Selling at a farmers market

What actually sells

Penn State puts it plainly: producing honey for profit depends heavily on marketing. Do the market research first, who else is selling, how much you can move, and in what form your customers want it.

The forms matter more than beginners expect. The same honey as liquid, as creamed, as comb, and infused, sells to four different people at four different prices from the same harvest.

The range on the table

One size and one product is the commonest mistake. A stall wants a low-commitment size somebody buys without deciding, a default size that people often take, and something that costs more and makes the rest look reasonable.

Comb honey does that last job better than anything, because almost nobody else has it and it is obviously not from a supermarket.

Being able to answer the questions

You will be asked the same six things every week. Is it local. Is it raw. Why has it gone solid. Is it good for allergies. What flowers. Why is it more expensive than the shop.

The crystallization question is the one that costs sales, because customers read set honey as spoiled. Having a one-sentence answer ready, and ideally a set jar on the table you can point at, converts that from an objection into a reason you are the real thing.

Be careful with the allergy question. It is a health claim and it is not one you want on a label or stated as fact.

The stall itself

Height and a tablecloth. Jars at eye level sell and jars on a low table do not. A sample with small spoons does more than any sign. Your label is doing the work at three feet, which is a different job from the work it does in someone's hand.

What to take

• More small jars than you think, fewer large.
• A set jar to explain crystallization with.
• Change, and a card reader that works without signal.
• Your label compliance, because a market is where it gets looked at.

References