Pumpkin spice season has just begun, but it’s not too early to start thinking about how your local farm or food hub can boost holiday sales. Here are twelve ideas for keeping sales high throughout the holiday season.

1. Create Gift Guides

Give shoppers some inspiration on gift ideas for friends and family with a gift guide. Guides with specific ideas for party hosts, co-workers, and extended family will give customers plenty of purchasing ideas.

Local Food Marketplace makes it easy to put together an email with items you want to highlight to shoppers. Write some short copy about why each item makes a perfect gift and you’re good to go.

2. Stock Value-Added Goods

Given that many fresh items are going out of season, your gift guide may contain many value-added goods — and that’s not a bad thing. During the off season, shelf-stable items can help sustain sales when less fresh produce is available. They can often be sold at a higher markup.

Highlight to shoppers that locally produced value-added products make great presents. A basket stocked with preserves, honey, relishes, and pickles makes a phenomenal gift for coworkers, neighbors, and friends. They also make great giveaways or door prizes at club meetings and holiday parties.

If you don’t have value-added items, source jams or jellies, sauces, dried herbs and spices, or other value-added products. Make these items more prominent on your storefront and in your communication with customers. Encourage them to stock up as the weather gets colder. You can make this even easier by creating gift baskets using bundles.  

3. Promote Gift Certificates as Gifts and for Holiday Events

What could be better than the gift of delicious local food and a chance to support the local economy? Encourage your customers to purchase gift certificates to your online store. Recipients can shop for whatever catches their fancy — and hopefully become repeat customers!  

4. Think Seasonal

Lean in to the fact that this season is temporary. Think of the hype surrounding pumpkin-flavored drinks in the fall — that’s the excitement you’d like to cultivate around seasonal produce or special holiday items.  

Put seasonal items such as carving pumpkins, decorative corn, prepared pies (see the example from Buffalo Ridge Orchard at right), holiday wreaths, and holly boughs front and center on your storefront. Suggest fun ways to use them in your newsletter by linking to blogs with simple decorating ideas.

Brainstorm what people might be cooking at this time of year and provide ideas for using those products. Nuts, for example, see a surge in sales around the holidays as people make cookies and candies. Share a few of your favorite family recipes.  

Consider offering a small discount on seasonal items to increase sales. You can email customers a coupon code or send one using SMS messaging.

5. Host a Black Friday or Cyber Monday-Inspired Event  

Some farms and food hubs have turned Black Friday into a “buy local” event with great success. Encourage people to shop your online storefront on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.  

You don’t have to wait for these major shopping days to host an event. Many major brands are hosting sales early to beat the rush. Put your own twist and timeline on these more traditional sale days!   

6. Prompt Customers to Reserve Special Holiday Meal Items 

Now is the time to encourage customers to reserve centerpiece foods for their holiday meals. Make it easy for them to order turkeys, hams, pies, and foods that are popular for Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts well in advance. 

7. Schedule a Flash Sale  

Work with your producers to host a flash sale on specific items. You can do this as part of a Black Friday sale or bulk buying event, or as its own event. Promote the sale to all of your customers. 

8. Plan a Bulk Buying Event

A bulk buying event in the fall (like the annual Fill Your Pantry event hosted by Lane County Bounty with support from other local nonprofits) can bring in lots of customers, which can be especially helpful if your farm or food hub shuts down over the winter. Offer meat, beans and grains, root crops, preserved foods, and other easy-to-store items at a discount when people purchase in bulk.

Consider adding educational components to a bulk buying event, as well as activities that make it fun. Fill your Pantry features food demonstrations, pressure gauge checks on home canners, and live music. High Country Food Hub hosts an annual bulk buying event for meat. It arranges a raffle, cooking demonstrations, and other activities.

A bulk buying event isn’t something you have to do on your own. Invite neighboring farms to participate and work together to advertise and promote the event. The High Country Food Hub event typically features four to six producers. Last year, Lane County Bounty’s Fill Your Pantry included 39 vendors and sold more than $170,000 worth of local food.

 

9. Encourage Customers to Renew Their Subscriptions 

Encourage your current CSA subscribers to renew their boxes now. Securing commitments in the fall means less work for you once the new year rolls around.

10. Offer Holiday Bundles

Which of your products pair well together? Bundle them together in holiday meal kits using LFM’s Bundles feature. Here are some ideas we love:

• Combine Brussels sprouts, potatoes, carrots, and celery into a Thanksgiving vegetable bundle. 

• Make a Hannukah bundle with brisket, sweet potatoes, apples or applesauce, and jam for the traditional jelly donuts.  

• Create a Christmas Breakfast kit with fresh sausage or bacon, maple syrup, pancake mix made with local flour, and tea or coffee.  

 

Bundles don’t have to be holiday themed. Why not create a few that reflect the season? Chili kits with ground beef and peppers, pie-making bundles with fruit and spices, and pot pie kits with chicken and fresh veggies are also bound to be a hit.  

11. Partner with Local Nonprofits

People’s thoughts turn to charitable giving around the holidays. Take advantage of that by offering to donate a portion of your proceeds to one or more local nonprofits on specific dates. Encourage the nonprofits to share information about the campaign with their supporters.

Local Food Marketplace has a feature that allows you to accept donations during the checkout process. LFM customers: Search our user guide for “donations” or contact our Support team for assistance with utilizing this feature.

12. Refresh Your Storefront

With the growing season winding down, now is a great time to review and update your online store. Here are a few changes that can help increase your sales going forward:

• Use high-quality, professional images of your products.  

• Include multiple product images — an option that is now available on every storefront built by Local Food Marketplace.  

• Write clear descriptions of every product for sale.  

• Include attribute information, such as certified organic or cruelty-free, with appropriate items. Local Food Marketplace users can now include up to three product attributes on each product card. 

 

Your vegetable beds and fruit trees may be falling dormant, but your sales don’t have to! Use these ideas to give a gift to your business and keep money coming in during the holiday season.