How to Make Your Value Added Products Look Great at the Farmers' Market
Once you have a value-added product to sell now comes the part many folks don’t talk about - you have to actually sell it! Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your farmers’ market display so you (hopefully) sell more of those products you’ve worked so hard to create.
The biggest thing to remember here is that your customers are used to seeing alternatives to your product in specialty shops and grocery stores. In those locations, these types of products are displayed on clean shelves or stacked beautifully on tables. Often, your fresh-from-the-farm version at the farmers’ market is more expensive than the alternatives they see in the store. So if it looks worse and costs more, only the folks that truly love and trust you (your ultimate fans) will buy it.
If your products look like a sloppy afterthought, your customer is likely to think that is what they taste like too.
I know that table space is precious at the farmers’ market. You are literally paying for it by the foot. But if you just shove some jars in the corner of your table you really are doing a disservice to all the effort you’ve put into making these products in the first place.
Invest in some simple display items & use your vertical space
To maximize the impact of your display of value-added products, devote enough space to them and make sure the way you display them is eye-catching and cultivates both trust and curiosity from your potential customers. I’ve designed some really awesome custom displays for clients to showcase their value-added products. Colors and materials can create a look that draws the attention of your customers and gives them something to connect to. This has led to an increase in sales for my clients.
If you don’t have the budget for a custom branded display (like the one I designed below for a client), invest in some simple display items. Wooden risers are a great option to create a professional and clean display that allows for more product to be visible in a smaller amount of space. Creating something that displays products vertically attracts the eye as it scans over a mainly horizontal sales space.
A little insider tip for this on the ultra cheap is to buy the boxes meant as a painting project from a craft store (like Michael’s), flip them over, and voila! a riser is born.
Set up pricing signage
A lot of people who might purchase your product will feel uncomfortable asking about it. This is such an easy barrier to overcome. Have the pricing information right there where the value-added products are displayed so folks don’t need to walk over to another side of your booth to see what the price is or ask you about it.
Pricing should be easy to understand and easy to read. For this reason, I recommend one sign with all your pricing information so folks don’t need to search a bunch of smaller signs for the price of the product in their hand. But whichever way you do it, do it.
Provide samples if you can; Create marketing material if you can’t
Providing samples is the best way to sell a product so if you can do this it’s worth the jars of product you go through doing it. But at some markets (and because of some viruses) this isn’t safe or realistic.
If you can’t sample your product, make a one sheet flier about the product. Tell customers what produce from your farm goes into the product, how the customer can use the product, and what makes your product different from alternatives. The lowest cost way to do this would be to design it yourself in a simple Word document, print it out, and display it in a photo frame.
If you’re not sure what to talk about when you talk about your product, this free video series was designed to help you figure that out.
Train your farmers’ market help
Make sure the folks who help you at the farmers’ market know how to talk about the product to customers. It won’t help customers feel confident in making a purchase if they ask about your product and get a response like, “I don’t really know. That’s new.”
I recommend providing your staff with a one page Product Info Sheet that includes things like a description of the product, the ingredient deck, and any extra facts or figures that can help someone explain the product to customers.
Also send your market helpers home with some of the product and encourage them to use it. That way they can talk first-hand to customers about how it tastes and how they use it themselves.
Here’s to some stellar farmers’ market sales and customers who keep coming back for more!
Cheers,
Ellen