Organising a Christmas market: online stallholder registration with payment up front

A Christmas market starts in October, with the stallholders

For visitors, a Christmas market is an evening or a weekend of wooden chalets, mulled wine, lights and a choir. For the organiser it starts weeks earlier, with a list. Who has a stall, where, selling what, and has everyone paid?

Put the calls for stallholders from towns, neighbourhood committees and clubs side by side and the same rules keep coming back:

• A registration is only final once it is paid.
• There are different kinds of pitches: indoor or outdoor, a stall or a food and drink tent.
• The organiser wants to know what each stallholder sells, to avoid five stalls with the same candles.
• Local clubs often get priority or a different price from traders from outside the town.
• Once the pitches are gone, a reserve list is kept.
• One to two weeks before the market, stallholders get the practical details: map, set-up times, power.

With an inbox, a spreadsheet and the club's bank statements, that works. But it costs evenings. Below you read how to handle each of those points, and how to set it up in ClearTix.

1. The practical side first: permission, map and kinds of pitches

Check in good time with your local council which permission you need for a market on public ground or in a hall, and which rules apply to people selling there. That differs from town to town. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Then draw a simple map. Count how many pitches you have indoors and outdoors, where there is power and where the food and drink tents go. Every kind of pitch with its own price or conditions becomes its own ticket type.

2. Every kind of pitch is a ticket type

In ClearTix you create one event for the Christmas market, with the date and address of the market. For each kind of pitch you add a ticket type, for example:

• Indoor pitch
• Outdoor pitch
• Food and drink tent

For each ticket type you set:

• Price: what the stallholder pays for that pitch.
• Capacity: the number of pitches of that kind. Once it is reached, registration for that type stops by itself.
• Max per order: 1. Each stallholder then books one pitch, and you have one contact per pitch.
• Sales window: set the end date to your registration deadline. After that you can fill in the map in peace.
• Extra info on the ticket: a short line such as "Set-up from 14:00, enter via the side street".

If you ask for a deposit, say so clearly in the ticket type description, so the stallholder knows what they pay and what they get back, and when.

3. Who is coming and with what: a short form

Attach a form to the ticket types and choose Once per order. Keep it short and only ask what you will actually use:

• Name of the stallholder or club (text, required)
• What do you sell? (long text, required)
• Company number (text, optional, if your council or your rules ask for it)
• Need power? (checkbox)
• Mobile number (phone), for the day itself

The answers to "What do you sell?" help you keep a good mix on the market. They are saved with each registration. Want stallholders to accept your market rules? Add a required checkbox with a link to the rules.

Do not ask for data you do not need. What you do not collect, you do not have to store or protect. More in GDPR-compliant ticketing and Collecting attendee details.

4. Registering is paying

The big difference with a sign-up form followed by a bank transfer: with ClearTix the stallholder registers and pays in the same step, with Bancontact, iDEAL or card. No successful payment, no registration. So you no longer match payment references against a list, and no pitch is "half taken" by someone who still has to pay.

The money goes straight to the Mollie or Stripe account of the club or committee. ClearTix does not hold it. The transaction cost of the payment goes directly to Mollie or Stripe.

Does a stallholder have to pull out after all, or does an application not fit the mix of the market? Then refund that order from Orders, through your payment provider. The pitch frees up again.

5. Priority or a different price for local clubs

Many Christmas markets give their own local clubs priority or a different price. There are two ways to do that:

• Discount code (every plan): create a code for the local clubs and limit it to the pitch ticket types. You can see how often it was used.
• Hidden ticket type with an access code (Studio and Pro): create for example a Club pitch type that does not appear on the public page. Only people with the access code see and buy it. That way you can also set aside a number of pitches for clubs or open registration to them earlier.

To let the clubs choose first, give the hidden type a sales window that starts before that of the public types.

6. Full? A reserve list that keeps itself

Once the pitches of a type are gone, would-be stallholders can join the waitlist. If someone cancels and you refund them, ClearTix automatically e-mails the next person on the list a link to register. You do not have to phone anyone. The waitlist works on every plan, including the Free plan. More in Waitlists for sold-out events.

A long waitlist is also a signal for next year: maybe there is room for an extra row of chalets.

7. Two weeks before the market: the practical details

One to two weeks before the market, send the stallholders the map, set-up times and the rules for power and waste. In ClearTix you do that with a message under Emails → custom/broadcast. You can filter recipients by ticket type, so the food and drink tents, for example, get their own message about water and waste.

8. On the day: scan stallholders in at set-up

At set-up, put a volunteer with an ordinary smartphone at the entrance to the market area. The scanner runs in the browser, no app needed. Each stallholder shows their QR code. In the dashboard you then see which stallholders have checked in and who is still on the way. The scanner needs internet, but copes with a patchy connection. That is handy on a square or car park with a weak signal.

And the visitors?

Most Christmas markets are free to enter, and then you do not need tickets for visitors. Some parts do benefit from registration:

• Visiting Father Christmas: with timeslot booking, families pick a timeslot in advance, for example one family per slot. That works on every plan, including Free. ClearTix charges no fee on free tickets.
• A Christmas concert or dinner during the market weekend: create a separate event with its own tickets.
• Drink or food vouchers on site: with the point of sale you sell at the stand, on the Studio and Pro plans.

Quick checklist for your Christmas market

• Permission checked with the council, map drawn
• One ticket type per kind of pitch, with capacity and max 1 per order
• Sales window that closes on the registration deadline
• Form once per order: name, what they sell, power, mobile, optionally the rules
• Discount code (every plan) or hidden ticket type with access code (Studio or Pro) for local clubs
• Waitlist as the reserve list
• Message with map and set-up times one to two weeks before
• Scanner in the browser at set-up

Why this matters to us

ClearTix was made in Haaltert, by a photo club that could not find a ticketing platform that suited a club. A Christmas market is a good example: a handful of volunteers, lots of small registrations and takings that should go to the club or committee. That is why the money goes straight to the organiser's own Mollie or Stripe account.

Organising a Christmas market this year? Create a free account and set up registration for your stallholders. Getting started is free: no setup cost, and your first 3 events each month are free. The fee per ticket sold is on our pricing page.