Everyone loves hampers – particularly at Christmas or on special occasions like birthdays. Big stores like Harrods and M&S do a roaring trade in them – have a look at their hampers to give yourself ideas of what to put in yours. Actually making the hamper can cost very little and the goodies inside can be bought in bulk or made at home to bring down costs. However, the selling price can be as high as you like, so this is an amazing potential earner if you get it right.

• Make money all year round (but particularly at Christmas) making hampers and selling them at markets, car boot sales and online.
• Buy in bulk or make things to bring your costs down and increase your profits.

If you have creative juices flowing through you, this could be something you do to occupy yourself in the evening – or make to order. There will always be a desire for gifts such as hampers, but you have to have something about yours that sets them apart from the crowd. Maybe you could have specific themed hampers (all chocolate, or hampers for gardeners or “tea for two” hampers, for example), or create hampers only from (nicely wrapped) homemade foods you’ve made yourself.

Read through our step by step guide to making and selling hampers to find out more.

Step one: research

Think about who you’re going to sell your hampers to. It’s likely that you’ll firstly be selling locally, maybe even to family and friends – so you need to think about what the people in your area might like to see in a hamper. If you live in a country village, then homemade products like jams and cakes are likely to sell better than a hamper packed with novelty Christmas gifts. Ask your friends and family what kind of items they’d like to receive in a hamper, and take a look at any delicatessens in your area that might sell them to see what they have on offer. Also look online and in stores to see what they put in their hampers.

If you plan to sell homemade foods that you’ve cooked in your own home then you may have to get your kitchen registered. Before you bake and package goods to sell, speak to your local authority to check regulations in your area. You can search for contact details of your local council alphabetically by clicking here. Our article on making and selling cakes and jams has more information on food hygiene regulations .

Before you rush off to buy as many items in bulk as you can, stop to think about what you really want to put into your hampers. Make a list of about ten items you definitely want to put in them. You might not necessarily put all those items into one hamper but this way you can mix and match to create a variety of designs.

Step two: buy in bulk

Once you have a reasonable idea of what you want to put into your hampers, it’s time to find the cheapest versions of the products and the containers and decorations to maximise your profits. By buying items in bulk you save a lot of money so register with your local cash and carry to benefit from their cheaper prices.

If you decide to do hampers seriously then look online for wholesalers of the items you are interested in (perhaps you’re going for bath products or tins and jars of food). Lots of wholesalers ask for proof that you are self-employed, so to benefit from most wholesale deals you’ll need to get yourself registered as a small business/self-employed person with HMRC.

Here are a few sites we recommend for buying hamper produce in bulk.

Candi Gifts – this site sells baskets from 25p, and has great deals on cellophane and coloured shredding which you’ll be using to pack up and wrap your hamper.

Amazon – boxes and baskets for under a tenner.

Sunday Times Wine Club - this is the place to go if you want cheap, quality wine. You can find full bottles for under a fiver here, and bottles of wine will always go down well in a hamper. Full bottles might not fit however, so it might be worth getting half bottles where prices are as low as £3.08. Cheers.

Chocolate Buttons – if you want to include any chocolate or sweet in your hamper design then Chocolate Buttons has a massive range of wholesale products for you to choose from.

Elements – for a toiletry hamper you should pay a visit to the Elements website to find some great deals on bath products. They have low minimum orders too which is handy if you’re only making a few hampers.

If we haven’t listed what you want then simply type into Google: wholesale [name of product] and it should come up with a list of wholesale websites that have what you need. Be sure to shop around as the first deal you come across might look tempting but it’s likely you’ll be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.

Step three: presentation

It’s really important to remember that people will be buying these hampers as gifts for their family and friends, so they will want them to look presentable. If a customer is wowed by the first hamper you supply, they are far more likely to buy from you again. Don’t go over the top with decoration. Some shredding to fill up the empty spaces, cellophane wrapping and a bow is perfect. If you want to add a little more luxury you could tie a ribbon right around the hamper (this is also a good trick to hide the bunching of the cellophane) or you could drop a few foiled chocolates to cover empty space. Simplicity is the key for decoration of hampers.

Be sure to practise your designs a few times before you pack up your hampers and ship them off. Making the perfect hamper is an art, and it’ll take you a little time to get it right so don’t panic if when the first time you try it, it looks like a big mess! Just keep rearranging items until they fit.

Wilkinsons sells rolls of cellophane for a pound and you can get all kinds of small decorations and bows from pound shops and markets.

Step four: costings

To work out how to price your hamper, there are a few things you need to take into consideration.

• The first and most obvious is how much it costs to make – this includes the items inside the hamper, the basket itself, the decorations and all the costs for the delivery (if you are offering this service rather than just selling at a local market).

• The second cost is your time: how long does it take to make a hamper? Consider how much you would like to pay yourself an hour and incorporate this into the costs. The next cost is delivery. Are you going to deliver them yourself or are you going to hire a courier? Even if you deliver them yourself you have to consider the petrol costs.

Once you have a good idea of how much each hamper costs to make and distribute in total, you can decide how much you are going to mark the price up depending on the quality of your hamper and what you think the market will bear. Remember that if the price is too high then customers will use one of your rivals so make a note of their prices and try to stay under those if possible.

Step five: advertising

Where you advertise your hampers will depend on who your market is. It’s best to start small and sell locally rather than expecting your business to boom in a short space of time. Just setting up a stall at your local market, farmers’ market or car boot sale could do to start off with – you will just pick up passing trade. But you could also advertise locally in shops or nationally on the web if you want to do more regular trade.

Put an ad in the local paper close to Christmas or Easter, or post one on Gumtree. Think about the kind of people that will be buying your hampers and then think about where they’re most likely to go. If you’re specialising in golf hampers, for example, then stick an advert up on your local golf club’s notice board. Hampers for gardeners could be advertised in your local garden centre.  It’s all about using your common sense to work out which advertising medium best fits your market.

Step six: tell us about it

Get onto our money making forum thread and let everyone know what you are doing and how it’s all going. Our readers are trying to make money too and it really helps to hear other people’s experiences.

Useful websites

• M&S
• Harrods
• Learndirect
• Wilkinson Plus
• Amazon
• Sunday Times Wine Club
• Gumtree