How to take part in our shopping events this November and December
Hot on the heels of the success of our ‘Shop Early for Christmas’ event in October, we’ve got two more online events planned for Christmas 2023. In November, we’ll be hosting our Folksy Craftmas Market and then in December our Not Too Late For Handmade event will be aimed at last-minute shoppers.
These events are open to all Folksy Plus members and it’s free to take part in either or both of them! Read on to find out how you can join in…
Shop small, shop well and give craft this Christmas.
Folksy Craftmas Market – 25 & 26 November 2023
One month left to shop one of a kind
Our Craftmas Market will take place over the weekend of 25th & 26th November 2023, with a special preview for newsletter subscribers on Friday 24th November. With exactly one month to go until Christmas, this event is planned to coincide with Black Friday weekend and inspire Christmas shoppers to ditch mass-produced tat and put some handmade under the tree instead.
It will be an opportunity to highlight new one-of-a-kind pieces made by Folksy artists and makers, and tempt Christmas shoppers with extra treats you’d like to offer, such as gift wrapping, free shipping or discounts – although these are totally optional :)
To take part in the Folksy Craftmas Market:
- Make sure you have a Folksy Plus account.
- Create a listing as normal for each of your Christmas gift ideas – or edit an existing listing.
- Add the tag ‘craftmas’ to your listing (without the quotation marks).
You can also:
- Choose one of the templates here to use as your main (first) image. Please DO NOT change the colour of the circular badges. This is to help customers see, at a glance, what makes each piece a perfect Christmas present. If none of these apply, just use your usual product photo. Choose from:
– free delivery
– free gift wrapping
– one of a kind
– eco-conscious gift
– personalise your gift
– special offer
– multi-buy offer
– can send direct to recipient - If you are offering free gift wrap or discount etc, make that clear in the description. You can also add it to the title if you have space.
- Use our ‘Sales’ feature to reduce the price, if applicable.*
Use the hashtags #folksycraftmas and #folksycraftmasmarket to share your participation on social media.
*If you are reducing prices for this event (or running any sales) follow the guidance in the UK Government’s ‘Code of Practice for Traders on Price Indications‘ – https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/2705/schedules/made.
Not Too Late for Handmade – 14-17 December 2023
Our Not Too Late for Handmade event will take place between 14-17 December 2023. This is the time when sales on Folksy tend to drop off, as buyers get nervous about deliveries arriving on time. This shopping event is designed to help reassure customers that they can still buy handmade, that you can post the same day or next working day, and that there are postage options to help ensure their order arrives before Christmas.
To take part in the Not Too Late for Handmade event:
- Make sure you have a Folksy Plus account.
- Create a listing as normal for each of your Christmas gift ideas – or edit an existing listing.
- Add the tag ‘nottoolate’ to your listing (without the quotation marks).
- Make it clear in the product description what delivery options are available, and how and when their order will be posted.
- Make sure you have updated your postage times in the Shipping Information section, if applicable.
You can also:
- Choose one of the templates here to use as your main (first) image. Please DO NOT change the colour of the circular badges. This is to help customers see, at a glance, what delivery options are available. Choose from:
– Royal Mail 1st Class
– Special Delivery Guaranteed
– Royal Mail Tracked 24
– Royal Mail Tracked 48
– Can send direct to recipient
– Dispatched within 1 day
– Gift Voucher
– PDF download
If you need a different badge for another delivery option, let us know!
Important note for sellers taking part in either or both events:
You can add as many listings as you like to the events but each one will only show three items from each shop at a time, regardless of how many you tag. This is intended to make it easier for buyers to see a wide range of items from a range of different sellers and prevent an entire page being filled with products from only one shop.
If you have tagged multiple items and one sells out, the page will automatically pull in the next product tagged in the order it is listed in your shop. This also allows you to change the items that are shown on the event page over the weekend by rearranging your shop using the Shopkeeping feature. The changes will be visible when the page updates.
You can list your items at any time before and during the event but remember the market opens to our newsletter subscribers a day early, so if you want to be included in the preview, make sure you have added your items before that date.
Templates
We have created a range of templates you can use to tell people about the events. These are created on Canva (which is free to use). To use them, simply replace the product image on the template with your own image and send it to the back. If you’re not sure how to use Canva, watch our short video here.
Find the templates for the Folksy Craftmas Market here >
Find the templates for the Not Too Late for Handmade event here >
Please note: As these are both (free) events designed for Folksy Plus sellers as part of the membership package, the event page on Folksy will only show items from Folksy Plus members and the pieces we will be promoting on the homepage, in our newsletter and across our social media channels will only be from Folksy Plus members.
To shop both events, visit folksy.com and look out for the banner on our homepage – or follow the links from our social media pages.
** Folksy newsletter subscribers will get exclusive early access to the events so sign up to our newsletter to have first choice on all the festive delights. **
