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Sticky notes and Excel spreadsheets can only bring you so far. It doesn’t take much before orders are lost, or missing. Transitioning your business online will save you loads of time, while also offering a streamlined shopping experience for your customers.
Before using Local Line, Kye was using an email system to manage incoming orders. The more orders that came in, the more complicated the process would become. Having to send inventory lists and record orders himself quickly became onerous.
Food production works in seasons. If you are a seasonal business, you don’t want to lose customers over the off-seasons. Here are our best tips to continue to market your seasonal business during the off-season:
As the world’s population approaches 9.8 billion in 2050, the importance of food safety is increasing. To combat future outbreaks, governments and food corporations are looking to food traceability platforms to keep our food safe.
Everyone is getting a bit fed up with farmers’ markets. They can be extremely unpredictable. One week you sell out, the next you only sell half the product you sold the previous week. Instead of relying on market sales, use your online store for pre-sales!
Excellent customer service is the best way to maintain and retain customers. Sometimes things happen, and a customer is left unhappy with a product or your service. Having a well-developed plan to deal with unhappy customers will only serve you in the long run.
Firing a customer is a difficult thing to do. Sometimes selling relationships are just not meant to be and are more work than they’re worth. Taking the step to end that relationship can often positively impact your business!
When you first start selling online, your routine changes! There are certain habits you need to keep to make the most of your new system. Here are some of our best practices:
“The analytics and reporting tools are awesome! I can easily have an overview of our orders without having to do any data entry myself. The biggest benefit I’ve had since using Local Line is how much time it saves me!”
If you want to survive as a farm, you have to operate as a business. By operating efficiently and effectively, over time, you will find ways to reach all customers. When is the last time you reviewed your prices?
At Local Line, many of our customers have set up awesome stores for a variety of uses! Need some inspiration to get started? Here are some online stores that are doing it right!
It is a common misconception that face-to-face interaction is the only method of building a relationship. In today’s world, this is not the most convenient way to sell, nor is it always possible to develop your relationships this way.
Local Line was created to help local farmers succeed as independent entrepreneurs. The reality is that more local farmers have to find a way to get to market better, faster, and cheaper in order to prosper. Since our founding in 2015, Local Line is now used by farmers across Canada, USA, and Australia to help them sell more product, organize their business data, and save time.
As a small business owner, every hand contributes significantly to the day-to-day operations. It may seem tedious to go through the hiring process, however, the more time and energy put into the process, the better quality candidates you will find.
Solving food deserts has been an increasing topic of discussion for the last few years. Today’s food systems do not serve food deserts properly, and tend to leave entire communities in urban environments without access to fresh, healthy food.
Unlike Instagram, Facebook has changed its algorithm to prioritize content from family and friends over businesses. This is where Insights comes in!
Local Line is pleased to announce the launch of a free website builder for farmers. Starting today, farmers from all over the world can create and publish a free website at www.locallinesites.com.
Prioritizing which crop to grow each season is a delicate task. You must take into account which products have the highest yield, have the highest margins, and sell the most units.
Food suppliers are the heart of your business. Food hubs and aggregation platforms help support local food production and connect food suppliers to their communities.
To help our customers better manage their inventories, we created Advanced Inventory. This feature allows you to create multiple packages, units, and prices for one set of inventory for one product.
Due to the specific rules and regulations of running a food hub, they are a great sales channel for small-scale farmers and food producers. Some of the great benefits include:
Good Instagram marketing is a skill to be learned and mastered. In addition to posting good pictures, captions play a significant role in your success.
An important part of having an online store is having the right online payments platform to get you paid quickly. Local Line integrates with two popular payment providers, Stripe and Square.
Using social media advertising can be intimidating, so we've brought back Local Line alum and online advertising guru, Brock Jones, to break it down. Here are his best tips:
Storytelling makes you relatable. People communicate through stories. From our early days as cave-people, we have used stories to share knowledge, teach skills, and build relationships.
Facebook can be very powerful for small business owners. It is a fact that today, almost every business has a Facebook business page. It serves as social proof that you’re current and actively running your business.
