Sewing is making a comeback — and there are several reasons why.
Social media has allowed sewing enthusiasts to share their creations online and reach a wider audience, while those who are more eco-conscious have taken up sewing their own clothes or repairing old clothes to save money and help the environment. And with do-it-yourself (DIY) trends becoming more popular online, sewing is an increasingly popular skill to learn.
As the owner of a fabric store, you need to take advantage of these trends to draw more customers to your store.
One of the best ways to do this? Host in-person sewing workshops.
Hosting in-person events generates awareness of and excitement for your business, but achieving these goals requires careful strategy, planning, and execution. In this blog, we’ll explore eight strategies to help you host incredible sewing workshops at your fabric store.
1. Cater to Your Audience
Plan sewing and quilting events with your customers in mind. Ask yourself:
- What’s the general skill level of your customers and what kinds of projects do they enjoy making?
- Would they rather make a quilt or a smaller stitching project?
- What materials are they most comfortable with?
Understanding the answers to these questions helps you create events that your ideal customers want to attend.
You should also determine the best days and times to host events. When are the busiest times for your sewing store? These might be the right times to host events as they likely coincide with the free time of your ideal customers. Weekdays in the evening are a popular time for events like these, but you might experiment by holding events on weekends to see how many sign-ups you receive.
If you’re struggling to understand your customers, you can gain more information by asking them for feedback. Conduct surveys to ask customers about the events they’d be interested in, the skills they’d like to learn, and what times work best for them. You can even add an incentive, like a discount, for completing a survey to generate more survey responses.
2. Develop Workshop Content
The content you offer in sewing workshops should teach attendees new skills or help them improve the skills they already have. Do your research to find new techniques, new materials, and new styles that you can demonstrate for attendees.
It’s also helpful to offer a range of courses, from beginner to advanced, for quilters and sewers of varying abilities. This helps you serve your entire customer base and generate as many sign-ups as possible.
Related Read: Quilting Classes for Beginners: How To Host Them in 4 Steps
3. Manage Registrations Effectively
The best way to keep track of sign-ups is to use a digital system. Modern point of sale (POS) systems offer features to manage online sign-ups. The system keeps track of who’s signed up, accepts payment for the workshop, and even sends reminder texts to attendees.
A simple system that makes it easy for customers to register, pay, and attend an event encourages them to sign up for more workshops in the future.
4. Choose the Right Venue
As you plan your sewing workshop, determine whether you have enough space at your sewing store to accommodate the event or if you need an external location. Hosting at your store is ideal because it creates greater familiarity with your business and exposes attendees to the products you have on the shelves — but if there isn’t enough space, you can bring materials from your store with you to the event location.
To host the event, you need sufficient seating and workspace for all participants. You also need to have tools and supplies ready so each quilter or sewer can work on their project. You may choose to include the value of the materials and include them in the cost of admission — but even if materials are not included, customers are likely to buy materials from your sewing store out of convenience.
Related Read: How To Create the Perfect Retail Store Layout
5. Get To Know the Participants
When quilters and sewers attend an event, they’re looking for a lighthearted environment where they can find fun and community. While you should prepare valuable content, there’s no need to take the class too seriously.
As you go through the workshop, be friendly and learn the names of participants. Encourage them to ask questions to enhance the learning experience. While attendees are working, you can walk around the room, make conversation, and give extra help and explanation when necessary.
As participants get to know you and the other participants, they’ll be more likely to sign up for another workshop and frequent your sewing store in the future.
6. Set a Budget for Events
Events should be run like any other aspect of your business. Estimate how much revenue you stand to make from an event and budget accordingly so you can turn a profit. Consider the cost of included materials. If you’re hiring an outside instructor, consider how much they’ll be paid. You should also consider expenses to market your sewing workshop.
Be careful not to charge too much, though. Do research on other sewing and quilting workshops in the area to see what prices others are charging. If the price is too high compared to the competition, customers may look elsewhere.
Make sure the revenue you expect to generate from an event exceeds what you intend to spend on it — but remember the benefit of an event can extend beyond the event itself. You may bring new customers into your sewing store that have never visited it before, and attendees may tell their friends about your store. Hosting a great event can help you attract many more customers in the weeks and months that follow.
Related Read: Fabric Store Startup Costs: 10 Costs To Consider
7. Promote Your Sewing Workshops
To maximize the success of your events, it’s important to put time and effort into promoting them. A great place to start is social media. Create an account for your sewing store and post photos and videos about your products. Remember to create posts and stories to advertise store events, too.
There are a variety of social media platforms to choose from. Consider using one or a few of these platforms:
As you determine which platforms you should use, think about where your audience is and determine where your posts are most likely to reach your ideal customers.
The most likely participants in your workshops are your loyal customers who already often come into your sewing store. So, make sure they know about these events. Post announcements for these events throughout your store, and post flyers throughout your community. On these flyers, give clear instructions for signing up. Include a QR code that directs potential attendees to your website.
Make sure to highlight unique aspects of a class, including the projects, the materials, and the instructor. More awareness of your events means more awareness of your sewing store, which leads to increased sales.
Related Read: 7 Fabric Store Marketing Ideas To Attract More Customers
8. Gather Feedback and Follow Up
After an event, it’s helpful to ask for feedback to know what participants enjoyed and what can be improved. Hand out paper forms or send emails asking for feedback. To incentivize participants to respond, you might offer a discount on their next purchase or a discount on their next class sign-up for a submitted response.
Thank participants for providing feedback and think about how you might implement suggestions. If you receive the same suggestion repeatedly, give it additional consideration. Would customers rather a workshop be on a different night? Do they have a specific project they want to make? Do they want workshops to be shorter or longer? Implementing these suggestions will likely improve customer experience and help you find new customers.
How To Host Successful Sewing Workshops With Like Sew
Sewing workshops help spread the word about your sewing store and help you get new customers through the doors. They create an additional stream of revenue for your business and help you increase your overall sales.
As you plan events, keep your customers and their preferences in mind. Create novel, valuable content and be thoughtful about the time and place of an event. Promote your events to your ideal customers and use a digital system to manage registration efficiently. And during an event, be friendly and work to build a sense of community among attendees.
If your events are well-attended, consider expanding your efforts by hosting a workshop series or multiple series on a variety of sewing and quitting topics.
To manage all of these processes, you need a POS system. Like Sew is an all-in-one, industry-specific POS platform with features for event registration, marketing, inventory management, and more.
To see what Like Sew can do for your sewing store, schedule a demo today!
