Taking Products Outside

An outdoor event can be extremely profitable, but if you take the wrong type of products you might end up losing quite a bit of your stock.

While most products will be fine, there are many types of items which absolutely can not sit out in the sun or heat. Here are some ideas you can use to protect your products:

1. Use a canopy or tent
If you have color items, a tent or canopy can provide the shade you need to keep them from fading. Believer or not, as long as candles are kept in the shade they are not damaged sitting outside all day.

Keep in mind though, as the sun moves you still may have a chance of products being damaged by sunlight. Pictures, color paper, candles with color, and other items may be exposed. The shade SHOULD be enough, but you never know.

2. Use coolers and ice
Other types of products can possibly keep cool by sitting in a cooler of ice. However, this may not always work. If you are at an all day event, ice will melt.
Also, having the item too cold might damage it as well. Items like lotion and body butter probably wouldn't do very well getting too hot or too cold. Items that need to be kept at room temperature probably should be kept at home.

3. Test at home
If you aren't sure if the products will be damaged or not, do a test at home. Take just one item you feel you can part with, and set it outside in the shade or in a cooler of ice. See what happens after it sits out for several hours. It's possible it may become damaged, so be sure it's not a high dollar item or something you planned to sell.

4. Take orders
If all else fails, set yourself up to take orders instead of directly selling items. This even works at indoor events, but must be set up the right way.

If you have a few items which you know won't be damaged by the sun, bring them along for display. Give yourself plenty of room on the table to take orders, and bring along as much information as possible since you won't have some of the actual products out. You must be able to show pictures and give even the smallest of details. Make it so the customer can visualize the item as if it was right in front of them.

There are occasions where outdoor events just aren't possible, but this is rare. Almost all products can be sold outside with a little creativity and thinking outside the box.

Good luck at your next outdoor event!