The Strategic Xmas Gift: Why I Gave Bags at a BYOB Christmas Sale

The event rule was clear. BYOB — Bring Your Own Bag. It was an eco-friendly Christmas market. So why did I, the rebellious founder of Coffee Creed, spend money on 15 festive carrier bags to give away?

TLDR. I realised a strict BYOB policy creates a barrier to impulse buys. My strategy? Remove that barrier for my customers, on my terms. Some say you can’t have your cake and eat it too. I’m here to laugh at them. Read on to find out how gifting bags became my secret sales weapon.

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Welcome back to another Coffee Creed Chronicle series. It’s Day 6 of the week-long event, and I’m tired. Honestly, this could be my very first and last boothing event that I will attend. It’s exhausting, and my work has been piling up thanks to it.

To begin with, I’d like to show off the booth that was decorated by a friend who helped secure the booth for me. I literally only have 3 products on display, but they made it seem so much more than that. Her name is Nikkolette, and she’s an entrepreneur with several businesses to her name, including NNYEO, a pet product curator.

As the event has taught me many things, I’ll be updating the Coffee Creed Chronicles in parts regarding this. Today’s blog will be focused on the corporate vision of wanting to save the earth, and my rebellious arse giving out bags anyway.

If you saw the picture above, those are some Christmas-designed carrier bags that I bought specifically to be given away to the first 15 customers. Have I given them out? Yes. Have they all been given out? Not yet.

You’d think it would be easy to gain 15 customers at a boothing event. You’d be right if it were a regular location with high traffic and great event management with marketing efforts. However, if you searched the internet for this particular Christmas Sale Event at CMPB Cashew, you’d find that Coffee Creed is the top search.

Also know that Coffee Creed is a relatively new business. My products literally landed in November, and I’m boothing in mid-December. I did not even have 10 followers on Instagram, and yet appeared as top search. That might give you a picture of the difficulties we faced during the event.

On the bright side, the booth was free! Not all was bad. We had some sales, but we spent hours just chatting because there were no customers.

Before I explain my strategy, I need to thank the real MVPs of this boothing event. If not for her, Coffee Creed might not have made a single sale. I had no idea I was so terrible at sales talk until I spoke. In the end, my job was to wear the Santa Hat I brought along, smile and look cute. Thank you, Nikkolette and Kayla, for babying me! P.S. The snacks were delicious.

As you know, BYOB events are famous for their noble efforts in order to save the earth. All they ask is for you to bring your own recyclable bags to carry your shopping purchases. It’s not because they’re being cheap about it. Totally not that! We respect the noble ambition as Earthly citizens.

However, as a customer who might happen to be lured over to an event that was not even known to the public, I might not be carrying a bag with me to shop. I might chance upon it while walking my dog (true story, he was a good golden retriever boy), and I don’t have anything to carry my impulsively bought last-minute Christmas gifts for a compulsory Secret Santa at work.

For example, I mean.

If you were the potential dog-walking customer, wouldn’t that naturally deter you from shopping at all? Even if it were a really great and attractive Christmas gift?

I mean, let’s be real. It’s coffee. Who doesn’t love a good coffee? It’s probably even better than chocolates that scream “I didn’t really put in an effort, so here’s a last-minute gift I got you because I totally forgot about you” type of Christmas gift. No offence to chocolate gifters, but coffee is just inherently better, like how I’m obviously biased towards it.

So here’s my five-headed solution: I gift cute Christmas carrier bags to people who don’t wrap presents and want to buy presents.

Ta-dah! Suddenly, you can have your cake and eat it too! The event organisers who refuse to give bags can’t fault me for supplying my own customers with bags. I brought my own bags on behalf of the customers. You can’t fault me for it. Moreover, I made sure that these bags were made from recyclable paper. It’s totally eco-friendly!

Everybody wins because there is a minimum spending to get these bags. My customers buy 2 drip boxes instead of 1 to get the bag. They carry it home, using it, and then remove 1 box for themselves while gifting the other. Isn’t it the perfect strategy to make everyone a little happier?

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And I’ll be honest. Those 15 carrier bags cost me less than $1 each. By making customers purchase $20 instead of $10, that has more than covered my cost for giving away these bags. So if you do the Math, I would earn more in sales on the whole by giving away these bags instead of not giving them away.

The bonus? Everyone ends up happier at the end of the day. The event organisers earn commission through my sales, the customers get a bag that looks presentable for gifting, and I sell more.

I’d say it’s a solid strategy for anyone else looking to add value for a fraction of the cost. It’s not about small savings that win the heart of customers. It’s about going the extra mile. Yes, even if you suck at sales talk like me.

What about you? Would you also gift bags at a BYOB event?

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