The Makers Market

A growing platform supporting bakers, crafters, and creators through organised markets.

WebsitesCRMs & Dashboards

The Makers Market organise and run markets across the North West and Midlands, bringing together independent traders from bakers and crafters to artists and producers. Their events create busy, community-driven spaces where people can discover and support local businesses.

Industry • Markets, Booking, Directory

The Challenge

Understandingtheproblem

Interestingly, this project started the other way round.

We actually discovered The Makers Market ourselves after attending one of their events in Tarporley. The market was busy, well organised, and clearly successful but when we tried to find them online, there was very little there.

That highlighted the core issue straight away:

A strong real-world business with very little online presence
No clear central hub for market locations or information
No streamlined way for traders to book onto markets
A lot of manual admin happening behind the scenes

They needed more than just a website, they needed a system that matched how well their events were already running offline.

The Strategy

Howweapproachedit

From the start, we focused on two key areas:

1. Making it easy for the public

We wanted users to quickly:

Find upcoming markets
See locations and details
Engage with the brand

2. Making life easier for the business

Behind the scenes, the goal was to:

Reduce admin time
Simplify trader bookings
Create a system that could scale as they grow

We spent time properly understanding how their markets operate and how traders interact with the business, so everything we built actually fit around their day-to-day processes.

The Build

Howwebuiltit

We designed and developed a custom WordPress website alongside powerful backend functionality.

This included:

A clean, easy-to-use website for visitors to find market locations and details
A fully upgraded trader directory
A booking system allowing makers to apply and secure spots at markets
Custom backend systems to manage traders, bookings, and events
A mobile-friendly design for users on the go

The focus wasn’t just on how it looked, it was about building something that genuinely improves how the business runs.

The Results

Impactdelivered

The Makers Market team were an absolute pleasure to work with, and the feeling is mutual.

They were over the moon with the final result and how the system supports their business:

“A fantastic experience from start to finish!
We’ve recently partnered with Nova Labs to build our brand-new Makers Market website, including our upgraded trader directory and booking system and we honestly couldn’t be happier with the results.
From the very beginning, the team at Nova Labs took the time to understand how our markets and traders operate. They came up with creative, practical solutions that fit perfectly with how we work and have built a platform that’s both beautiful and brilliantly functional.
Communication has been excellent throughout, responsive, transparent, and genuinely collaborative. Nothing ever felt like too much trouble, and every detail was handled with care.
We’re so proud of what we’ve created together and can’t recommend Nova Labs highly enough to anyone looking for a professional, friendly, and innovative web development partner.”
The Makers Market Team

Key Metrics