Selling Points

Americans consumers are visiting the mall less often, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, which found that the “average” American shopper surveyed made an average of 35 shopping trips in 2006, down from 37 trips in 2005.

“With gas prices soaring and time pressures always looming, consumers are feeling the push to become more efficient shoppers. So people are simply buying more stuff in fewer trips,” reports The Motley Fool. “No wonder online shopping is becoming so attractive. The 24/7 ability to shop and the easy access to what you want — no crowds to fight, and no lines to wait in — appeal to even the busiest shopper.”

The Handmade Product Directory blog cautions sellers of handmade and handcrafted products who use a hosting service against using the service’s communication system to interact with customers.

After the first initial contact, all communications with a customer should be done using your own business email. If a customer isn’t willing to provide you their email address, there isn’t much you can do about it. Not everyone feel like this but any customer who isn’t willing to provide us with their email at the initial sale isn’t a customer we really want to do business with in the future. It just leaves the entire sale process open for problems if you can’t communicate with a customer.

Many hosting sites, like Etsy, limit contact between buyers and sellers to their in-house communication system, or only allow a limited number of contacts.

This seriously hinders you ability to provide really good customer service. You should be making contact with all customers, to thank them for the order to confirm the information you have received, when you ship your item, sometimes a follow-up about the current shipping status if the item being shipped is thru UPS or any other site where the shipping time is more than 3 days, a quick note upon the delivery to make sure that the item was received properly and that the customer is satisfied.

Direct interaction between producers and their customers has been a fundamental principle of Farmer’s Market Online since it was founded in 1995. All vendor communications and sales transactions are strictly between the individual vendors and their customers. Unlike other markets, we charge our vendors no commission fees and require no sales reports.

For details on Booth space at Farmer’s Market Online, please visit How to Lease a Booth.

Do you have a hobby that leads to the creation of a useful and possibly salable product? Pottery, perhaps, or pies or pesto?

Ever wondered how much you could profit from selling the products you make?

You can test the market for your goods in an inexpensive yet far-reaching manner by leasing a Booth at Farmer’s Market Online or a basic Listing on the Buy Direct Directory, where more than 3,000 shoppers a day come to look for handmade, home-grown, custom-crafted and farm-raised products available direct from the producer.

Selling or taking orders for your product online has three distinct advantages:

1. Low Overhead. You do not need to invest in a large quantity of your product, as you would in preparation for an on-site market or a wholesaler.
2. High Return. At Farmer’s Market Online, we charge no commissions on sales. Shoppers buy directly from each vendor, who receives 100% of the sale price.
3. Carbon Neutral. Sales can be made directly from your home or office. You do not have to travel unless you want to, and deliveries can be made directly to the buyer’s location.

If you lease a Booth ($75 for 5 months, or $120 per year), we will construct it from information that you provide. Corrections or changes can be made at any time during the lease at no additional charge. All you’ll need to do is respond to email, phone or postal mail inquiries from shoppers and fulfill their orders.

Credit card sales are welcome, but not necessary. Many shoppers still prefer to pay by check or money order, or by cash in person. If you want to accept credit card payments and don’t have a merchant account, you can take payments through PayPal and we’ll set up payment links in your Booth.There’s no setup fee or credit check. All you need is a current checking account into which deposits can be made. As purchases occur, PayPal deducts its commission and puts the rest in your account, which you can have transferred to your checking account at any time. Click on the following link and follow their instructions: https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=9W52ZYRZMXQVE

A basic Listing on the Buy Direct Directory costs just $25 for a year, but the impact is not as great as a Booth. Best used by vendors who have their own websites and just want to redirect the traffic of shoppers looking for their product. Each Listing includes a product photo and a link to the vendor’s website or email address. Vendors who also sell at open-air markets can also have photo links inserted on the profile pages of the markets they attend on the Open Air Markets Directory.

Either a Booth or a Listing can help you determine whether your hobby enterprise is commercially viable. Another advantage of a Booth is you will be able to adjust pricing and your sales pitch during the term of the lease and see what affect that has on sales.

Aside from your participation at Farmer’s Market Online, we offer the following suggestions for making the transition from amateur hobbyist to a professional business:

• Open a separate bank account for the business. This will be especially helpful if you use PayPal for credit card payment, allowing you to. determine quickly how well you are doing. It will also help make you business look more professional to suppliers and other businesses.
• Maintain complete and accurate records. Farmer’s Market Online requires no sales reports from its vendors, by an accurate and up-to-date record-keeping system will help with taxes, business loans, and your own business decision-making.
• Listen and respond to your customers. As an amateur, you only need to please yourself. As a professional, you must satisfy your customers. Respond swiftly and courteously to their requests, and they will remember you. And if ask them, they will tell you what they need and want. Just ask, asking is free.

Most farmers’ markets start as an idea. A group of local growers, a neighborhood association, the local chamber of commerce, or in some cases a single individual, realizes the benefits of starting a farmers’ market in their community. From this initial idea connections are made, meetings are held, and the farmers’ market begins to materialize.

University of Missouri Extension offers an online resource guide for starting a new farmers’ market or improving an existing market. The guide is focused on farmers’ market organizers in Missouri, but also provides useful information for market developers in any state, provine or country.

