6 Mistakes Farms Make on Their E-Commerce Store

If your farm isn’t selling online in 2024 yet, make sure you finish the year launching your e-commerce website. Even if your target market is local and you aren’t expecting to expand your sales nationwide, the nature of people purchasing products and services is moving increasingly toward digital every single day. 

Benefits of using farm e-commerce

So, what are the advantages of using farm e-commerce specifically? Here are a few to consider: 

Reach a broader audience

Having e-commerce makes you discoverable online! Potential customers searching for locally sourced goods online can find your farm, leading to new sales opportunities. E-commerce also makes it possible to connect with regional and national customers interested in specialty or hard-to-find products.

Streamline operations and save time

An online store allows you to automate tasks like order processing, inventory management, and payment collection. With less time spent on administrative tasks, you can focus on what you do best—growing quality products.

Increase sales and offer convenience

With an e-commerce website, your farm is open 24/7, allowing customers to shop at their convenience. This constant availability can boost sales by making it easier for customers to buy from you whenever it fits into their schedules. E-commerce also allows for different sales models, like offering farm subscriptions or pre-orders for the market, which can help you secure consistent revenue.

Diversify income streams

Relying solely on in-person sales can limit your farm’s income potential, especially during off-seasons or when faced with unexpected challenges. By selling products online, farms can diversify their revenue streams, including offering value-added products, bundled items, and shipping options, which help stabilize income throughout the year.

6 farm e-commerce mistakes to avoid when building your storefront

I’ve audited thousands of e-commerce websites and built hundreds myself for clients over the years, and I want to highlight the most common pitfalls I’ve seen stores consistently fall into. They are relatively easy fixes, but in principle, they can make or break an entire online sales channel for your farm business. 

1. Not optimizing for mobile

More than half of all website traffic and more than half of all online sales are made on mobile devices. Plus, if you create content and advertise on social media platforms, like Instagram or TikTok, nearly 100% of their users are on mobile devices. If you optimize for search, even locally, Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning non-mobile-friendly sites may rank lower in search results. 

It’s safe to say that one of the biggest mistakes farms can make when designing their websites is not making them mobile-friendly, both for browsing and purchasing. The Local Line website builder automatically formats websites for any device, including desktops, tablets, and mobile, so farms can rest assured that their online stores will be optimized for every visitor.

Solution: Using e-commerce platforms like Local Line, which is built to be responsive to any device creates the piece of mind that however customers shop, they’ll have a great experience. 

2. Lack of social proof & customer reviews

Another huge mistake farms make on their website is not displaying reviews from their trusted customers. Social proof is a huge factor in building trust with new visitors, helping them drop their doubts to move forward with their first purchase. Some estimates say that more than 90% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase, and 31% of customers are willing actually to spend more on a business with excellent reviews. 

With tight farm profits and margins, customer reviews may be the key to charging a premium for what they grow! However, the cost of not hosting or gathering reviews makes it hard for farms to build the trust needed to turn visitors into lifelong customers. 

Solution: Reach out to existing customers and ask directly for their reviews. Then, create an automated email sequence that reaches out to customers one week after their online purchase asking for a review.

3. Poor product photos and descriptions

Farm’s product pages are crucial, but unfortunately, many of them I have seen over the years make the same mistakes over and over. Product photos are often low-quality or stock images, which misrepresent and can devalue the product. Take Force of Nature Meats, for example. They have professional photos of their product and show their meat in a delicious dish. Their product page differentiates their product from their competitors. 

Farms fail to distinguish why their products are different in their written descriptions. This is a huge mistake. I’ve seen many online farm stores that do themselves a disservice by writing general descriptions of what they are selling.

Again, visit Force of Nature Meats’ product page and scroll through to see how they have differentiated themselves through professional photography and detailed descriptions.

Aside from not showcasing reviews, customers rely heavily on visuals and clear information to make purchasing decisions online. If farms don’t take the time to invest in professional product photography and write detailed, engaging descriptions, they are doing themselves a disservice. 

Solution: Invest in professional photography for at least your core products and write out detailed descriptions, covering all of the differentiators like variety, farming practices, etc.

4. Lack of payment options

Customers may abandon their carts if their preferred payment method isn't available. As stated earlier, mobile purchases are becoming more common, so payment methods need to keep up. Offering various payment options outside of just credit cards is critical to keeping customers happy and increasing website conversion rates. Digital wallets, like PayPal and Apple Pay, decrease the friction of completing purchases on mobile, so it is important farms don’t make the mistake of giving customers multiple options to complete their purchases.

Some farms even differentiate themselves by embracing cryptocurrencies and offering them as payment methods. This can make your farm stand out amongst the crowd and become part of their marketing strategy to set them apart from the competition. 

Solution: Using e-commerce platforms like Local Line that already have frictionless payment processing setup will help ease this lack of options for customers

5. Poor customer service

One of the biggest mistakes farms can make is ignoring the importance of customer service. The farm does so much work that addressing customers’ questions and needs doesn’t make the to-do list. Word-of-mouth is often a farm’s most effective marketing strategy, and customer service is an extension of the brand. Negative customer experiences can lead to bad reviews, decreased customer loyalty, and lost sales.

Over time, farms often receive the same questions repeatedly, which can help them better communicate their customers' needs on the website and social media. As these repeated questions are asked, I suggest farmers gather them up and answer them on a FAQ page on their website. This gives customers a place to find the answers themselves, and also a quick reference for whoever is handling customer service for the farm to direct customers to. 

An easy workflow for farmers is creating a separate business email address for customer service, such as info@myfarm.com or help@myfarm.com. This can become the designated email address so personal and business emails don’t get crowded and give a clear picture of what questions have been answered and which ones haven’t.

Customer service can help farms learn more about their customers’ problems to better position themselves and avoid the frustration of unanswered questions.

Solution: Setup a designated customer service email and build a frequently asked questions page on your website that houses the answers to common customer questions.

6. Choosing the wrong platform

With so many websites and e-commerce options available, farms often need to pay more attention to shopping around and wasting time, resources, and money figuring out which is best for them. The platform chosen directly impacts customers' experiences and the scalability of online sales for the farm. Farms need to understand their goals and reasons for launching an online store so they don’t get distracted by the long lists of features each platform has to offer. 

Luckily, Local Line already has 8,000+ farmers successfully selling their products online and growing their businesses. We’ve received their feedback, listened to their desired features, and designed our platform to best set them up for online success. 

Solution: Sign up for Local Line for a turn-key online farm store experience, equipped with features like sell by weight, custom price lists, and subscriptions

Final thoughts

Farms focused on selling their products directly to their customers online and growing their business through social media marketing must avoid these mistakes if they want to succeed. By avoiding these mistakes, their marketing efforts will result in new customers who are happy and satisfied to shop with them and tell their friends and family. When farms choose Local Line for their online e-commerce platform, they confidently set up their online store and avoid most of these mistakes.