How To Find Vendors For Your Market

You've got the courtyard. Thirty stalls are sketched on the venue's floor plan, the date is fixed, and the deposit has left your account. Then you open the vendor spreadsheet and it has one row in it: your friend who makes candles.

That empty sheet is where most first markets stall. Working out where to find vendors is mostly a matter of looking in the right places, in the right order, early enough that makers can plan their stock.

This post covers where vendors come from, what your vendor call needs to say, when to post it, how to plan the mix, and how to follow up, keep a waitlist and get good makers back. It sits under our wider guide on how to run a market from date to teardown, which covers the stages around this one.

To keep it concrete, we'll follow one invented event: a new 30-stall makers market in a Joo Chiat shophouse courtyard, on a Saturday from 11am to 6pm. It isn't a real event or a customer, so swap in your own numbers.

Where To Find Vendors For A New Market

Vendors for a new market are found where makers already sell and talk: at other markets, on Instagram, in maker groups and on Carousell. Here are the seven places we'd look, roughly in order:

1. Your own circle. Friends who make things, their friends, and anyone who's asked about a stall before.
2. Other markets, in person. Walk a few makers markets before your call. Take a card from stalls you like, and chat when they're not serving.
3. Instagram. Search hashtags for the categories you want, and look at who's tagged in other markets' posts.
4. Maker groups. Telegram channels and Facebook groups for small sellers and crafters. Read each group's rules before you post.
5. Carousell. Many small makers sell there first. Look for their own photos and regular listings.
6. Your past vendor list. Your warmest leads, if those vendors agreed to hear from you about future events.
7. Local businesses and community groups. Shops on your street and, for a community bazaar, schools, community clubs and residents' networks.

Vendors scout events too, so list yours where makers look, including free directories such as our Upcoming Events page.

How To Approach A Maker

A good first message is short, personal and links the full call. Something like: "Hi, we loved your speckled mugs at the market last month. We're running a 30-stall makers market in a Joo Chiat courtyard in February. Details and the application are here."

Send one follow-up after a week, then let it go.

Your first ten vendors usually come from people you've met or can see selling. Public posts fill the rest.

What Should Your Vendor Call Include?

Your vendor call should include everything a maker needs to decide in one read: date, hours, venue, stall size, what's included, price, an honest crowd estimate, how you pick, the deadline and the link to apply.

For our courtyard market, the call would say:

• Date and hours: a Saturday, 11am to 6pm, setup from 9am.
• Venue: the address, the nearest MRT, and a line on parking and loading.
• Stall: one 1.8m table and two chairs, with or without power.
• Price: the stall fee, and what power costs if it's extra. Our method is in how to price booths at your fair or market.
• Crowd: "This is our first market. We're expecting 400 to 700 visitors over the day, based on similar markets nearby and our promotion plan. Treat it as an estimate."
• How you pick: first come, first served, or curated with replies by a set date.
• Deadline and link: the closing date, and where to apply.

The crowd line is the one organizers get wrong. A first market doesn't know its footfall, and makers have heard big numbers before. A range with its reasoning earns more trust than a bigger number.

What to ask on the form itself is covered in what to ask on your vendor application form.

If a maker has to message you for the price or the stall size, the call wasn't finished.

How Far Ahead Should You Look For Vendors?

For a new makers market, we'd start scouting 10 to 12 weeks out, post the vendor call about 8 weeks out and close applications about 4 weeks out.

Handmade stock takes weeks to make, and good makers book their weekends early. A call posted 3 weeks out mostly reaches people with nothing else on.

Closing 4 weeks out leaves time to confirm stalls, chase payments and fill gaps from the waitlist. A repeat market with returning vendors can run a shorter call.

The verdict: post early and close on time. A deadline that keeps moving tells makers they can wait.

Plan Your Vendor Mix Before You Approve Anyone

Your vendor mix is the spread of categories across your stalls, and it needs planning before the first application arrives. Otherwise you approve the first 30 that look good and discover 9 jewelry stalls and no food.

For our 30-stall courtyard, a rough mix might be:

• 5 ceramics and homeware
• 5 jewelry and accessories
• 4 prints, cards and stationery
• 4 clothing and textiles
• 3 candles, soap and skincare
• 4 packaged food and baked goods
• 2 plants
• 3 open slots for something you didn't expect

Use it as a scouting list: no plant sellers by week 6 means you go find two. Scoring applications against it is a form job. Where close competitors stand on the day is the job of your fair floor plan.

The verdict: a planned mix is what makes a market feel curated, and planning it is far easier than fixing it.

Following Up, From Interested To Paid

Following up means turning every application into a clear yes, no or waitlist, then every yes into a paid stall.

• Reply to every applicant by the date you promised, including a short, kind no.
• Give accepted vendors a payment deadline, say 5 to 7 days.
• Remind them 2 days before it, then release unpaid stalls to the waitlist.
• Confirm in writing with the stall number, setup time and what to bring.

Keep it all in one sheet with a status column: applied, accepted, paid, confirmed, waitlisted. That sheet stops you promising one stall to two people.

Speed beats polish. A maker who waits two weeks for a reply has often booked elsewhere.

Build A Waitlist Before You Need One

A vendor waitlist is a ranked list of good applicants you couldn't fit yet, and you'll use it, because someone always drops out.

Sort it by category. If a ceramics stall cancels, you want the next ceramics maker, not the next person who applied. Offer the stall to one person at a time, with 48 hours to accept and pay.

A waitlist turns a late cancellation into a happy maker instead of a gap.

Walkthrough: Filling A 30-Stall Makers Market In Joo Chiat

Here's how our invented courtyard market might fill. The numbers are an example, not a promise.

1. 12 weeks out: list 20 makers you'd love to have. Message 10 of them personally.
2. 10 weeks out: write the call and the form. Six of the 10 have said yes or maybe.
3. 8 weeks out: post the call on Instagram, in two Telegram groups and one Facebook group. Ask your yeses to share it.
4. 6 weeks out: about 45 applications are in. Review them against the mix and accept 26.
5. 5 weeks out: 23 have paid. Release the 3 unpaid stalls to the waitlist and fill them.
6. 4 weeks out: applications close with 4 stalls open, all in categories you're short on. Message waitlisted makers in those categories, plus 2 you met in person.
7. 2 weeks out: a candle maker drops out. The next candle maker on the waitlist takes it within a day.

That's 30 stalls from about one-and-a-half applications each, roughly the cushion we'd want for a first market.

The stalls you fill by direct message early are what make the public call look worth answering.

Keeping Vendors Coming Back

Vendors come back to markets that run well, bring them buyers and tell them the truth about the day.

• Be organized. Clear setup times, a map, one contact number on the day.
• Promote them by name. Post each vendor before the day, and share who's there and where.
• Ask three questions afterwards: how sales went, what to fix, and whether they'd return. Share your rough visitor count.
• Give returning vendors first pick, before the call goes public.
• Keep your vendor list properly. In Singapore, the PDPA expects you to tell people why you're collecting their details and to use them for that purpose, so add a tick on your form asking to hear about future markets. PDPC on the data protection obligations under the PDPA

The cheapest vendor to find is the one who had a good day at your last market.

What To Do Next

This week, list 20 makers you'd love to have, then draft the vendor call with every line above.

A Google Form, a spreadsheet and a Telegram group can run all of this for 30 stalls, and for many organizers that's enough. If you'd rather vendors pick their own stall on a map and wait for your approval, BookASquare does that, and an invite-only link can give returning makers first pick. It's the wrong tool if you want a platform to collect the money and pay you out, because BookASquare never holds your money. To see how it fits a market like this, read our guide for makers markets.