Q: How
do I purchase products that I see at Farmer's Market Online?
Farmer's Market
Online is different from other online marketplaces in that sales and product
information are direct transactions between shoppers and the producers.
Feel free to contact
any of the vendors in the market directly with your questions. Email address
and phone numbers are included in each Booth. Most vendors ship throughout
North America and many will ship overseas as well.
Q: Won't
shipping costs discourage shoppers from making a purchase?
Shipping is certainly expensive,
but many shoppers are willing to pay those costs in order to get the products they want delivered to their
door. Many of these folks live in urban areas where the expenditure of
time, fuel, and effort needed to seek out and purchase a product in person
far exceeds the cost of having it delivered.
Mail-order sales to individuals are not
the only benefit of having a Booth at Farmer's Market Online. Your Booth
may also attract local customers, institutional purchasers, wholesalers
or other sales opportunities.
Q: How
long will it take before I receive my orders?
Almost all the goods
on Farmer's Market Online are sold direct from the producer, so delivery
times and procedures may vary. Generally, you'll receive your order
in 2-3 days if you choose an expedited delivery method. Otherwise, it could
take anywhere from 4 days to 3 weeks.
When you find a product
you want, send an email to the producer's email address in the Booth and
they'll give you a better idea of delivery time.
Q: How
do I join or how do I pay for my orders?
You don't have to
join. You can pay by credit card with most vendors; most will also accept
checks or money orders.
Q: Isn't
it best to buy locally from local producers?
Yes, buying from local sources is usually
best, both for you and the producer. You can use our directory
of farmers' markets to find one nearby, or try our Buy
Direct Directory to locate producers selling their products direct
in your area.
Unfortunately, a lot of folks don't have
local access to producers selling direct... and many producers need more
customers than their local area can provide. That's one of the reasons
why Farmer's Market Online was created. See our statement on Buying
Online.
Q:
Why should I buy a product direct from the producer when I can get a similar
item for less money at a discount store or supermarket?
When you buy from a retailer, less than
40 percent of the purchase price goes to the producer (usually much less).
The rest of the cost pays for overhead, marketing, corporate investments
and profits.
Shipping and handling charges on propducts
purchased direct may seem high, especially when buying a single item, but
they are comparable to the real costs of driving to a store and
paying through a clerk. Consider the value of your time ($5,
$10, $20 per hour), the cost of operating a vehicle (40 cents
per mile), the aggravation of traffic and parking and waiting in
line, and the social and environmental cost of 100 people driving
to make purchases that one delivery truck could bring to their homes.
Calculate the real costs
of a trip to the store and home delivery of direct purchases is often more
economical.
Q: Is there a place on your website that
I can combine my orders with several vendors
and have them shipped together?
We've puzzled over how to develop a shopping
cart program like what you describe. All the options we've come up with
would require some sort of drop-shipping or third-party involvement in
sales, which we've tried to avoid. The primary purpose of Farmer's Market
Online is to allow shoppers to interact with and
Buy Directly from the vendor with no intermediaries.
Some of our vendors have more than one
Booth or offer more than one product. We've placed links between them to
make it easier to combine orders for their products.
To offset the added shipping cost involved
in making purchases from several different vendors, we recommend buying
in bulk, either for yourself or jointly with friends and family. Buying
10 of an item instead of 1 certainly lowers the per item shipping cost.
Q: How do vendors
receive payment?
Shoppers at Farmer's
Market Online buy direct from the vendors. No middleman. Some accept credit
cards; other don't. Credit cards allow for swifter transactions, but shoppers
who want your product are usually willing to pay by check.
If you have your
own website, you can include a link to it from your Booth. If you don't
have a website, your Booth can substitute as a web location in your promotions,
i.e., www.FarmersMarketOnline.com/yourname.htm
Q: How many hits
are you getting?
Farmer's Market
Online curently receives an average of more than 2,000 unique visitors per day, each
visiting an average of 6 pages per visit.
We post regular updates
on market traffic in our Open Market blog.
While we work hard
to attract visitors to the market, large numbers of "hits" are not our
goal. We would rather attract 10 shoppers seriously interested in buying
quality goods direct from the producer than 10,000 shoppers looking for
cheap goods at the lowest possible price.
Q: How long
has Farmer's Market Online been online?
Farmer's Market Online started
as an email newsletter in 1994 and expanded to a website in 1995. We've
been online continuously since then and most of our shopper traffic is
the result of the hundreds of links and referrals established over those
years.
Q: How do you market
Farmer's Market Online?
We market the website through
press releases, search engine registrations and links to our consumer content,
but the most effective marketing is still "word of mouth" and our positive
reputation.
Q: What's
the difference between a Booth and a listing in the Buy Direct Directory?
The Buy
Direct Directory lists products available direct from the producer.
Its primary purpose is to help shoppers who want to buy direct find the
products they are seeking. Each listing links to the producer's email,
website or Booth.
Listings include the name of the product,
producer, location and months of availability. Unlike a Booth, a listing
offers no photos, descriptions or separate web page location.
