5.4 Merchandizing
Knowing how to best prepare, package, and display your products will help you and your customers get the most out of your mobile market enterprise. What follows is a set of merchandizing best practices to help you get started, beginning with guidance for preparing your goods for sale:
Preparation
- The day before you go to market, transfer all of your goods into the crate system for display. This will make for an effortless start to market day. The crates are designed to be easy to use, stackable, washable, and robust.
- Does any of the produce need to be washed, bundled or repackaged for retail sales? Spending time before market weighing 1lb bags of string beans is much easier and more accurate than on the fly at the market.
- When packaging your products, make best use of the space available. Smaller products that don’t take up a whole crate can be placed with other products. You can use a piece of cardboard between them to separate the products and keep them safe during transport.
Did you know? The NEW C-Model Farmers’ Truck features a 14-foot insulated box with battery-powered refrigeration and freezer space which makes preparation and storage of your goods a much simpler process. Learn more: C Model Mobile Market Truck - The Farmers' Truck
Packaging
Your Farmers’ Truck mobile market offers a great deal of versatility for displaying your products. The crate system features:
- Crates that can be moved into a number of configurations to enable you to package and merchandize your products as you wish.
- Dark display fronts provide an area to add or update your product labels and pricing information (using a white marker).
- Packaging options for those not using the crate system– make use of baskets, produce boxes, etc to create visually appealing displays– make use of berry boxes to display units, which items need to be stored on ice?
- Be mindful that the use of crates requires cleaning and sanitizing throughout the week, and have a plan and process in place to ensure this happens.
- To learn more about using the Farmer’s Truck display shelving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4pkarPhGfs
Display
You may have heard the proverb “the eyes are the windows to the soul”. Well, we’d argue that they are also the road to the tummy! So with this in mind, your goal in merchandizing will be to make your products as pleasing to the eyes as possible. You can do this by:
- Creating contrast between your products
- Creating an appearance of abundance (Think lots of apples, not just a few!)
- Placing emphasis on certain items (eg: brightly colored strawberries) to draw the eye in
- Keep your products rotated to ensure optimal freshness
- Keeping things interesting for your customers by highlight new or unique products
- Place hand fruit on the bottom shelf so at eye level for kids and will grab for it and encourage parents to purchase and thus consumer more fruits and veggies
- Recipe bundle your ingredients all in a line adjacent to a cooking demo for easy adoption
- Consider the environment, where the sun is coming from, if there is a cross breeze, etc… Remember, you are mobile so take advantage of this by rearranging the market to improve your display
- Ensure your prices are clear and obvious
Creating Engagement
Your mobile market enterprise is more than just a vehicle for food distribution - it’s also a vehicle for celebrating community and learning. This final area of merchandizing is all about building strong customer relationships through engagement and education. Initiatives to engage your customers, and to celebrate and learn about food, your community, and its cultures are only limited by your imagination. To help get your creative juices flowing, we’ve compiled a list of some ideas that you may wish to try or use to build upon for your mobile market enterprise:
- Loyalty programs (Create a game out of the visits or collect some stamps. This can be particularly fun for kids. Better yet, challenge the “picky eaters” to “level-up” by trying something new. A good way to help parents out. Or, reward customers for spending over a certain amount in a month/season)
- Recipes (Feature recipes from customers, local chefs…)
- Point-of-sale nutrition info (Low in Iron? Did you know…)
- Produce info (Food suggestion cards - eg: what goes with beets?)
- Food waste ideas (also known as food hacks - grow new veg from waste. Great for kids)
- Local artisans (there may be manufacturers/local artisans that would love to be more deeply connect to the community)
- Social procurement policy placard (information on where the food is sourced)
- If your market is affiliated with a social program, ensure this is prominently advertised.