When you’re selling food online, your product descriptions and product photos are the most persuasive tools you have to get customers to buy. A product description should elegantly explain the product and it’s characteristics without being too long and wordy. A longer description will often deter a reader from reading the full copy.
Running your own business is a lot of work, and it can be overwhelming to get everything done in one day. With all the duties and added work of being a farmer, marketing can often get put to the side.
Newsletters are an important way to keep your customers updated on your business and your products. Lucky for you, there’s a generally accepted formula you can use to create a great newsletter.
Increasing accessibility to local food is the hardest challenge of being a farmer. Sara George, Vice President of Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association (MFMA), learned this quickly after finding herself in the world of local food.
The Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is the total of all the costs that go into producing a product.
Social-proof is the best way to sell a product. Consumers want to know that they’re making a smart, informed decision based on what others are doing.
Since joining Local Line, both the retail store and the wholesale food hub have been thriving. Local Line has allowed them to properly organize their orders, track their inventory, and quickly reference invoices and payments after orders have been picked up. Communication between staff, customers, and farmer goes seamlessly and efficiently.
Good content increases sales, while bad content can be very detrimental to your business. Stop posting sub-par images today and start taking beautiful, sticky photos with these tips!
Good marketing can help you reach your target market, increase your customer base, and ultimately, boost your profits!
Three ways you can use Instagram Insights to grow your following and increase customer engagement.
Unlike creating a post on Instagram, Stories are a temporary image or video that you can share with your audience. Stories show authenticity, as they are quick and easy to digest, versus a curated Instagram profile feed.
Just like any marketing tool, you need to build a following in order to get customers. When first starting out with Instagram it can be overwhelming to reach your audience, so we have compiled some tips to help you get started!
As the demand for locally-produced, environmentally friendly, and socially ethical food continues to rise, consumers are looking to the food industry for new solutions.
Over 25 million businesses use the application and 200 million instagrammers visit at least one business profile every day. There’s a ton of opportunity to engage potential customers and showcase your brand
As George at Castor River Farm continued to grow his customer base over the years, he prided himself on maintaining a strong relationship with his customers. As the number of customers continued to increase, he was able to keep up with the production demand, yet when it came to deliveries and logistics – he kept facing order errors.
Recently celebrating their 5th year, Mustard Seed Co-op is a co-op grocery store stocking everything local!
MailChimp allows you to create demand by telling your authentic story. Instead of just sending another email, use this tool to best showcase your lifestyle and products to potential customers.
“I’m using Local Line to be accessible to those people who don’t know me as well, and partnering with the rest of the people in that group."
Why do you farm? When you ask a small-scale farmer this question, they often don’t say because they want to make money.
“People say farmers are behind, but that’s not true. We’re right there with them – online!”
Local Line, a sales and distribution software platform for farmers and food producers is pleased to announce a partnership of Local Line’s food hub software and Local Orbit, a market-leading food hub management software platform.
“The biggest benefit I found by using Local Line was how easy it is now to communicate! Updating and communicating changes to our inventory has become effortless."
"Well…Local Line does everything for me! I tell customers it is my personal secretary and encourage them to use the embedded store on my website."
Greenbelt Fund launches new and improved Ontariofresh.ca with technology partner Local Line.
It’s becoming more and more popular for consumers and chefs to source food from local farmers and suppliers. Because of this, companies like Local Line have formed as a kind of go-between, bringing farmers and customers together.
A common mistake we see amongst food suppliers looking to grow their businesses is inaccurately forecasting their costs and profits. Let’s end this today.
If you looking to expand your customer base, here are five tips for getting more customers.
Getting to know who your customers are and what they want from their shopping experience is a recipe for success. So what do they want, and how are you going to give it to them?
It’s not a secret that distribution is a pain point for a lot of food suppliers. Shipping is very expensive, so here's how to save some money.
A standing order is a purchase order covering a repeated delivery of goods in specified quantities, at specified prices, and according to a specified time schedule.
“Online shopping is the new normal. Consumers increasingly demand convenience and ease of access for shopping; local, farm fresh food is no different.”
