Over the last few months I’ve had stalls at two Round She Goes Markets – in June and October.

If you’re not familiar with it, Round She Goes is a second hand clothing market that markets itself as a curated market offering quality pre loved and vintage clothing. They hold markets in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

While there’s a lot of work involved to get ready to hold any sort of stall, for me,  going to the effort for Round She Goes was very much worth it from both a financial and a decluttering perspective.

From these two market stalls, I’ve made close to $3,500 in profit PLUS I managed to re-home some great pieces of clothing to happy new owners, while also creating some much needed space in my sons’ wardrobes.

Yay for that!

So if you’re considering applying for a stall at Round She Goes or another second hand clothes market, you might find the following tips helpful.

If you’re not in the zone to sell your clothes but would love to offload some of the kids’ stuff, you’ll find my tips for selling off the kids’ stuff at a Baby and Kids Market in this post.

Tips for having a successful stall

1. Organise a float – think about what you will charge and adjust your float accordingly. As I was pricing things at $10, $20, $25 and $30 etc, my $100 float was made up of $5 and $10 dollar notes.

2. Think seasonally – in Winter, knits, coats, boots and scarves will sell well. In milder times, sundresses, sandals and tops. Workwear tends to do well all year around.

3. Approach your stall as the customer – when I’m shopping at a market, I look for well presented clothing that is clean, ironed and ready to wear.

4. Presentation counts – make sure your stall is attractive and your wares are easy to access. Don’t overfill your racks or stack things on top of each other. It’s better to have more clothing to put on the racks as the market goes on than to over fill the racks. I also use a tablecloth so my stall looks nice.

5. Pricing – you need to feel comfortable with the sale price, so either stick to your guns or be prepared to negotiate if you’re willing to. I generally knock off 10% or so in the last hour or so of the market or if people buy several items.

To give you an idea of how I priced my clothing, I charged $30 for dresses, $20 for knits, jeans and skirts and $10 for basic tops. All were in excellent condition.

I individually priced my higher end labels such as Mister Zimi, Gorman, Thurley and Obus.

6. Clear signage – a lot of people like to browse and to see how much things are for themselves so they don’t have to ask. I individually priced some of my higher end clothing (as mentioned above) but otherwise, advertised that other items were priced according to whether they were a dress, top, shoes etc.

I also offered a discount when people bought two of the same things.

7. Consider the logistics – there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing from the car as well as racks to set up when you have a stall at a market. While a table and a chair are usually provided, you need to BYO everything else. Accordingly, I ask Mr SnS and our three boys to drive separately to the market and help with bumping in and out. It saves a huge amount of time and energy if everyone does a couple of trips and also helps to show them what’s involved.

8. Use social media – tell your friends (and followers) that you have a stall coming up as many may not know about it and might like to attend.

What sells?

Generally speaking, well known, higher end labels in excellent condition. I’ve found my Gorman pieces sell very well – everything from knitwear to shoes – and other unique pieces.

I’ve sold a lot of Boden and all my Mister Zimi.

I sold a few pieces from retailers like Country Road and Veronika Maine.

I didn’t sell anything from high street retailers like Sussan and Portmans which surprised me.

Getting organised

In the months before:

• apply to the market. To maximise the chances of a successful application, photograph examples of your clean, ironed clothing in good light.
• start thinking about what you want to sell and spend some time sorting out your wares. The week before the market is always so busy.
• depending on how much you have to sell, consider asking someone to share a stall to halve the cost and have some company.

The week before:

• organise your float; sort out clothes; wash and iron anything that needs attention.
• price things as much as possible – attach tags to hangers or work out your pricing system.
• read the stall holder information booklet so you’re across everything you need to know such as parking, bump in times etc and contact the market organiser if you have any questions.

The night before:

• pack the car and don’t forget to include your float, snacks/lunch and a water bottle.

During the market:

• get to know your neighbouring stall holders – you can cover for each other if you need to leave your stall briefly.
• say hello and make eye contact with customers but don’t do the hard sell. I said hi and that I was happy to answer any questions they might have.
• make sure your goods are all visible and easily accessible for customers so they can browse independently.

To check out the dates for upcoming Round She Goes markets, head here.

So over to you – have you got any tips you’d add to the above? I’m happy to field any questions too!