An artisan is a skilled craftsperson — someone who creates unique items by hand. Instead of being mass produced in a factory, their items are made with time and care.
As a sewing store owner, working with local artisans and crafters helps you add variety to your product offerings and expand your business reach. You can work with local crafters to develop products, market your business, and engage with the community.
In this blog, we’ll explore how you can find and maintain relationships with artisans and craftspeople, and how these partnerships can strengthen your sewing store.
The Value of Local Artisan Collaborations With Sewing Stores
Working with local artisans will breathe new life into your sewing store. It’s a genuine way to engage with your community, which will draw more people into your store. Offering the unique and high-quality products artisans provide can also increase your sales.
As customers discover the handmade items these artisans provide, they’ll associate these items with your store and feel greater loyalty to your brand. Investing time, money, and store space to support local craftspeople enhances brand authenticity.
Each sewing store is filled with fabrics and thread, but artisans can provide more unique items. Although not the only option, sewed items are the most logical items to sell in your store. AllFreeSewing.com provides an extensive list of handmade sewing items that craftspeople may be able to provide for your store, including:
- Accessory items: keychains and lanyards
- Baby items: bibs, blankets, hats, pacifier holders
- Bags: purses, drawstrings bags, tote bags, zipper pouches
- Gadget items: laptop bags and sleeves, phone cases, phone holders
- Home items: laundry bags, pillowcases, rugs, throw blankets
- Kitchen items: aprons, dish towels, hot pads
- Gift items: scrunchies, sleep masks, hair clips, bows, wallets
- Seasonal/holiday items: gloves and mittens, hats, ornaments, scarves, table toppers, wreaths
These eye-catching items make your store stand out among your competitors. Browsing these unique items gives customers a more memorable shopping experience.
Related Read: Retail Strategy for Quilting Stores
Identifying and Engaging Local Artisans
In looking for local artisans to work with, attending local events are a great place to start. Seek out craft fairs, artisan and farmers markets, and other community gatherings. This is an easy way to meet and network with people to find the right collaborations for your sewing store.
As you speak to craftspeople, focus on your shared values and interests. Work with people who have similar values, so you can maintain a level of brand consistency. As a sewing store owner, you already have something in common as sewers can be considered artisans themselves. Fostering a good partnership requires open communication and mutual respect, so be clear about what you’re looking for in a collaboration and what you can offer to collaborators.
To meet even more people, you can seek out artisan associations, maker spaces, and craft guilds to connect with a wider range of artisans and crafters.
Co-Creating Unique Products and Offerings
If you can successfully incorporate items from a local artisan into your store, consider working with this creator on an exclusive item. You can work together with them on design and development — you can even customize items for individual customers. Create something that fits your sewing store’s brand and showcases the unique skills of the creator you’re working with.
Leverage the unique craftsmanship and storytelling behind the item to enhance the value proposition for customers, too. Handmade artisan items tend to have greater meaning behind them. Create a meaningful product that resonates with your customers.
Related Read: Leveraging Preloaded Vendor Catalogs for Seamless Point of Sales Product Listings
Showcasing Artisan Collaborations
Once you’ve developed an item, you need to present it effectively. Display this item in a visible and well-lit spot. Customers are more likely to buy if they feel they’re supporting a good cause, so creating a featured artist spotlight can be an effective way to tell the creator’s story. Place a photo and short bio of the creator in store next to their products. If the items have any relation to cultural heritage, you can emphasize this point.
Feature the item, creator, and information about them on your social media channels, too. Behind-the-scenes content about the creation of the items can help you connect to your audience and generate greater interest.
A craftsperson can also be brought into the store for a live demonstration. Classes, workshops, and interactive displays are a great way to introduce these creators and their products to your customers, increasing engagement with the products and driving sales.
Related Read: 8 Visual Merchandising Tips To Increase Sales in Your Sewing Store
Supporting Artisan Partnerships
Maintaining a partnership with a local artisan requires trust, which includes fair compensation. Many craftspeople do their work in addition to a full-time job, and they depend on their fair share of the revenue generated from their labor.
Be transparent about how much money their items are bringing in and how the funds are being distributed. Give them a voice and value their opinion as you make business decisions that affect them.
Support your artisan partners by giving them resources to help them succeed, such as marketing assistance and in-store display setup. As you receive feedback from customers, communicate this feedback to your artisan partner to help them improve.
By truly collaborating with a craftsperson, you can create long-term partnerships that benefit both parties. This requires regular communication, continuous feedback, and providing opportunities for a creator to contribute and grow.
Promoting Community Engagement and Impact
Working with local artisans helps you engage with your community, allowing you to help others and increase your store’s visibility. Participate in community events or even hold them at your store, such as charitable fundraisers, art installations, or educational workshops.
Your work with local craftsmen will benefit the community by creating jobs, preserving culture, and developing the local economy. Showcasing these creators at your store and at local events will raise awareness of their work and increase support for local craftsmanship in the community at large.
Related Read: Benefits of Hosting In-Store Events for Sewing and Fabric Retail Business Owners
Measuring Success and Lessons Learned
Continuously evaluate the success of your partnerships. Monitor metrics like sales, profit, and customer feedback to see if an artisan’s items are contributing to your business. If sales are slow, try working on strategies to improve the product or its promotion. If a certain product isn’t a good fit for your sewing store, it may be time to look for other partnerships.
Over time, you’re likely to run into the same problems and discover how best to solve them. Find the best practices that work for your store and put some extra effort into areas where you need to improve. Use the knowledge you gain to seek out new partnerships and continuously improve your process.
How Your Sewing Store Can Make a Positive Impact
As a sewing store owner, you want to offer a variety of products. In addition to the quilts, thread, fabric, and tools your customers depend on, adding some unique, eye-catching items to your shelves will improve your customers’ shopping experience.
Local artisans and craftspeople can provide you with these unique products. They can help you to engage with the community, so you can easily expand your customer base. Working with local craftspeople also gives them the opportunity to continue their work and share it with the world.
By attending local events and looking for creators with similar values, you can build business partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Remember: Communicate clearly to build trust and give the partners you work with a voice as you make decisions. When you form and maintain these partnerships, you can make a positive impact on your community and grow your business.
As you work with partners, manage your inventory, and track sales data, you need a point of sale (POS) system to automate these processes and make your life easier. LikeSew’s all-in-one system has been designed specifically for quilt and sewing stores — with all the features you need to effectively manage your business. To learn more, schedule a demo today!