The moment a customer opens their package, it should feel the same as opening a present. To help you make that experience memorable for all your customers, here are our tips.
In order to be successful when selling to retail, you have to consider that you are actually selling to two different channels: ‘the retailer or retail chain’ and ‘the consumers shopping at the retail location’.
Your online store is the first thing customers now see when purchasing from your business. Let’s make it great.
Increasing your business’ productivity can make the difference between staying stagnant and growing.
Food can be fiercely competitive and is changing quickly. As a food producer, you want to stand out and differentiate your business from other options.
Imagine a farmer’s market that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No lost time or costs for transportation and selling.
Now that you’ve got your customers and kept them, it’s time to get the most out of them!
On October 11th, 2018, Peter Bethlenfalvy, MPP for Pickering-Uxbridge and President of the Treasury Board Secretariat, paid his visit to Ontario's own tech-hub, Communitech to learn more about is happening in Canada in the digital age.
You might think the hardest job was getting customers in the first place, but you need to have a proper method set in place when on-boarding new customers to keep them long term.
Getting new customers is often the goal for many businesses, however keeping your existing customers promises continuous profit. Here are six tips that will help you ensure you’re keeping that relationship strong.
If you are looking to offer direct delivery to your business, however do not have the resources or time to deliver yourself, partnering with a shipping partner could be an option.
Offering free product, doesn’t seem like the best business strategy, however if done tactfully, it can benefit your sales.
Do you feel like your wasting time on managing your incoming orders? Are you struggling with keeping track of your inventory?
"We all have the same mindset and approach to how we're growing food," Morin said. "And that's based on ecological and or organic principles, and we all direct market."
An essential aspect of having an online store is providing online payments. Here’s why accepting payments online could benefit your business and increase your sales.
Looking for a new business model, they wanted to transition to selling to individual customers through an online store. This is when they found Local Line.
When first starting to offer delivery in your business, it is important to calculate the costs of being on the road to ensure it’s profitable to you to offer that service to your customers.
Far from their roots of Northern California, BC ranchers Tristan and Aubyn Banwell are passionate about raising livestock to benefit the health of people and the environment. Operating in their fifth season, they’ve seen tremendous growth but were starting to feel the pains of growing their business.
Three Local Line suppliers were all working on their own independent distribution plans, but found success working together and combining their delivery routes.
Order mix-ups are missed, incorrect, or incomplete orders to customers as a result of miscommunication between buyer and supplier. Mix-ups can result in wasted inventory, lost money and unhappy customers.
It’s a fact, nobody likes returned orders. They’re a pain and can be very expensive.
In summer 2017, Local Line and Flanagan Foodservice partnered to create the Flanagan Market, an online catalog of Ontario food products available for purchase by Flanagan’s customers.
Often consumers don’t even want to engage the vendor at all. Online sales are continuing to increase and increase yearly. Consumers want the ability to purchase everything from the comfort of their home.
To understand the dos and don’ts when selling to restaurants, Local Line interviewed executive chef of B hospitality, Aaron Clyne.
Customer follow ups ensure a positive relationship between you and your customer, so let’s take a look at our 5 step checklist to help you manage your customer follow ups:
Offering delivery services to your customers is advantageous to growing your business, however you must find the balance between happy customers and a happy business.
Food distribution is a unlike any other form of distribution. There are many different parameters differentiating the transportation of food product from A to B from other types of product delivery.
Unfortunately, there’s no step by step, scientific guide on how to market your products to get new sales, but here is a way to start.
Restaurants want to stay current by being able to source fresh, local ingredients to add to their menu, which is notable for local food suppliers and for diners.
Pickup locations can save you money, however it important that you find the perfect location for your business. This can be a difficult process, so we have created a six step process.
A pickup location is a predetermined area where a buyer is able to go to collect the items they have purchased from your business. A pickup location could include a store, warehouse, or restaurant.
On average, the vehicle load for distributing food products is approximately 50% when arriving at the delivery point.
If you’re a farmer, baker, butcher or any other kind of small-scale food producer, Cole Jones understands the challenges you face.
