The books / Selling from the Farm / chapter 12 of 14
Selling by post
All chapters
- The going rate
- A price has a shoulder
- What the road brings
- Regulars
- A new thing on the shelf
- Why a bargain spreads faster
- Pricing a jar so it sells out before the next crop
- The co-op is a valve
- Market day
- A shop of your own
- Signs, leaflets and adverts
- Selling by post
- Selling drink
- What a keeper is really choosing
Selling by post turns a farm's honey into a listing among thousands of others, and two things follow. Buyers who find it are comparing it, on a screen, against everyone else selling honey that week, so a price a little over normal loses buyers faster online than at a gate. And every parcel adds packaging, a box and a marketplace's own cut before a farm sees a coin of it, on top of postage.
None of that makes post a bad channel; it makes it a steadier one, since nobody browsing a listing has a bad-weather day, and it keeps selling into winter when a road stand has nothing to offer.
In this game a parcel by post takes about a kilo of honey and five candles a day at full awareness, rising through autumn and winter.