E-commerce for your direct to consumer meat business

Direct-to-consumer is a hot topic in the livestock industry as of late, and ChopLocal, a platform designed to facilitate sales from meat producers to consumers, has a wealth of resources for farmers selling in that market. The website now hosts over five dozen sellers on their platform offering products from beef and pork to duck and bison. Recently, Katie Olthoff, co-founder, and Sydney Hadacek, producer support specialist for ChopLocal, hosted a webinar for producers considering e-commerce as part of their direct-to-consumer strategy.

Farmers have success with e-commerce

A recent survey conducted by ChopLocal found some interesting differences between farms that had e-commerce sites and those that did not. Farms with no e-commerce averaged around $75,000 in sales, whereas those with e-commerce around $105,000. Olthoff noted that this is likely a bit of a chicken and egg phenomenon, where in some cases the e-commerce store provided a major boost, but in other cases the business was already booming and e-commerce was simply the next logical step. 

Of the farms with $200,000 in sales: 

• 73% had an online store
• 64% offered shipping of their products
• 43% offered subscription boxes
• 70% offered more than one type of meat

A successful e-commerce presence requires time, skill, and effort, Hadacek explains. Taking time to answer customer’s questions is crucial. Dedicating the time to ship weekly is important, too. You’ll need to build skill to manage inventory, pricing, and be consistent with marketing efforts.

Consumers expectations for an e-commerce shopping experience

Hadacek emphasizes that your potential customers are not comparing their online meat buying experience to the grocery store experience, but to other online retailers of all stripes. An e-commerce site’s ease of use should reflect that. 

This is one reason many farmers in the direct-to-consumer world have gone to selling by the package, within a specified weight range, instead of the traditional selling by the pound. Customers want to know exactly how much a package is going to cost them right off the bat, not during the checkout process. 

The proliferation of free shipping from online retailers means customers have come to expect it, and Hadacek recommends including free shipping at specific purchase thresholds.

Being a frozen product, plan for there to be some shipping failures, warns Hadacek. Those should be accounted for in your overall pricing strategy. The cost of an e-commerce platform, shipping expenses, and credit card fees, which are typically 1.5-3%, should also be factored into an e-commerce business.

Marketing from behind the screen

On the marketing front, Olthoff says that there is a correlation between how comfortable an organization is with marketing and higher sales. This could be paid ads, and/or free content on social media. 

She recommends using the platforms you are most comfortable with. For example, if you use Faceboook, but never use Instagram, the former will generally prove more fruitful for marketing than the latter.  

Here are important things to convey to customers with your marketing efforts:

• Show the value your product provides to customers, such as recipes and grilling tips
• Social proof that others use and enjoy your product, such as posts from happy customers, and reviews
• Emphasize your story with pictures of farm life, baby animals, etc. Your customers want to see behind the scenes.

Make sure you have a call to action that makes it clear where customers can purchase your product. Use direct links for ordering, as the more steps, the less likely a customer is to purchase. Coupons and discount codes can be helpful to drive sales, especially when first launching the store to get traction. 

Presenting your online storefront

Concerning presentation, Sydney notes good pictures of the product, as well as clear descriptions are crucial. 

Sellers should have multiple pictures for each product, ideally both cooked and uncooked. If stock photos are used, be sure they are from a paid stock photo site. Don’t just grab one off Google Images. 

Product descriptions should be clear on number of pieces in a package, weight, bone in/boneless, etc. Some other useful things to include are recipes, alternate names for cuts, as well as specific qualities such as marbling and tenderness. 

Direct marketing and online stores provide their share of challenges, and are certainly a different strategy than commodity markets, but can also be rewarding and profitable. 

Learn more

A recording of the webinar can be found on ChopLocal’s YouTube channel.