How to Sell Poultry Online
From Coop to Customer: Your Guide to Selling Poultry Online
For independent poultry Farmers, the digital age offers a powerful way to connect directly with consumers who crave fresh, high-quality chicken, turkey, ducks and eggs. Selling your poultry online allows you to build a loyal customer base, command better prices, and take control of your farm’s operations. Follow this comprehensive guide for assistance defining your products and navigating regulations to marketing your farm and fulfilling orders.
Why Sell Poultry Online?
Selling poultry online allows your Farm to connect directly with your consumers, giving them 24/7 access to shop your products anytime, anywhere. You are no longer limited to farmers' markets or wholesale contracts. By selling online, your Farm can reach the 99% of buyers who do not regularly attend markets by offering them easy and convenient access to your farm's products.
An online storefront accessible via the web, mobile, email, and social media allows your Farm to tell your story, showcase your practices, and build a brand that resonates with your local community. This direct relationship fosters trust and loyalty, turning one-time buyers into lifelong customers.
1. Defining Your Poultry Products & Market
Before you can start selling, you need a clear vision of what products to offer and who you will be targeting as potential customers.
What Products Are You Selling?
To maximize your profits and move your entire inventory, consider a variety of product offerings that will move the whole bird through your store (in one or more orders):
Whole & Half Birds (Spatchcock): Offer whole chickens for roasting, and spatchcock for grilling on the barbecue. Provide a recipe for roasting a whole chicken and suggestions for prepping spatchcock birds for the grill (including temperature and times). An overview of butchering a whole bird may also be valuable to include (e.g. YouTube).
Poultry Cuts: When it comes to oversized birds, consider offering popular cuts like breasts, thighs, and wings in packages of 4, 8, or 12 pieces. This caters to different family sizes and cooking preferences. Be mindful that cutting and packaging birds involves more labor and packaging, so increase the price per pound for poultry cuts.
Bundle Boxes: Create bundle boxes that cater to specific needs and /or offer a mix of poultry products. Bundle boxes, such as a "Griller's Pack" or a "Family Dinner Box," can also increase your average order value and introduce complementary value-added products (e.g. spices, rubs, sauces)Successful Farms typically offer boxes for 1, 2, or 4 person households to give the majority of Buyers an option that fits their needs.
Value-Added Products: Turn leftover parts into high-margin products like chicken sausage, jerky, or nutritious bone broth. These items can be great add-ons to other purchases or sold individually. Build gift baskets with value-added items to market your brand, and push your leftover products through the store with a premium sale.
Subscriptions: Create weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly subscription options that offer a mix of poultry products. Buyers love the convenient access to your products and the hassle-free nature of just receiving their orders as expected. For your Farm, this will help you turnover more inventory, provide a stable base of recurring revenue and help you streamline your operations and harvest schedule.
Who is Your Ideal Customer?
As a local farmer, you have a distinct advantage: you understand your community. Your ideal customer should be someone who values locally sourced, sustainably raised food and is willing to pay a premium for quality and transparency. They may be busy families looking for convenient and healthy meal options, or food-conscious individuals who want to know the story behind their food.
Take the time to create an ideal customer profile to tailor your marketing efforts and product offerings to their specific needs. Once you understand their routine, household size and purchasing habits, you can better fill your store with options they will repeatedly purchase.
2. Where to Sell Your Poultry Products Online
Choosing the right eCommerce solution is crucial for a seamless online selling experience for both you and your customers.
Choosing Your eCommerce Platform
While there are many general eCommerce platforms available, a solution built specifically for farmers will offer features tailored to the unique needs of selling food products. The specifications needed to sell poultry products are different from the ones needed to sell consumer products (e.g. t-shirts and watches). Look for an eCommerce platform that allows you to:
Supports Multiple Price Sheets: Most Farmers sell products to retail and wholesale buyers; many Farmers also support private buying clubs (e.g. CSA or Herdshares). To preserve flexibility for your Farm, leverage an eCommerce platform designed for products to be sold across different price sheets, with different packaging and fulfillment options. (e.g. dozens of eggs for consumers, cases of eggs for wholesale buyers).
Sell by Weight or Fixed Price: Many products sold by Farmers are priced by weight. This is critical when it comes to correctly charging buyers for a small bird (3.125 lbs) versus a large bird (4.625 lbs). To maximize your Farm profits, be certain you invest in eCommerce that supports the ability to toggle from a Fixed Price to Sell by Weight (or vice versa) for any given item while tracking the number of units separately.
