by Farming is an essential part of American life, but sadly the number of farms is on the decline.
Faced with market uncertainties and rising input costs, it’s harder for farms to turn a profit. But it’s not all doom and gloom in the farming industry.
Farm stores and direct-to-consumer sales are helping independent farms go back to their roots and feed their communities.
If you own a farm store, there are exciting opportunities to grow an independent business capable of competing with the big guys in the food industry. Here are eight actionable tips for capitalizing on these opportunities and boosting your farm store revenue.
Factors That Affect Farm Store Revenue
Every farm store is unique, but there are several factors that commonly affect revenue:
- Subsidies and grants: Many federal farm subsidies and grants are in flux, leading to financial uncertainty for independent farmers.
- Location: If your farm store is attached to the farm itself in an out-of-the-way location, you may get less foot traffic.
- Overhead costs: Your expenses will vary considerably depending on the livestock and crops you raise, along with your facility and staffing costs.
- Pricing: For direct-to-consumer sales, it’s important to set an appealing price point that still generates profit.
- Product diversity: A more diverse collection of products is more likely to withstand unexpected swings in demand, weather conditions, and regulation.
8 Effective Ways To Boost Farm Store Revenue
While some aspects of farm store revenue are out of your control, there are various tactics you can use to boost sales, increase satisfaction, and cut costs.
Here are eight tactics you should try out today:
1. Sell Online
Direct-to-consumer sales are an excellent way for farms to grow their businesses independently — and with more customers than ever interested in sustainable, ethically raised meat and produce, the time to start is now.
Even if you primarily sell locally, you miss huge sales opportunities by not selling online. A streamlined e-commerce site is an effective way to offer a shopping experience that rivals a big grocery store without paying a middleman.
Remember, just because you sell online doesn’t mean you have to suddenly figure out the logistics of shipping nationally. You can limit who can buy from you based on zip code and offer local pickup and delivery. Then, as you get more comfortable and your customer base grows, you can expand your shipping radius.
2. Use an Inventory Management System
While you could sell custom cuts of meat online, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of unneeded work. The gold standard for online sales is having standardized cuts and bundles, which is nearly impossible without an inventory management system.
Inventory management software attached to your e-commerce or point of sale (POS) system allows you to create SKUs for your various cuts, input the number you have, and calculate their average weight.
That way, when you make a sale you can quickly price actuals and see what you have left in storage. This will help save you significant time and money, and it’s essential for offering the streamlined online sales customers expect.
3. Connect With Customers on Social Media
Social media is an excellent way for small farms to connect directly with customers, especially if you’re in a more remote location.
(And a cute animal never hurts!)
Here are some tips to get the most out of your social media account:
- Highlight your unique products and discounts and include a link to your store in your profile
- Post regularly to ensure you show up in people’s feeds (and consider paid ads once you gain enough followers)
- Showcase your personality! People shop at farm shops because they want to buy from people, not a marketing robot.
- Emphasize the high quality of your products and farming practices to build trust and spark interest in your brand.
- Share customer stories, get feedback, and reply to comments to build relationships with customers.
In addition to social media, you should update your website and Google Business Profile so you can start gathering customer reviews.
4. Offer Subscription Boxes
While you might be used to the ins and outs of buying and selling fresh meat, many customers aren’t. Compared to a supermarket that carries a small number of standard cuts, a farm store can be intimidating and less convenient.
So, to make the experience easier, offer subscriptions! Subscription meat boxes make shopping for quality meat online easier and are a reliable source of recurring revenue.
There are a few ways to offer subscriptions:
- Curated boxes (e.g., a selection of cuts from a quarter of beef, a variety of sausages)
- Custom boxes (e.g., customers can choose up to 20 lbs. of certain cuts)
- Replenishment (e.g., have 5 lbs of ground beef shipped to you every month)
For replenishment, one way to upsell customers is through a subscribe-and-save model. This works by showing a customer how much money per pound (or per unit) they would save by buying a monthly subscription (generally in the same space they’re adding an item to their cart).
Last, to ensure your subscription sales run smoothly, make sure your e-commerce platform supports subscriptions natively.
5. Go to Farmers’ Markets
While online farm marketing and sales are important, they can’t replace face-to-face interaction.
Join your local farmers’ market to get your brand in front of the locals and connect with customers and businesses. It’s also a good chance to get a feel for the other farm businesses in your area, see what they’re offering, and find opportunities to create unique products.
If you are selling online, bring along cards with your logo, website, and a discount code. That way, an interested customer who doesn’t buy in person might come back and buy online later.
Related Read: How To Create a Farm Website in 4 Simple Steps
6. Partner With Local Businesses and Restaurants
Businesses that stand together, succeed together. That’s especially true for local businesses.
Partnering with local groceries, butchers, restaurants, and even other farms is a great way to improve brand recognition and build goodwill with your community.
Not sure where to start? Spark up a conversation! You’d be surprised how many businesses are interested in finding reliable sources of high-quality ingredients. Just know how much you can reasonably commit to providing a business regularly before striking any deals.
If you sell to local supermarkets or butchers, make sure to have labels or signage with your logo to increase brand awareness.
Last, remember that partnerships are a two-way street. Be open to selling other people’s products as part of your offerings. For example, you might buy hot sauces from local producers and create wings and sauce bundles that rival a certain popular online show.
7. Create Discounts and Seasonal Promotions
Food changes with the seasons, and coming up with clever seasonal promotions is an effective strategy to boost sales and interest in your farm store.
While discounts are a useful tool for selling slow-moving inventory, you can also use them to promote your seasonal goods — helping to increase sales.
Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing:
- A pack of pre-seasoned burgers and steaks for the summer grilling season
- A breakfast pack with different varieties of bacon and breakfast sausages
- Kits with chicken parts and fresh herbs to make broth in the winter
- A gumbo-making kit with fresh celery, green peppers, onions, chicken, and andouille sausage.
Create promotions that match your strengths, brand, and unique identity. Compared to generic discounts, creative promotions will encourage customers to keep checking in to see what you come up with next.
8. Use Data To Set Pricing
Small American farmers are creating fantastic, high-quality products, and we’re constantly surprised at how many undervalue them.
You offer a superior, premium product compared to supermarkets and should price appropriately. However, that isn’t the same as making blanket price increases, especially when cost of living is up and budgets are tighter.
Here are some tips for setting a winning pricing strategy:
- Understand your cost of goods sold (COGS) to get a detailed understanding of how much each product costs to raise and prepare for sale.
- Look at competitors in your area and online. How do they price compared to you, and what is the quality of their products?
- Use the sales data on your e-commerce or POS system to see bestsellers, profit margins, inventory turnover, and other data for each product.
Combined, these numbers will allow you to strategically adjust prices for individual items and monitor how pricing adjustments affect sales.
Kick Your Farm Store Revenue Into Overdrive With Simplified Onlne Sales
Direct-to-consumer sales provide a unique opportunity for small farm stores to find long-term success and independence. Online sales have the potential to share everything that makes your business special with even more people (and drive sales at the same time).
We developed GrazeCart specifically for farmers, butchers, and small markets to simplify how you sell food online. With a no-code website builder, sophisticated inventory management features, weight-based selling tools, and subscription support, we provide all the tools a farm store needs to offer a modern shopping experience.
Gain financial independence while competing with larger chains with GrazeCart. Try GrazeCart free for 14 days to see if it’s the right fit for your farm store.