5 Ideas for Creating a Successful Farmers' Market Stand

Two years ago, I expanded my home gardening project to include additional harvestable items I could sell at our local farmers' market. I was excited to try my hand at making money from something I was passionate about, and I was excited about becoming part of a farmers' market community. However, I was also nervous. Would shoppers buy my produce? Would I be able to market my products in an appealing way? Would I be able to gain the respect of other market vendors? Would I actually make a profit?

There was no way to know the answers to these questions without giving it a try, and so, while my baby seedlings were slowly transforming into plants that would produce harvestable food, I used my downtime to come up with a plan. I had some strong ideas about my vision already (like booth decorating), but there were a lot of things I didn't know (like how to properly price my produce).

Below is a list of tips that I've developed after two years of running a successful market business. Some of these I learned pretty quickly, while others I picked up throughout the journey.

1. Conduct Market Research

Visit other farmers' markets and observe how other vendors sell things. Which booths appeal to you as a shopper? Why? Which booths don't appeal to you? Why? Which booths seem the most popular? Why do you think that is? How much do other farmers sell their produce for? The more times you visit various farmers' markets, the more helpful ideas you'll pick up.

Example: At one market that I visited, I noticed a vendor that used a very prominent chalkboard to list his items that were for sale. When I arrived at the market (a couple of hours after it had opened), more than half of these items had been crossed out. Seeing this sent a strong message to me. It made me think a) this guy has great stuff, and b) I need to get here early if I want to get some because clearly, it goes fast. After seeing that, I did the same thing at my market booth and really saw it influence (in a good way) shoppers' behaviors.

2. Pile It High, Watch It Fly

This was a lesson I learned early on in my farmers' market days. People are drawn to plenty, so pile your goods high. Make your booth look like it's overflowing with abundance. For big farms, this isn't difficult to do, but for small market garden businesses, it can be more challenging. If that's you, then make it look like your booth is abundant even if it isn't.

Create a tiered table with boxes of varying heights to give the illusion of deeper piles of vegetables than you really have, or fill up the bottom of baskets with burlap sacks to make those onions on top look like they're just a few of many. We experimented with this idea a lot, and every time, without fail, the more abundant we made our booth look, the more shoppers we got stopping by to take a closer look.

3. Consistent High Quality Earns Customer Trust

This should seem obvious, but trust me, I've seen a lot of low-quality produce at farmers' market stands. If you provide high-quality goods, you will be rewarded with loyal customers. Be a stickler about this. Don't let something questionable slip into a customer's hands; otherwise, you may not see that customer come back.

Although our business was a very small market garden business, we were strict about not bringing anything sub-par to market. By sub-par, I mean produce that had been heavily munched on by bugs, wilted greens, or items that had been harvested more than two days earlier (other than good storage items like winter squash). Ask yourself, "If I were hand-delivering this to the chef of a high-end restaurant, would I be proud of the quality of my goods or embarrassed by it?" If the answer isn't proud, then leave it at home.

If you provide consistently high-quality goods to your market customers, they will come to expect that from you, and they will rely on you when they want the really good stuff. This is a good thing.

4. Make Signage Attractive, Helpful, and Portable

Customers want to know who you are, where you're from, what you're selling, and what it costs. And you don't want them to forget any of that information.

• Who You Are: What is your farm name or your business name? Nothing drives me nuttier than seeing farm produce at markets with no indication of what farm it came from. Shoppers shouldn't have to ask who you are. It should be obvious. Create a large, attractive sign for your market booth. Make sure shoppers can see it from across the aisle or from a few stalls down. Some market shoppers are shy and don't want to have to walk right up to a vendor to find out the information they're looking for.
  
• Where You're From: As the concept of local food grows in popularity, more and more market shoppers want to know exactly where their produce is coming from. Many will ask you directly, but the shy shoppers won't, so provide them the information upfront. We kept a chalkboard at our booth that communicated to customers, "We grow everything ourselves, right here in Maple Ridge!"
• What You're Selling: What you're selling might seem obvious to you since most of it is probably displayed prominently at your stall. However, in addition to having descriptive signs next to every kind of produce item we sold, we also had a larger chalkboard off to one sign with a list of all the items. Not only did this give shoppers multiple opportunities to become aware of our goods, but it also helped market some of the smaller items that might not have been obvious from first glances at the table. Additionally, if you are selling items that require being kept in coolers or fridges (meat, cheese, eggs, etc.), you may not be able to put any on display, so having obvious signs highlighting your wares will help draw in shoppers.
• What It Costs: Always include prices with your signs. Many shoppers don't want to have to ask, and so they will avoid you altogether if you don't have prices listed. Lack of prices can also breed distrust as shoppers may suspect you're overcharging them or charging them a different price than other shoppers pay.
• The Takeaway: Don't let customers forget who you are. Send them home with a business card or cute tags tied around their purchase. That way, when they're ooh-ing and ahh-ing over their delicious kale at home, they won't forget who grew it for them.

5. Befriend Other Vendors

This tip is so rewarding. One of our absolute favourite parts about being a vendor at a farmers' market was building relationships with the other vendors. View yourselves as a team, not competitors. If you do this, you'll find that the benefits you reap from those relationships will be worth their weight in gold.

If you're new to the market business, you'll get helpful advice and warm welcomes. If another vendor doesn't have what a customer is looking for, they'll send the customer in your direction. You'll have vendors to trade with at the end of the day (bunch of kale for a loaf of bread, anyone?). And on those slow, rainy, market days, when no customers are around, you'll have great people to talk to and drink coffee with.

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This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

Comments

Jocelyn Durston (author) from Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia on November 20, 2013:

That's fantastic Imogen French! You know you're doing something right when that happens :) Sounds like you supplied your community with high quality produce. Nice work!

Imogen French from Southwest England on November 20, 2013:

Good tips - we used to run a market stall once a week selling all our surplus veg and plants, as well as selling occasionally at the local Farmer's Market. Eventually we got fed up with the early mornings and standing around on cold wet winter days, but summers and times when we had lots to sell were very rewarding. We always picked everything fresh in the morning and were never short of customers - in fact they'd be queuing up waiting for us to set up the stall in the mornings!

Jocelyn Durston (author) from Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia on November 20, 2013:

Hi Stephanie - Absolutely! I think these tips are definitely transferable. Thanks for the comment! :)

Stephanie Bradberry from New Jersey on November 20, 2013:

These are wonderful pointers. I am not a farmer, but I do vend at a Farmers Market selling my handmade herbal blends. I think your pointers are transferable to sellers like me who have tables, booths and stands.

Jocelyn Durston (author) from Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia on November 20, 2013:

Thanks so much!

Mary Wickison from USA on November 20, 2013:

Excellent ideas. You are right about piling it high, it looks like the customer is getting in first. When the stall is low, it looks like it is just the dregs.

Putting a price is also so important, some people are too shy to ask.

Also if all the vendors are happy and chatty with each other, it spills over to customer making it a much nicer atmosphere.

Voted up, awesome and pinned.