Manage Inventory: This is essential for preventing overselling and ensuring you can meet demand. Whether products are sold online or in-person, your inventory needs to update automatically in real time. Additionally, be sure your eCommerce supports “Combined Inventory” for the same product across different unit sizes (e.g. your chickens produce 100 dozen eggs per week, that total should deducted accurately if sold as 1 dozen, 2 dozen, a small case (15 dozen), or large case (30 dozen)).
Offer Flexible Fulfillment Options: Provide convenient local pickup and delivery options with automated order cut-offs and delivery reminders. Your eCommerce solution should offer the flexibility to associate different products with different fulfillment options and buyer types (e.g. consumer pickups versus wholesale delivery zones). Leverage software that allows you to narrow availability to Buyers based on their access to a pickup, or within a specific delivery zone (based on zip codes).
Support Subscriptions and Pre-Orders: Build recurring revenue with Subscriptions and increase cashflow with Pre-Orders for seasonal items (e.g. accept deposits for Thanksgiving turkeys). Your eCommerce solution should offer your Farm flexible purchase options, from one-time purchases, Subscriptions, Pre-Orders and Deposits. Your store must be transparent with fulfillment frequencies and dates so Buyers know what to expect when making a purchase.
Sync with In-Person Sales: All of your online store purchases should sync with in-person sales using a point-of-sale (POS) device. Your POS should support sell by weight, multiple price sheets, multiple payment options (credit, debit, cash, check, Apple Pay, Google Pay), and offer the ability to collect tips and email addresses at check-out. Additionally, your POS device should automatically sync inventory units in real time with your online eCommerce solution.
Built for Farmers, Barn2Door eCommerce and POS offer a comprehensive platform, providing all these features (and more) to help you save time and grow your business. Your website should act as a billboard for your business, while your actual eCommerce site facilitates all sales across the web, mobile, email and social media.
Setting Up Your Online Store
Your online Farm store is your digital storefront. Make it easy for customers to find what they're looking for to make a purchase. Use high-quality photos of your farm and products. Write compelling product descriptions that highlight your farming practices and the quality of your poultry. Organize your store with clear categories and a simple checkout process. Pin your most valuable products to the top of your store to make it easy for Buyers and increase conversion.
3. Managing and Fulfilling Your Poultry Orders
Fulfillment Options
Offer convenient options that fit into your customers' lives, becoming a part of their normal routines and schedules. Poultry products are consumed regularly; your goal is to make it simple for Buyers to commit to ongoing purchases from your Farm. Be sure your eCommerce solution supports a variety of fulfillment options:
On-Farm Pickup: Allow customers to pick up their orders directly from your farm. This is a great way to build relationships and let them appreciate where their food is grown and harvested. When customers can actually meet the Farmer and see poultry birds on pasture, you increase loyalty.
Local Delivery: Offer home delivery or convenient drop-off points in your community to accommodate the busy lives of your customers. In an Amazon-era of convenience, local delivery is a tactic that often spurs the growth and success of many Farms. Note, most Farms charge a delivery fee to offset costs (making it profitable), and find they attract more customers along their delivery routes.
Farmers' Markets: Use farmers' markets as an avenue to acquire more customers and as a pickup location for pre-orders placed through your online store. This often entices Buyers to purchase more as they browse online ahead of picking up their order.
Local Loop: Provide pick-up locations that fit conveniently into the weekly routine of local Buyers. Consider local schools, churches and businesses that your ideal customers frequent on a regular basis. Then, set up your fulfillment options to align with schedules at those destinations (e.g. a pick-up adjacent to a local school when families pick-up their kids).
Your eCommerce solution should offer the flexibility to support all the above fulfillment options, including limiting certain products and availability by schedule. For instance, Barn2Door enables Farmers to make their Poultry products available on a weekly pick-up schedule (e.g. Egg Subscription), while limiting availability for other Poultry products on a monthly pick-up schedule (e.g. Meat Birds).
Inventory and Order Management
An effective inventory management system is crucial. Selling Subscriptions for regularly consumed products (e.g. Eggs, Meat Birds), and taking Pre-orders for high-demand items (e.g.Thanksgiving Turkeys), enables you to increase cash flow and streamline your processing schedule accordingly. Accepting deposits for Turkeys also ensures that you will collect full payment for your bird, automatically charging the credit card on file (versus chasing down customers for payment).
