What Product Founders Need to Know Before Their First Market Stall
Hannah Capocci-Hunt has done hundreds of market stalls since launching Elstree Soaps. She has spent £400 on a pitch that earned nothing and turned a man queuing for cheese into a £70 sale. Here is what she knows now.
The first market stall is terrifying in a very specific way. You have made the product, designed the stand, packed the car. You arrive and realise you have absolutely no idea whether anyone is going to stop.
Hannah Capocci-Hunt, founder of Elstree Soaps, knows this feeling well. She has been doing markets since the early days of her business, travelling across Hertfordshire, spending hundreds of pounds on pitches, learning what works and what absolutely does not. What follows is what that experience has taught her.
Not all markets are worth your time
The most expensive lesson Hannah learned was that a well-known event does not automatically mean strong sales. After doing well at one market run by a particular events company, she signed up for their entire Christmas programme, spending £300 to £400 per weekend across multiple events. The results were deeply inconsistent. At several, she was placed in poor locations, next to bargain bin sellers rather than in an artisan section, and the audience simply was not right for her product.
"Just because it's really expensive doesn't mean you're going to make loads of money. Just because it seems like a big event doesn't mean you're going to do really well. Do your research."
Market fees vary enormously. Smaller local markets might charge £20 to £80 for a pitch. Larger or more established events can run to £300 or more. That upfront cost needs to be factored into whether attendance makes commercial sense, and the only way to know is to investigate properly before you commit.
Hannah now visits a market before signing up wherever she can. She walks around, sees where the stalls are positioned, checks who is selling nearby, and asks the organiser specifically where her pitch would be located. A good position in a smaller market, she has found, will almost always outperform a bad position in a larger one.
Being placed next to discounted or low-cost products creates a jarring contrast that makes premium pricing feel out of place. For Elstree Soaps, where the formula uses cocoa, shea and mango butter and the pricing reflects that quality, placement matters as much as the event itself.
Interact. Don't just wait.
Hannah does not sit behind her stall waiting for customers to come to her. She engages people passing by, asking them to smell a soap, starting a conversation, making eye contact. It felt uncomfortable at first. It works.
"I had one guy and he just wasn't looking at me at all. He was queuing for the cheese place next to me. I asked him if he wanted to smell a soap. He came over and spent £70. If I'd just sat quietly, that sale never would have happened."
The worst that happens when you reach out is that someone says no and walks on. The upside is worth the momentary awkwardness every time.
Hannah pays close attention to how people approach her stall. Some want to be left alone. Some want to chat. Some will buy quickly, some need time. She describes it the same way she describes running her business generally: read the person in front of you and respond to what they actually need, not what you assumed they would need.
Your first market probably won't be your best one
Hannah's early markets were as much about learning as earning. She made decisions about display, pricing and which products to bring that she would make differently now. She tried markets on the recommendation of other sellers that turned out to be a poor fit for her customer. She spent money on events that taught her mainly what not to do.
"You just learn as you go along what works for your product. And sometimes people tell you it'll be great at a particular market, and you get there, and actually it isn't. You just don't always know until you go."
What changed over time was not luck but accumulated knowledge. Hannah now knows which types of events suit Elstree Soaps, which customer profiles match her product, and which organisers run events worth her time. That knowledge came entirely from showing up, paying attention and being honest with herself about what the results were telling her.
Markets can open doors beyond the day itself
Some of Hannah's most significant business relationships started at a stall. Her biggest stockist, a private label client at Borough Market, approached her after asking whether she made lavender soap. She assumed he would forget about her. He did not. That relationship now makes up a significant chunk of her wholesale income.
A shop in Scotland started stocking her products because the owner's sister had bought a bar at one of Hannah's events and loved it. Hannah had no idea that purchase had happened until the owner got in touch.
Neither of these relationships came from a marketing strategy. They came from Hannah being at a stall, having a good product and being present. Markets are not just sales channels. The connections made there can shape a business in ways that are impossible to plan for.
Know when to pull back
Hannah used to travel up to two hours for markets. After a run of expensive, underperforming events she had attended on someone else's recommendation, she became more selective. She weighed each event not just against the pitch fee but against the weekend time away from her family, the energy required to prepare and travel, and the opportunity cost of being somewhere that was not right for her product.
"It has to be worth it. You learn what works for your product, for your audience, for your life. And you get better at saying no to the ones that don't."
That selectivity did not shrink her business. It made the markets she did attend more worthwhile, because she was choosing them deliberately rather than showing up everywhere and hoping for the best.
Don't Quit on a Bad Day
Markets will have bad days. Poor footfall, wrong location, slow sales, weather that turns. Hannah has had all of these. None of them are signals about whether your product is good or your business has a future. They are just bad days.
The founders who build something from markets are the ones who keep showing up after the ones that do not work, and who keep learning from every single one.
"Don't quit on a bad day."
You’ll also enjoy:
How Hannah Scaled Elstree Soaps From 25 Bars to 2,500 (read Hannah's full founder story)
How to Get Your Product Stocked by Retailers — What Buyers Actually Want