by Whether it’s sprouting through the soil or landing in the farm store cash register, green is every farmer’s favorite color.
And just as it takes the perfect conditions to cultivate healthy crops, it takes careful planning to grow your farm sales.
In this blog, we’ll explore our top four tips to increase farm sales — plus how to put them to work using your farm point of sale (POS) system.
1. Embrace E-Commerce
If you’re not selling your goods online, our number-one tip is to embrace the power of e-commerce. Launching an online store increases your farm sales by expanding your reach and making it easier than ever for customers to shop with you.
Instead of waiting for customers to stop by your farmers’ market booth or farm store, create a website that lets them visit your farm online. You can use your website to share your family farm story, educate your community about regenerative farming practices, and highlight your bestselling products.
After you’ve earned your potential customers’ trust, they can place an order from the comfort of their homes and have farm-fresh meats, produce, eggs, and dairy delivered right to their doors.
While it might be simplest to start your e-commerce journey by offering local pickup and delivery services, you can also sell your products to customers across the country via nationwide shipping, giving you an even bigger opportunity to increase your farm sales.
2. Sell Your Products by Weight
While farmers have traditionally sold products like beef by the quarter or half, many customers don’t have the room or budget to buy meat in bulk.
That’s why selling your products by weight rather than by unit is a great way to expand your customer base and make farm-fresh goods more accessible to a wider audience. Instead of only visiting your farm a few times a year to stock up, shoppers can treat your farm store like a grocery store, purchasing exactly what they want, when they want it.
Weight-based sales aren’t just convenient for your customers; they also streamline your inventory management process and let you turn every last ounce of your stock into profit, eliminating waste and maximizing sales.
3. Offer Subscriptions
Subscriptions are a fantastic way to increase farm sales and ensure a steady stream of revenue.
With a subscription model, your farm’s most loyal customers can have a box of fresh meat, produce, dairy, or eggs delivered on a regular basis, making it effortless to keep their refrigerators stocked with your farm’s goods.
You’ll also see the benefits of subscription services reflected in your farm’s bottom line, giving you a guaranteed, predictable source of sales.
4. Craft a Marketing Plan
If you want to harvest bigger sales, you need to plant marketing seeds.
Marketing is critical for farm success. It helps you win over new customers by highlighting your farm’s story, the quality of your products, and the sustainability of your practices — but it doesn’t stop there.
Marketing is also essential for turning your one-time shoppers into lifelong customers of your farm, encouraging them to rely on you for all their meat, produce, and dairy needs.
We recommend building your farm’s online presence by creating a website and posting on social media to attract new customers. You can also use enticing promotions and a rewarding customer loyalty program to keep them coming back.
Bonus: Must-Have Tools To Increase Farm Sales
Now you have your to-do list and understand how to increase farm sales. What’s next?
To put these tips into action, you need a farm POS system with the right features. Let’s take a look at the most important tools to look for in a farm POS solution:
- A website builder lets you create a custom website for your farm and launch your e-commerce operations.
- An order management and fulfillment system allows you to offer flexible options to your customers, including everything from local pickup to nationwide shipping.
- Robust inventory management features let you sell your farm’s products by weight and keep track of everything you have in stock.
- Built-in subscription options make it easy to earn a steady stream of income for your farm.
- Marketing integrations and a customer loyalty program can help you attract and retain customers for your farm.
Farm POS software with all these features might sound like a tall order, but fortunately, there’s one that checks all the right boxes.
GrazeCart is designed to meet the needs of farmers just like you, giving you all the tools you need to streamline your operations and increase your farm sales.
Start your GrazeCart journey by launching your free, two-week trial today.