VENDOR APPLICATIONS
Links to vendor applications are sent via email. To receive information about market opportunities, sign up on our email list. Applications open 2-3 months before the event date. Please plan accordingly. When signing up for applications, mark event dates off on your calendar to ensure you don’t double book or drop out until dates are released. Dropping from a market at the last minute removes opportunities from other vendors as we are not always able to fill a space.
Once applied, you will receive a confirmation email from noreply@jotform.com. *Please do not apply for events multiple times*
Vendors are responsible for keeping track of applications they’ve applied for.
We will have a 2022 application tracker available once applications are released.
Front Porch Sundays - first Sunday of every month April - December
Application opens 3 months before the event date & closes 2 months before the event date.
Applications are sent out by season.
Apply for April, May, June markets in one application
Apply for July, August, September markets in one application
Apply for October, November, December markets in one application
Applicants can apply for General, Mid-Tier and Top-Tier spaces each with a different price-point.
Nebel’s Alley Night Market - third Saturday of every month April - November
Application opens 2 months before event date
Applications are sent out by season.
Apply for April, May, June markets in one application
Apply for July, August, September markets in one application
Apply for October and November markets in one application
Applicants can apply for General, Mid-Tier and Corner spaces each with a different price-point.
South End Small Business Saturday - Event date TBD
Application opens 3 months before event date
Acceptances are sent on a rolling basis and applications will close once all spaces are filled.
We cannot include late submissions into acceptances for any markets. Please adhere to all deadlines.
Applications submitted by the due date.
Application notifications sent one week after application closes.
a. Application Acceptance Email - Vendor accepted into the market. Invoice will be due within one week.
b. Application Waitlist Email - Vendor is not currently accepted, but will have to the option to take a spot if a space becomes available in their product category and indicated pricing tier.
c. No Space Email - Used only for our Front Porch Sundays applications, due to high numbers. Waitlist is full and we are unable to add more business names at this time.
Accepted vendors must pay within one week of acceptance email.. Deadline will be outlined in invoice and sent through Squareup (invoicing@messaging.squareup.com). At the deadline, the unpaid vendors are removed from the accepted list and waitlisted vendors are contacted to fill spaces. Waitlisted vendors have 3 business days to remit payment.
Process continues until all spaces are filled. Any remaining vendors on waitlist contacted once all spaces are filled to release the hold date.
Out of the number of applications received, vendors are selected based on a variety of factors and moving pieces ↓
Market Audience
We first take into account the market’s audience. What is our patron audience and what are the products they are looking for in this specific market.
Product Category and Pricing Tier
Our markets offer a variety of balance of product and pricing structures. See list of Vendor Types. If you are added to the waitlist or no space, it’s not a knock on your product in any way. We more than likely have an over saturation of applications in a pricing tier as well as your product category.
For example - at Front Porch Sundays we have 71 tented vendor spaces (12 Corner, 25 MidTier, 34 General)
Using actual numbers from October 2019, We received 230 applications for this event.
In an effort to ensure balance to our 20+ vendor categories, we cap the Jewelry category at about 7-8 vendors per market.
✱ 1-2 vendors in Corner spaces
✱ 3 vendors in Mid tier spaces
✱ 3 vendors in General spaces
We also try to place vendors in the price category they’ve requested. For October 2019 we received 18 Jewelry vendors in the General category alone. Of these vendors, we have approximately 3 vendors to accept, and take a couple vendors for the waitlist. We continue this process for each product category and pricing tier. Accepting another vendor in your category would over saturate the market feel and could make it difficult for other vendors to make sales.
New and Returning Vendors
We also keep a healthy mix of returning and new vendors. Let’s celebrate other members of the community and give other businesses a chance to sell. If you are noticing more competition in your product area across Charlotte markets, please note we’re here to help you continue to grow and facilitate opportunities to stay ahead of the curve as well. We do not have an official “patron” vendor process that automatically guarantees previous vendors a returning spot, but we do know that at certain markets participants come to see specific vendors. In order to strike a balance we attempt to bring back a few consistent vendors to each market that meet the market vibe almost 100% of the time. We keep rotating vendors who are crowd pleasers but who may not apply or be available for each event. Finally, our goal is to allow new vendors spaces if they fit the market audience and feel.
Accepted vendors will be notified via email and will also receive a separate email invoice from SquareUp (invoicing@messaging.squareup.com).
Accepted vendors must pay for their by the due date, one week within the acceptance. The invoice due date will be available in the invoice.
At the deadline, the unpaid vendors are removed from the accepted list and waitlisted vendors are contacted to fill spaces.
Waitlisted vendors have 3 business days to remit payment.
Please remit questions for your invoice to hailey@estherandelsaretail.com
Terms and Conditions can be found here. Event Policies and guidelines can be found here.
