Ideas & Opportunities

Bazaars, given their low operating cost and high foot traffic, are popular venues for first-time and startup entrepreneurs.

Indeed, at any given month, several bazaars are being held simultaneously all over the metro, and the very popularity of these bazaars has made organizing them a profitable venture in itself.

But before you start putting up those tent and racks and racks of goods and merchandise, a bazaar  organizer  shares seven things to consider when organizing your own tiangge:

1. Network

Myren Garcia, founding president of the Network for Entrepreneurship for Women (NEW), says it is very important for a bazaar organizer to have a wide network of contacts to help in mounting bazaars.

In fact, she says, this is the very first thing most bazaar merchants or concessionaires would ask a bazaar organizer who approaches them.

An organizer’s network includes,but should not be limited to,  contacts in malls, to suppliers, and to booth constructors. Garcia says it also helps to have media or celebrities in one’s list of contacts, for they help draw in crowds and assure prospective merchants that the bazaar would at least be well-publicized.

As a first-time bazaar organizer in 2008, Garcia felt that it was necessary to partner with a media organization in order to market a bazaar event. She proceeded to establish such a partnership, enabling her to convince bazaar merchants that she really could organize well-publicized and successful bazaars.

2. Location

Besides  having an extensive network of contacts, a bazaar organizer must develop the knack for finding good bazaar locations that have high foot traffic coming from the intended target market.

Garcia, who organizes bazaars targeting middle to high-end markets, says that she has had to turn down many requests to host bazaars in high foot-traffic areas with the wrong target market.

3. Marketing plan

Especially for the first-time bazaar organizer, a great marketing and advertising plan is an absolute must.

Garcia recalls that to create buzz for her first bazaar, she had to post advertisements in newspapers and online forums and even had a billboard made to announce the bazaar.

Of her three advertising approaches, online advertising proved to be the most cost-effective.

She says it was so effective that after her first bazaar, she decided to rely solely on online forums and blogs to publicize her succeeding bazaars. Another crowd magnet, she adds, is to have celebrity guests and promotional activities during the bazaar.

She says that over time, marketing bazaars becomes less taxing because by then, you would have already built a track record among merchants and buyers.

4. Theme

An interesting way to promote your bazaar is to come up with a theme for it. A good theme, Garcia says, is specific but not so market-limiting. She recalls what happened when the bazaar theme overlooks this factor.

Last year, she says, she organized a bazaar themed for mothers and their babies, but it failed to attract enough participants and buyers because the theme was so specific and limiting.

5. Timing

Just as important as the bazaar theme is the timing. Garcia says that good days to hold bazaars are during weekends, from Friday to Sunday.

Unless there is a special occasion, she says, one must absolutely avoid organizing bazaars on weekdays. Holidays and paydays are also good for holding bazaars.

6. Good relations

Another secret to holding a successful bazaar is maintaining good relationships with the concessionaires.

A former bazaar concessionaire herself, Garcia says she is familiar with the most common misgiving of concessionaires: low foot traffic. This riles up most concessionaires, and to avoid this problem, she emphasizes the importance of proper venue selection and good marketing.

In addition, the bazaar organizer should always make it a point to have contingency plans for such unforeseen events as bad weather and power outages.

On financing bazaars, Garcia says it is important to require concessionaires to preregister and prepay their dues so as to prevent them from backing out at the last moment. Also, she suggests collecting the dues beforehand so the organizer can pay for the venue and the booth contractors even before the event.

Such prepayments also prevent people from trying to run away from their obligations particularly when the bazaar doesn’t do as well as projected.

7. Bazaar layout

To make the bazaar shopping experience as pleasant as possible, organizers must learn to maximize use of the bazaar space and properly lay out the stalls.

In particular, Garcia says, concessionaires must be asked not to allow their products to spill over the hallways and corridors so as not to hinder foot traffic during the bazaar.

Depending on one’s experience and network, Garcia says, it would take about two weeks to two months to set up a bazaar—with most of this time taken up by the search for the proper venue and for prospective bazaar concessionaires.


Two bonus tips:

1. Attracting concessionaires

To expand your network of concessionaires, visit other bazaars and get to know their concessionaires. Such visits also help the bazaar organizer keep herself up to date on the latest bazaar trends and developments.


2. Choosing concessionaires

To have a successful bazaar, screen your prospective concessionaires to make sure that not too many of them are selling the same types of products. Garcia says the standard rule is to limit merchants selling the same product to only three.

Too many similar products, she says, will cause too much competition among the merchants and reduce their earnings. She gives this tip: generally, concessionaires selling men’s products tend to do well because there is usually much stronger competition among bazaar merchants catering to women.



Network for Enterprising Women
1100 88 Corporate Center, Valero cor. Sedeño Sts.,
Salcedo Village, Makati City;
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