Vendors who have Booths on Farmer's Market
Online are automatically listed in the Buy Direct Directory for the products
they offer in their Booths.
Producers who want a Buy
Direct Directory listing rather than a Booth can register products
for $25 for
a full year.
Q: I
have a number of different products. Can I put them all in my Booth?
Each Booth space
is leased in a particular section of the market (Produce, Crafts, Specialty
Foods, Meat, etc.) and each Booth is designed to feature one generic product
and varieties thereof. This restriction is meant to make it easier for
shoppers to go directly to the products they are looking for, and to keep
each Booth from becoming a mini marketplace of its own.
If you lease a Booth
in the Produce section, for instance, you can display one produce item
that you are selling direct. If you have more than one type of produce
to offer, you can either rotate your products in the same Booth
to feature different items as they are in season or you can lease separate
Booths for each product.
Leasing separate
Booths will provide more exposure for your products, as shoppers and search
engines begin to associate your Booth location with a particular product,
but the expense is certainly greater as well.
If you have a number
of different products that fit several different categories, you could...
Q: At
a regular farmers market, you rent a space, not a category. You put whatever
you want on the table... canned goods, corn, tomatoes, honey, melons, fruit,
strawberries or whatever. If you run out of one thing you bring in something
else for as long as you rent the space. Why can't I do the same here?.
The only difference
with Farmer's Market Online is that the space you rent is situated within
a specified section of the market (i.e., Meats,
Specialty
Foods,
Handmade Crafts,
etc.). You can change the products you offer in your Booth, so long as
they belong in that section.
There are two reasons
for this requirement. The first is to make it easy for shoppers to
find what they're looking for; the second is to avoid having dozens of
little "mini-markets" within the market.
Each Booth features
one product at a time. The Booth is linked by this product name to our
market entrance
pages and the Buy
Direct Directory. If you offer corn, tomatoes, melons and strawberries,
only one of these can be featured in a single Booth at a time. Shoppers
looking for melons, either on our
website or through
search engines, are more likely to find your Booth if "melons" are the
featured product.
Q: If I lease a Booth, can I change the featured item?
Yes, as long as the product is appropriate to the category in which the Booth is leased (i.e, Meats,
Specialty
Foods,
Handmade Crafts,
etc.).
Booths are leased in sections of the market like Specialty Foods,
Meats, Handmade Crafts, etc. They are linked and promoted within those
categories, both on our site and with the search engines. If you lease
a Booth is Specialty Foods, visitors will come to your Booth expecting
to find a Specialty Food item and not Farm Supplies.
If you lease a Booth in Specialty
Foods, for example, you are welcome to change to another Specialty
Foods product
that you produce at any time during the term of your lease. And you can
change as often as you like, so long as the product is one you produce
and sell direct.
You may also lease more than one Booth.
Q: Do
you have any sort of policy on vendors offering the same product?
No. We do not limit vendors from offering
the same product as another vendor. From our experience, the greater the
variety of products -- and sources of products -- that a market offers,
the more attractive it is to shoppers.
Q: Why
do I have to list prices?
Pricing is an important part of the shopping
experience. We ask for pricing out of concern for our shoppers. When they
enter a Booth, they expect to find the product they're looking for, a description
and a price. Some will want to make a purchase right away, others will
want to get more information via email or your own website; but we don't
want to frustrate their shopping experience by making them jump to another
site or wait for an email response just for a price. Products without prices
frustrate the shopper and don't get looked at as closely.
Q: Why
do you ask for postpaid prices?
We strongly encourage you to list a postpaid
price for products featured in your Booth. A postpaid price increases customer
responses, we have found, because they don't have to inquire about shipping
charges and wait for a response. Shipping charges are variable, certainly.
Our strategy has been to identify the charges to ship to the farthest accepted
destination and use those to come up with a postpaid price; some shipments
will obviously be less costly, and more profitable, than others. You'll
have to figure out a cost that will guarantee you a return without scaring
away buyers.
Q: How
are your vendors recruited?
Vendors are recruited
online, and mostly by word of mouth (or monitor).
Details on leasing
Booth are available here.
If you produce a product for sale direct to the consumer, we'd welcome
you as a vendor.
Q: I
have an online store. Can I promote products from my store in your Booths?
Most of our Booths are intended for vendors
selling their own product direct to the consumer, and are promoted to our
shoppers as such. With a few exceptions, they are not intended for resellers.
Each Booth is limited to one generic product,
such as apples or hats or jams, and varieties of that product. Vendors
can lease as many Booths as they wish, but we reserve the right to refuse
Booth leases to resellers marketing products made by a second party.
Reselling is welcome, however, in the following
sections of Farmer's Market Online:
Farm
Supply, Home & Garden
Center, Kitchen
Supply, Gift
Shop, Holiday, Craft Supplies, Pet
Supplies, and Farmers Market Supply sections of Farmer's
Market Online.
Q: Do
you accept article submissions?
Yes, we're always
interested in sharing news, information and resources pertaining to food,
farming, home/garden and direct marketing of products. There's no payment
for submissions, but we offer links to websites or the author's email in
exchange.
