If you're a craft maker, you'll want to consider wholesale retail in 2023 - Home & Gift Buyer’s Festival 2026

For makers and creators, selling directly to customers will always have its place. But exploring wholesale opportunities could take a business to a different level.

Over the past decade, customers have redefined what they consider luxury. The shift has moved away from logo-heavy, large-scale brands towards unique pieces that are genuinely one of a kind. This appetite for products made on a smaller scale, using refined skill and technique, has not gone unnoticed. Retailers from department stores to high street gift boutiques have introduced craft as a category they stock.

Selling wholesale does more than scale the profitability of a maker’s business. It can also ease the pressure of maintaining an ecommerce site, marketplace listings and a physical presence at markets. That leaves more time and energy for what matters most: creating.

Demand for handmade goods is growing

With more customers wanting handmade products than before, store owners and professional buyers are looking to fill their shelves with hand-crafted pieces. In response, a dedicated craft sector was introduced in 2023 at one of the UK’s leading retail trade buying events.

There, visiting store owners and professional buyers – from independents and department stores to museum shops and garden centres – can meet exhibiting makers and explore opportunities to stock pieces their customers will love.

Turning a passion into a business

Turning a passion or hobby into a proper business can be both challenging and rewarding. That is especially true when part of your soul and spirit is imprinted into every piece you create. For makers looking to move into wholesale, exhibiting is as much about finding the right people to act as guardians of your work as it is about those buyers wanting to stock your designs.

A long-standing fixture in the buying calendar

The event has been a flagship show in the retail buying calendar for nearly 65 years. It is known as much for its welcoming, caring community as for the buying and selling opportunities it fosters.

Makers who want to find out more about exhibiting in the craft sector can get in touch with the organisers.