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Kathryn, from Laughing Duck Farm out of Newcastle, California, started selling online in late 2019. The shift to selling her products online was made easy by the Local Line website builder and online store platform, enabling her to sell direct to customers looking for locally sourced products.
Having used Local Line for over two years, Kathryn couldn’t be happier with how it streamlines her sales and offers a farm-to-table experience for her customers.
“[The biggest benefit of selling online is] being able to duplicate myself. I'm not having to text everybody. I'm not having to call everybody. I don't have my customers coming in and we're walking through the garden figuring out what they want. It allowed me to bump up to that next level of being able to be a little bit more sustainable on my own.”
In addition to her online store for Laughing Duck Farm, Kathryn also helps manage a few online stores for different hubs in her area. Having an online store and a professional ordering platform helps small farms, like hers, be present, credible, and visible in a saturated market. Marketing online as one helps farmers spread the work around.
“As we're going forward farms need to be on the internet. We need to have a presence there so that it gives us credibility.” shares Kathryn, “Little farms need to be there because everybody else is there and I know all these people are they're like looking at their family and looking at their friends and stuff already. So why aren't you there promoting your farm and other little local farms? A lot of us cross-pollinate, we promote each other and that helps everybody.”
When asking Kathryn what advice she would give to other farmers considering online sales, in addition to saving $30 an hour for bookkeeping and invoicing, she said:
“I wouldn't be in business if I didn't have Local Line. When we had the pandemic and things shut down. All my restaurants closed… If I didn’t have the other outlets, I would have had to shut my farm down.”
Owning your sales channels to ensure you are prepared, is essential for operating your business in today’s world. Get online, get connected, and reach your customers today.
