When people think ‘Christmas Market’, they automatically have images of streets lined with festive chalets, twinkling lights and the smell of mulled wine in the air.
This is certainly the case for the UK’s ‘best’ Christmas markets, as identified by European Best Destinations, but anyone who’s ever organised a Christmas market will know the logistical nightmare those chalets pose, not to mention the cost and resources required just to set them up and take them down.
Major cities can command high rents for three or four-week occupancies in chalets, however, for most locations in the UK, that is just not realistic or practical. This is traders’ prime trading time, and competition is fierce for a finite group of traders who are pushing to maximise their income at this key time.
Some markets have become victims of their own success, with viral photos and videos of lengthy queues and crushes of pedestrians in both Edinburgh and York this week.
There is sufficient demand for a Christmas market, or Christmas market event, in most towns across the UK, with shoppers keen to browse different goods and find a gift more meaningful than the Amazon recommended section of the internet. The trick is organising something that is right for your location.
I’ve been told that this will be more engaging if I summarise it in five key points, which I’ll admit has led me down a bit of a rabbit hole! But here goes nothing - my five top lessons for running a successful Christmas market.
Your catchment, your reputation for events, your price points for pitches, your trader database and your budget will all have a significant impact on the style of Christmas market that’s right for your location.
A tendency to overstretch can be much more damaging than delivering a smaller, extremely successful event. This could be a tabletop market in an existing indoor market, street market using gazebos, self-erect stalls or trailers, and a wide spectrum in between.
Many markets around the UK would benefit from a one-day or weekend event market, possibly coinciding with other town centre events, rather than trying to deliver a one to three week market. In the past, I’ve organised Christmas markets to stand alongside light switch on’s, ice sculpture trails or light shows, usually in medium-sized towns without a strong reputation for events. This co-ordinated approach creates a better all-round customer experience and draws on shared resources.
Anyone in the industry knows - traders talk. Word of mouth is your greatest advertising advantage, and happy traders from previous years can be your biggest advocates.
The traders who attend your event need to have a good, and profitable, experience. Then, the next year, you have more freedom to build, as you are establishing a reputation as a good pitch to go to for Christmas.
Take an honest and pragmatic look at your resources, your appeal to traders, your footprint, your offer and the supplementary experience your town can offer. I would always recommend this comes in the form of a mid to long-term plan, creating a roadmap for how your market can grow and expand over three to ten years.
From this, you can build a plan for a successful event.
2. Planning is about more than just logistics.
The date is critical. At this time of year, you are competing locally, regionally and nationally for traders and customers. You want to choose a date that works for your location, avoiding direct local or regional competition unless you are confident that traders and customers will choose your market above others.
Event organisers know the pain of the risk assessments, event management forms, road closure notices, PLI checks, and a whole host of other mundane but essential paperwork items required to host any market.
However, planning should be about a lot more than this. Curating the shopper experience from seeing a post on social media to leaving the market happy and with a new memory, should all be part of the planning process.
‘Experiential’ shopping is just that. Your plan should reflect a multi-sensory approach, including sight, sound, smell and taste. (Touch might be a step too far, but it could also be the next big thing!)
If you want your customers to smell fresh street food, mulled wine or dried oranges, you need to carefully consider the layout of your stalls, with enticing smells drawing in customers and encouraging them to circulate.
A well-curated market should have specific audio points along the customer journey, drawing people from one part to another through busking spots, well-placed PA systems and entertainment.
Even for experienced event organisers, this element can often be overlooked, with otherwise extremely successful markets feeling eerily silent.
Licensed for business music streaming services can be somewhat lacking, but it’s vital you find a compliant solution to deliver an engaging audio experience.
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3. Curating the Trader Mix
Throughout the year, securing retail traders for regular and event markets can be extremely challenging. These businesses tend to be transient, or trade predominantly online, having little interest in taking on a fixed pitch on a street market… except at Christmas.
As customers are out shopping for boutique goods, personal gifts, and experiential retail, a large number of small and online-only businesses look to capitalise on Christmas markets, meaning your trader pool just got a lot bigger.
Many of these are businesses that trade online throughout most of the year, own and operate a business secondary to another job or family commitments, or who only run their business seasonally.
People expect to be able to buy presents at Christmas markets, and these niche, boutique and independent businesses are the backbone of a Christmas market, whether they trade on a tabletop for one day, or in a chalet for four weeks.
However, what Christmas market shopping experience would be the same without food and drink? Mulled wine, street food (ideally including a hog roast) and hot chocolates are all staples of a Christmas market experience, with a food court element being highly recommended for a successful Christmas market.
Roasted chestnuts add to the customer appeal, but most markets now pay vendors to come and attend their markets rather than the other way round. It’s a strange fact of modern Christmas market shopping that everyone wants to see and smell roasted chestnuts… but no one wants to buy them.
Combining street food, gift-based retail, and fresh food gifts is usually a good formula for a Christmas market, with the proportions of each dictated by your location, your customer demand and your trader base.
4. Marketing. Marketing. Marketing.
If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a Christmas market.
Strong marketing before the fact should include sponsored social media posts in a planned campaign, press releases and physical marketing around the town the event is taking place in. If your budget allows, magazine adverts, bus stations, billboards, and a whole host of other more traditional marketing methods could be explored.
But marketing doesn’t end with getting customers there. Throughout the event, you should be posting near constant Facebook and Instagram updates through ongoing stories and posts at least four to five times a day.
These posts should either be video-based, utilise carousels or be multi-image posts. Did you know that Instagram now penalises your page for single photo posts?
You should promote the individual traders and link in with their social media pages as much as possible. This has the dual benefit of creating an amplification effect with your marketing and creating goodwill and support from traders.
I helped with a few events in the ‘emerging from Covid’ phase that were a bit mediocre in terms of customer turnout but that got glowing reviews from traders because we took the time to spotlight them on social media. Those traders are now regulars, and the customers have come back in force.
I would always include appointing a professional photographer/videographer in a major event budget. During the event, they Whatsapp the site management team top photos for on-the-spot posting and then provide a catalogue that can be used to celebrate the event, promote future events and create engaging content. If you don’t have high-res, quality photos of your market, I would seriously recommend it. If nothing else, your brochure for the next year’s market will be much more appealing!
5. Being the interface between management, traders and customers
Being all things to all people, basically. So a nice and easy one! As the event organiser, you are held responsible for anything that goes wrong, and more often than not, not recognised for everything that goes right.
One market manager I worked with likened it to being the manager of the England team - they score a winning goal, and it’s Harry Kane on top form. They lose spectacularly, and it’s Southgate’s head on the block (almost sounds like I know about football there).
The trick is to be honest on all counts. Be firm but fair with traders, don’t be afraid to say no, but if you say no, explain the reasons why.
Be quick to respond to customers, be friendly, be informative. Responsiveness to social media and email enquiries is important; in the digital age, customers expect to be replied to in a timely fashion. Facebook’s top responder badge is only earnt by pages that respond to 90% of messages within 15 minutes, for example.
Be ready that you or someone from your team with decision-making power should be on site at all times, and if god-forbid something goes wrong, there is a process in place to deal with it effectively. Staff should know and be empowered to enforce the rules if needed.
Mostly, this will mean amazing feedback on social media, we see a lot of ‘amazing staff, so friendly’, which is exactly how it should be.
Good, bad and ugly, if you organise an event, you are all of it. For the most part - there’s much more good than anything else.