Sabuforb noted that many customers could not afford a new elephant without trading in an old elephant or a water buffalo. He thought of an idea. He would set up a used elephant yard to sell the used elephants which were traded in. Sabuforb was happy with the idea and announced:

“We should have an elephant which everyone can afford.”

Whether it was a new or a used elephant, everybody could buy one. And everybody did buy elephants.

Gift of an Elephant by John F. Goodson

The market research firm Mintel predicts consumers will opt for more natural products, lighter make-up and luxury versions of household products in 2008.

In its annual predictions of what we are likely to be buying in 2008, Mintel is anticipating the following consumer trends for the coming year:

• Bottled water will out of favor due to concerns over price and the environmental impact of shipping water from remote locations.
• Beauty products with more minerals as ingredients will have an edge in the market as fashion shifts away from heavy make-up towards a more natural appearance.
• Ancient grains such as quinoa and kamut will gain mainstream popularity.
• Sea salt will continue to replace mineral salt as shoppers opt for healthier alternatives.
• More consumers will splurge on exclusive, expensive, luxury home-care products like scented candles with designer labels to surface cleaners with exotic fragrances and beautiful packaging.
• Sales of lager in the United Kingdom will fall 8 per cent by 2012, while purchases of wine will continue to rise as drinkers’ tastes change.

Mintel is also tracking the trend of shopping as entertainment. A trip to the market is being described as a leisure experience by some consumers, especially young adults. Markets should look for new ways of engaging customers in order to keep them around longer, and to encourage return visits.

A convenient return process is a critical selling point for online sales, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive.

Commissioned by software maker Newgistics, the survey found that 90 percent of the adults surveyed indicated that an easy-to-use returns policy greatly affects whether or not they will patronize an online retailer again. In addition, 68 percent of respondents reported that they consider being able to make a return from home before choosing an online vendor.

Overall, 64 percent of adults reported doing at least some shopping online — up 10 percent over 2006 and 25 percent over 2004.

In preparing the conventional balance sheet and income statement, accountants assume that the business concern will continue indefinitely; this is known as the “going-concern” convention. Consequently, it is assumed that because the company will not sell its fixed assets, the “current value” (whether liquidation value on forced sale, replacement cost, or appraised value) is irrelevant; and fixed assets are valued at “original cost” (historical dollar cost) less accumulated depreciation or depletion, if appropriate. This is known as the “original-cost” convention. It follows, therefore, that depreciation charges usually represent a proration of historical dollar cost.

“Original cost,” as the expression is used in this convention, means the number of dollars originally expended to acquire the asset and make it usable.

These conventions have been developed over many years. They have proved their usefulness for many purposes and are defended strongly on the grounds that such “values” are “objectively determined.” Opponents of price-level adjustments attack them on a number of grounds, including those described by the Committee on Concepts and Standards of the American Accounting Association:

Conventional treatment is deep-rooted in practice, in law, and in general understanding; . . . the significance of the problem is exaggerated; . . . the variations in the value of money are compensated for in part by other factors;… any change in practice not supported by general demand will result in irregularity of application and in confusion.

• from Financial Statements: Form, Analysis and Interpretation by Ralph D. Kennedy and Stewart Y. McMullen (1964)

Like many folks around the world, you may be looking for a way to make a little extra money. One of the most popular and rewarding ways to do this is by selling your own homemade or handcrafted products. Here’s a few simple steps to getting started:

1. Choose and develop your own line of unique homemade products that will appeal to consumers. Peruse the Buy Direct Directory for the wide range of possibilities, from baked goods to specialty foods, from bath salts and soaps to barbecue sauce and fruit syrups and pickles. Your unique angle may be a special recipe, organic ingredients, a unique color scheme, or an unusual or topical shape.

2. Develop your “pitch” — an advertising slogan or description that highlights the special features and benefits of your products. For an example, The Soap Factory in Bedford, Massachusetts offers “Old Fashioned Castile Soap” using “traditional recipes and low energy techniques” that bring “the best of the soap makers’ craft to you at economical prices.”

3. Display and sell direct to the consumer. If you lease a Booth space at Farmer’s Market Online, your products will be seen by hundreds of shoppers in a matter of days. All you need is a good product photo, your pitch, and your pricing. Farmer’s Market Online will construct your Booth — a dedicated web page — from information you provide. You can even set up PayPal payment links, allowing shoppers to purchase with credit or debit cards, and have the earnings deposited directly in your checking account. Best of all, you don’t need to produce large volumes of your product in advance, as you would in preparation for a craft fair or selling through retail stores. With many products, you can produce “on demand” as orders arrive.

4. Respond quickly and maintain quality. Repeat customers are the key to your success. Treat every inquiry and every order as if it were from your best friend.

Merchants frequently use some private mark to denote the cost and the selling price of goods. The word, phrase, or series of arbitrary characters employed for private marks is called a key.

Many houses use two different keys in marking goods, one to represent the cost and the other the selling price. In this way the cost of an article ma not be known to the salesmen, and the selling price may not be known to any except those in some way connected with the business. In large houses, when but one key is used, only the selling price is indicated on the article, it being deemed best to keep the actual cost of the article a secret with the buyers.

Some methods of marking are so complicated that it is necessary to always have a key of the system at hand for reference. Goods are so marked in order that important facts, such as the cost of goods, may be kept strictly private.

Concise Business Arithmetic (Ginn & Co., 1915)