Q: Will
I get to view my Booth before it goes online?
Yes, you'll be asked
to approve the Booth before it is linked to the market.
Q:Can
I change or add to my Booth after it is constructed?
Certainly. We have a general Booth page
format that we try to keep to, but changes in graphics or content are possible
at any time. You can even change the product featured in your Booth as
long as it fits in the same category (Meats, Specialty Foods, Handmade Crafts, etc.). Send
Booth change requests to manager@FarmersMarketOnline.com
Q: At
the end of the lease, if I want to renew will I need to go through the
whole registration process again?
Renewal requires
no additional setup, unless you choose to make changes to your Booth, which
you can do at any time.
Q: As
a vendor, how can I attract more shoppers?
Several things will
help generate more traffic and responses:
1. Photos of your
product. We can use these in your Booth, as well as on linking pages to
bring customers to your Booth.
2. Linking content.
Recipes, tips, resources, how-to information. We can include these in the
content areas of the market with links to your Booth.
3. Patience. It takes
time for the search engines to find your Booth. The longer it is in place,
the more traffic you'll see from customer's searching for your product.
4. Referrals. Include
your Booth address in email correspondence, business cards, brochures,
etc. It's a slow process, but word of mouth -- or email -- works the best.
5. Consistency. We
get 20000-2500 visitors to the market daily, but not all are looking for
your product. Those that are may revisit the market, and your Booth, several
times before making a purchase. If they know you're here, there's a good
chance they'll come looking for you when they need what you've got.
Our mission has been,
and continues to be, one of attracting more vendors and more products so
that shoppers can rely on Farmer's Market Online as a source for the products
they want to buy direct from the producer. We value your participation
and will certainly do what we can to help make your experience profitable
as well as enjoyable.
Q: Will
search engines be able to find my Booth?
After a few weeks the search engine on
our website (see links on most of our pages) will include the products
in your Booth, as will most of the major search engines (Google,
Yahoo!,
etc.) Shoppers searching for your specific product will find links directly
to your Booth rather than the market entrance. The longer your Booth is
in place and active, the more of these links will be established and the
more traffic you'll see.
Q: Can
you provide me with any stats regarding the popularity of your site, or
point me to any of your vendors who might be willing to let me contact
them via email?
Farmer's Market
Online receives an average of more than 2,000 unique visitors per day, each
visiting an average of 6 pages per visit.
We post regular reports
on market traffic in our Open Market blog.
Email addresses for
all of our vendors are listed in their Booths. You are welcome to contact
any of them.
All sales, inquiries and transactions are made strictly between
shoppers and the vendors, so we have no records on the response rates for
individual Booths.
Q: Once
you receive payment, how long before my Booth is added to your site?
Usually, we have
Booths set up within 48-72 hours. The vendor is asked to review the Booth
before it is linked to the rest of the market.
Q: How
many sales can I expect to get from my Booth?
We're
currently
seeing more than 2,000 unique shoppers in the market daily, each
visiting 6 pages or Booths on average. Not every shopper will
visit your Booth,
certainly, but those that do will likely have a serious interest in
your
product. Most Booths get 5-15 visitors a day on average. How many of
those
shoppers actually make a purchase depends on you and the shopper. We do
not track purchasing, or make any other record-keeping demands on our
vendors.
Sales or exchange transactions are entirely between you and the shopper.
We caution vendors not to expect hundreds
of sales from their investment. It's more likely that your Booth will
help you find a few good customers with the potential to become repeat
buyers for years to come.
In general, you shouldn't expect -- or
worry about -- being deluged with orders or inquiries from your Booth.
It will take time for shoppers and Internet search engines to become aware
of your Booth and its product, and most shoppers tend to visit a Booth
several times before actually placing an order. The longer your Booth is
in place, however, the more visitors it will get and the more serious they
will be about purchasing.
Q: Who
designs the Booth?
We build the Booth based on the
information you provide on the registration
form. Once it's ready, we'll ask you to review it and make corrections
before it is linked to the market. Further changes and/or corrections can
be made at any time, but please allow a couple days for us to get the job
done.
Q:
Can I register my Booth in more than one section of the market?
Booths are leased in a specified section
of the market (i.e., Meat/Fish,
Specialty
Foods,
Crafts/Gifts,
etc.).
You can lease additional Booths
in other sections of the market and either fill them with the same content
or display other varieties of your product. If you do this, we will link
them together so that shoppers can browse between them.
Or... you can list your product in other
categories on the Buy
Direct Directory ($25/year per listing) and link these listings to
your existing Booth.
Booths in our
Farm
Supply, Home & Garden
Center, Kitchen
Supply, Gift
Shop, Holiday, Craft Supplies, Pet
Supplies, and Farmers Market Supply sections are not
included on the Buy
Direct Directory because we allow resale items in these sections.
As long as your product is being sold direct
from the producer and fits reasonably in the particular section of the
market, you can
lease as many Booths or register as many Buy
Direct Directory listings as you like.
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