As we step into the new year, the significance of an online presence is more pronounced than ever, and for those selling online – your farm's online store can be a game-changer. Whether you're a seasoned online seller or just dipping your toes into the world of farm e-commerce, preparing your farm's online store for success in 2024 is a strategic move.

There's more to having a high-converting online store than just setting it up. Great online stores are easy to navigate, visually pleasing, and up-to-date. Customers want to know what you have and when they can get it. 

This blog post aims to guide you through the essential steps to not only adapt but thrive in the online marketplace. Discover the key strategies to elevate your farm's online store, increase visibility, and cultivate a thriving digital storefront that resonates with customers in the coming year. Let's jump in:

Setting Up Your Farm E-Commerce Store with Local Line

Build (and/or Update) Your Farm Online Store

First and foremost, if you’re not already selling online – what are you waiting for? An easy-to-use, reliable storefront helps your online traffic convert to customers and sales. If you haven’t heard of us, Local Line is a user-friendly, all-in-one sales platform for farmers and food hubs. Getting set up is easy. Once you log in, start uploading your products, defining your fulfillment plans, inviting customers, and managing your orders.

For a full step-by-step on how to get your online store up and running, check out this article.

If you already have an online store, now is the time to prep it for the year. Take some time to reflect on the past year. Are there any updates you can make to your existing storefront?

• Do you have any products that you don't plan on selling next year? Are you adding new products this year?
• How are you packaging your products? Which packages were more or less popular last year?
• Has your inventory management system changed?
• How did you organize your products this year? Did you leverage categories? 
• If you aggregate other vendors' products, how did you display this on your storefront? 

Taking the time to review and update your farm store can help you get prepped and ready for a busy new year. 

Getting Your Farm Price Lists Ready

Next, get sales-ready by segmenting your customers into unique price lists. Local Line gives you the ability to leverage the same inventory into different unique storefronts. A price list is your “shoppable” list of products on your online store. For your different sales channels, your pricing, pack size, and availability might change. For each customer type, you can create a unique price list to reflect this. 

As you prep for the next year, take the time to map out all of your different customer segments (i.e., wholesale, CSA, retail, etc.) and organize your offerings into your different price lists. You might need to make updates to your packages, pricing, and create a new price for a new sales channel. With Local Line, pricing plans have varying included price lists to meet your needs. You can also add additional price lists to your subscription for $24/month. 

You can also set up automated emails that get sent out to the members of your price list on a pre-determined schedule. This is a great tool to re-engage customers to put in their orders. You can set these up in your Price Lists settings inside Local Line. 

Upload Impactful Product Images

Make your products pop on the page. High-quality product images are a must. Clear, well-lit, and professionally taken photos showcase your products effectively. Make sure to capture the uniqueness and freshness of your farm's products. High-resolution images help customers make informed decisions and enhance their online shopping experience.

Some quick tips for taking high-quality photos? 

1. Pick the Best Subject: Use produce that is bright in colour and has the least amount of blemishes. We all know there’s nothing wrong with a piece of fruit that has a few bumps and bruises, but for marketing purposes, pick your best-looking products. Additionally, determine how you are going to represent the product. This means whether you only showcase one unit or a handful, or whether the product is cooked or uncooked in the photo. Depending on your branding and product type, the representation may change.
2. Create a Background: Take your photos with natural scenery. Small-scale farming practices are all about natural and ethical production of food. Taking a photo of your final product with natural scenery in the background helps connect the product itself with its production. If that’s not possible, consider using natural fabrics, textures, and tones as the background of your photos—this will help make the link to handmade and natural production. Helpful tip: Amazon has photo studio "boxes" for an easy, white background with great lighting. Find them here in a range of sizes and prices.
3. Be Mindful of Lighting: Avoid shadows. When you take a photo of something straight from above, shadows occur and can dominate a photo. Adjust the angle of shooting, to reduce the intrusion of shadows in your pictures. Additionally, always use natural light. Flash photography and artificial lighting can be very hard to work with and often don’t look that great.

For even more tips on how to take professional product photos, check out this blog post.

Update Your Product Descriptions

Accurate and compelling product descriptions are essential to attract and inform potential buyers. Use descriptive language, highlight the key features of your products, and include any relevant information such as production methods, pairings or recommended uses, and flavor profiles. Create a consistent style for your descriptions to maintain a professional appearance.

Pro tip: Include the most important information in the first sentence of your product description. This copy will display on the home page of your online store. Not all of the copy will display on your storefront – so be sure to pick and choose what you want to show first. 

Prepping your farm's online presence for 2024 is crucial to staying competitive and achieving your sales goals. With these steps, your farm is well on its way to a prosperous and successful year ahead. To help you better prep for the 2024 sales season, we’ve created a series of articles covering topics such as: Setting Up Your E-Commerce Store, Optimizing Your Website for SEO, Preparing Your Instagram Profile for Sales, and Re-Engaging Your Email List. 

In addition to great software, we also offer suite of sales and marketing services for farmers. We offer everything from website builds to social media content, paid advertising, SEO, and even writing your email newsletters for you.