Package your produce products according to what is most attractive for Buyers, and what helps you move more inventory. Subscriptions for Whole Birds and Bundle Boxes for Poultry Cuts enable you to pair popular and less-popular cuts together.
4. Marketing Your Poultry to Local Buyers
Email and Social Media
Email is a powerful tool for communicating directly with your customers. Build an email list by collecting addresses on your website, on social media profiles, and at in-person events. Send regular newsletters with farm updates, new product announcements, and special promotions. Use social media to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of farm life, post delicious recipes, and run contests to engage your followers. Your Buyers should be educated on your commitment to sustainable agriculture and animal welfare through your posts and newsletters. Share your family and Farm story to build trust and loyalty through authenticity.
In-Person Marketing
Your Farm Brand is the sum of all the interactions a Buyer has with your business. Don't underestimate the power of face-to-face interactions and a good handshake. To make an impression, engage Buyers and share your passion for your Poultry products. Look for avenues to meet prospective in your local community that attract your ideal customers:
Farmers' Markets: Your booth is a fantastic marketing opportunity to connect with Buyers interested in supporting local Farmers. Use clear signage with a QR code linking to your online store. Given most Buyers at Farmers’ Markets spread their money among vendors, your goal is to capture emails of all purchases to convert them to online Buyers. Many successful Farms pay their teams $1 per verified email they collect on a clipboard!
On-Farm Events: Host tours, events or workshops to invite your local community to participate in on-farm activities and learn more about your practices firsthand. This will attract families, schools and other groups that could potentially become loyal Buyers once they learn more.
Partnerships: Collaborate with local businesses, churches, and schools to expand your audience reach, increase brand awareness and sell more products. Encourage customers to share pictures of your products online for a promotional discount on their next order. Give local influencers (e.g. Chefs & Restauranteurs) free products to prepare and share on their platforms via cooking videos or photos to reach a wider audience.
5. Selling Eggs and Value-Added Byproducts
There is potential profit to be made with eggs and other poultry byproducts. Move more birds through your store by breaking down and selling different parts in byproducts and value-added products.
Egg Sales
Farm-fresh eggs are always in high demand. Offer them on Subscription for a consistent source of revenue, or as an Add-On to other purchases to increase your average order value. Eggs can quickly become a best-seller in your store, given they are in consistent demand year-round. To capture a premium, be sure to market the unique value of your eggs:
Pastured: Be sure to market that your eggs go well beyond the “cage-free” minimum and are actually raised on a pasture.
Non-GMO: If you supplement your Layers with Non-GMO feed, then market it to Buyers who care about the inputs.
Soy-Free / Grain-Free: If you supplement your Layers with Soy-Free or Grain-Free feed, then market it to Buyers who have food sensitivities or allergies.
Many Farmers market and sell their Eggs at 2-3x of market price by attracting Buyers who are willing to pay a premium for the unique value of a given product.
Value-Added Products
To maximize your revenue and increase your margins, sell every part of your poultry birds. Help Buyers get comfortable with using chicken heads and feet to make stock by encouraging them with recipes, on-farm classes and videos. Also, consider creating and selling value-added products yourself:
Chicken Jerky and Sausage: These are popular snack items with a good profit margin. Buyers will be familiar with these products, and they can be used as a Subscription add-on to attract more sign-ups.
Chicken or Bone Broth: Market the health benefits of this nutrient-dense product. Make chicken and bone broth kits including all the chicken parts and spices packaged together, or premake the broth for an easy sale.
Pet Treats: Dehydrated chicken feet or other poultry parts can be sold as healthy and natural dog treats. Many customers will choose to add this to a monthly Subscription box for their pet.
From Coop to Customer
Selling poultry online as an independent Farmer can provide you the freedom to sell your birds on your terms. By offering attractive products, packaging and convenient fulfillment options, your Farm can leverage an eCommerce platform to build a thriving direct-to-market business. Consider the products your local community desires, and provide options that will help you build a consistent, recurring income from Subscriptions, supplemented by one-time purchases and value-added product sales. Focus on providing quality products and a convenient customer experience, and you'll cultivate a loyal following of Buyers who are proud to support your poultry Farm business.
Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to create and promote their brand, sell online and in-person, and save time managing their business. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.