally known galleries. We do not always offer a discount on trunk show work, but in the current economy — especially in our area of the country — it sure does help. When we offer a discount we tend to sell considerably more work and it usually pays off, especially for the artist as the discount comes off our percentage. We have had some artists offer to give a percentage off their work if making a sale hinges on it.

Think creatively about how to do things to best suit your individual gallery needs and be sure all parties have a clear understanding of the terms and expectations.

Trunk Shows: A Conversation with Lynn Allinger

TCR: Is there a general accepted percentage for artist and gallery?
Lynn Allinger (LA): Not that I am aware of but I assume for most it is 50/50 or 60/40. That needs to be worked out between the gallery and the artist and I think it would depend on a variety of factors.

TCR: How long in advance should you plan a trunk show?
LA: That depends on the size of the event. We plan our Sticks show almost one year ahead. But other jewelry trunks shows require only a few months of planning.

TCR: How do you develop your direct mail list?
LA: We get info from anyone who makes a purchase. Everyone should be doing this. We also track collectors of specific artists’ work. For example, every time someone buys a piece of Jes MaHarry’s work, their name goes on the Jes MaHarry list.

TCR: How do you calculate the cost of doing the event, versus the anticipated return?
LA: That depends on whether there is a commitment to buy. Certain artists will ask for a guarantee that you buy so much from what they send for the trunk show. If that is a criteria, you need to be sure you think you can sell that much or be willing to invest in your inventory. If we need to buy a certain amount we make sure to include it in our open-to-buy plan.

TCR: Does hosting a trunk show for one artist affect sales of other items?
LA: I don’t think it hurts. Actually, it often helps because you get the person in the door.

TCR: Do you provide food and beverages?
LA: We always serve tea and coffee, salsa and chips. But we also sell gourmet foods. This is up to the gallery, and it’s nice, but certainly not necessary. The artist should be the draw, not the food.

TCR: Do you keep a checklist when you’re preparing to host a show? How do you know what do to, and when?
LA: The main thing is to get your advertising done on time. Direct mail is best for us, plus those phone calls to collectors. If the artist is not well known, advertising in the newspaper doesn’t make much sense. We usually mail to just the portion of our list of customers who we’ve determined are interested in that specific artist or type of work. However, as I mentioned earlier, last fall we had a jewelry trunk show almost every weekend so that made it worthwhile to mail a calendar to the whole list.

Something for Everyone

Try a Trunk Show in Your Gallery