by Picture a sunny Saturday morning at the farmers market. Customers constantly approach your farm stand to browse your offerings, and you answer their questions and sell them your farm-fresh meats and produce. You pack up, head home, and reflect on a successful day full of sales.
These busy spring and summer weekends are essential for your bottom line, but weekdays and colder weather can lead to a dip in revenue.
Fortunately, there’s a way to keep your farm sales high year-round: E-commerce.
An online store lets customers virtually visit your farm, learn about your food production practices, and purchase farm-fresh goods from the comfort of their homes — which is convenient for them and profitable for you.
In this blog, we’ll explore how to get started with e-commerce food delivery in six simple steps.
1. Choose an E-Commerce Platform
Choosing an e-commerce food delivery platform is the most important decision you’ll make when setting up your online farm store. This powerful tool will guide every aspect of your e-commerce operations, from running your website to managing your orders.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important features and functions of an e-commerce food delivery platform:
- A drag and drop website builder makes it a breeze to create a custom website for your farm.
- An order management system tracks customers’ orders, guides you through the fulfillment process, and lets you offer flexible options including everything from curbside pickup to nationwide shipping.
- Inventory management features help you track your stock levels and turn every last ounce of your inventory into a profit.
- Reporting and analytics give you insights about your customers and their shopping habits to help you better meet their needs.
There are many e-commerce platforms to choose from, but we recommend one specifically designed for food delivery. An e-commerce tool built by and for farmers will help you navigate the complexities of food sales, including managing perishable products and making sales by weight.
2. Get a Handle on Your Inventory
The next item on your e-commerce food delivery to-do list is to get a handle on your farm’s inventory.
Inventory management is critical for food e-commerce because your stock levels determine how much of each product you can sell. For example, if you only have 10 pounds of ground sausage in stock and you accept an online order for 20 pounds, you’ll have an unhappy, inconvenienced customer on your hands.
That’s why we recommend adopting perishable inventory management best practices before launching your online food store. Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Invest in a reliable scale and adopt a catch weight approach.
- Leverage a farm e-commerce platform with built-in, real-time inventory monitoring.
- Perform regular counts to ensure your inventory records match what you actually have in stock.
Mastering the art of inventory management will save time and frustration for you, your customers, and your team.
3. Decide How Far To Deliver Your Products
Once you have a handle on what you’re selling, you can decide where to sell it.
An e-commerce food delivery platform can expand your reach, allowing you to sell your products to customers across the country.
But shipping perishables like meat and produce is no easy feat. You’ll need to determine which products can withstand the journey and invest in high-quality packing and insulation materials.
To ensure your customers always receive the freshest goods, we recommend offering them a wide range of options. Let local customers save money by picking up their orders directly from the farm, and offset the hefty costs of proper shipping and handling by charging your long-distance customers a delivery fee.
4. Build Your Website
Now it’s time to start building your farm’s website. To make this process as simple as possible, use your e-commerce platform’s drag and drop builder to create a site that highlights your family farm story, farming practices, and products.
Above all, your website should clearly communicate your pricing and shipping options to your customers. For example, if a shopper adds eight pounds of ground beef to their cart and enters their shipping address, your site should automatically calculate the weight-based price and shipping fee to reveal their total.
5. Add Sales-Boosting Options
Congratulations! You’ve set up your e-commerce food delivery website, and you’re ready to make your first sale. Now, all that’s left to do is grow your customer base and generate repeat business.
Let’s take a look at two great ways to boost your sales:
- Launch a customer loyalty program: Whether you let them earn rewards points, unlock exclusive discounts, or throw in free gifts, your loyalty program should reward customers every time they order food from your farm.
- Offer subscription services: Your customers will enjoy having their favorite farm-fresh products delivered right to their doors, and you’ll enjoy a steady stream of revenue.
Your farm e-commerce platform should make it easy for you to offer these options.
6. Continue Adapting to Your Customers’ Wants and Needs
Setting up your e-commerce food delivery platform isn’t a one-and-done kind of process. Instead, you should constantly shift your strategies to match your customers’ preferences and habits.
The best way to keep tabs on your customers’ wants and needs is to review your e-commerce software’s sales reports. These reports will reveal how often shoppers order from your farm, how much they spend per order, and which products they purchase most often.
Equipped with this information, you can make informed decisions to boost your bottom line. For example, if beef sales are up and chicken sales are down, you can invest more time and money into raising cattle during the next season. Or if your subscription services are wildly popular with your customers, you can emphasize them more heavily in your marketing strategy.
Make E-Commerce Food Delivery Easy With GrazeCart
Ready to expand your customer base and make more sales through the power of e-commerce? Then you need a tool like GrazeCart.
GrazeCart is an e-commerce food delivery platform designed for farmers like you. Our easy-to-use website builder, robust order and inventory management system, and powerful reporting and analytics suite are everything you need to launch and manage a profitable online farm store.
Take GrazeCart for a spin by launching your free, two-week trial today.