My experience vending at the Toronto Night Market was one I was genuinely excited about.

I had actually won my spot through an Instagram giveaway, which made it even better. And since it was being held downtown Toronto, I thought, okay… this is gonna be a good one.

After doing a few markets by this point, I had started noticing that my travel-themed products tend to perform better in the city versus the farm-style markets. So a downtown night market? I was hopeful.

I was also a little skeptical.

Night markets mean lighting. And lighting means extra setup. I had to make sure my booth was bright enough for people to actually see my products in the dark.

On top of that, I wasn’t setting up my usual 10×10 booth. I was prepping for a single six-foot table.

So I had to scale waayyy back.

I did practice mock setups at home trying to figure out what I could realistically bring and how to display it all without it looking cluttered. I felt okay with the setup I came up with, but it was definitely a different kind of preparation.

How the market went

The market ran from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Smack in the middle of my busiest season.

Aaaaand I made just under $120 for the entire night.

By this point, advent calendar orders seriously needed to be released, and online holiday orders were coming in hawt, I brought floating ornaments with me to work on during downtime because they take so long to make.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much selling happening at this market for me.

To be fair, the vibe was great. The lighting was on point, there was a DJ playing some tunes, there was food and more importantly yummy cookies 🍪, and people were out having a good time.

But that’s kind of what it felt like.

People were out for a night out.

Not necessarily to shop.

A lot of browsing. A lot of “this is so cute!”
But not a lot of purchasing.

The vendors on either side of me shared similar experiences — traffic didn’t really translate into sales.

Feeling a little resigned

By the end of the night, I wasn’t even frustrated. I was just tired. It had been such a busy season already that I honestly just wanted to pack up and go home and sleep.

If I’m being completely honest, I’m so grateful I won this market because it was quite expensive from what I learned. Had I paid the booth fee myself, I wouldn’t have made even half of it back.

And that would have felt a lot worse.

Based on this experience, I don’t think I’ll return to this market. Not because it wasn’t well put together — it absolutely was — but it just didn’t feel like the right match for my products.

And that’s something I’m learning more and more with each event.

Not every good event is a good event for your brand.

Until next time ♡