To disable your products and store profile disallowing customer purchases. For example this can be helpful if you require your store to be closed for vacations, or if you require a shortened order window, e.g. you need an extra day to compile orders.
Hey all, Hope you are well. To best respect your time, I’m cutting to the chase. Hence, forgive me if this comes off as short. Important Updates + To increase opportunities for sales and to better meet the needs of customers. We are reducing the amount of time from customer order to delivery. Starting this week, the order window will now be closing on Friday at Midnight. We will continue to collate orders on Sunday morning with the drop occurring from 10AM to 10:30AM. I realize this can be an inconvenience, and should you have any concerns - please reach out. + We are looking at an alternate Sunday drop location. We anticipate a move in two weeks. Linden Hills is difficult to arrive at, and congestion is increasing as businesses begin to re-open. Please look for this announcement soon. + All sellers must have now submitted their F&E 2021 application and selected a membership tier. Without these submissions, seller accounts will be disabled. Again, I’m sorry about the inconvenience. If you have any financial concerns, please reach out. + We’ve recently rolled out our new site, and added a few hundred new products. Take a good look around, then PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE! + NEW GEL PACKS and accompanying packaging are required of many products. Now that we are holding product longer for delivery and with increasing temperatures - if your products require any temperature control, gel packs are now required! Further, please note condensation is degrading to packaging and can destroy your own and those of other seller’s. If a product arrives for packing with fluid stains, that product will now be disposed of immediately and the seller will not be reimbursed. That means, should your products be cold and include a gel pack - you must package it to withstand these conditions. Lots of sellers have gotten sloppy with this, and customers are noticing. All cold food should be at 41degrees or lower, and frozen foods should be frozen solid. Uline > Amazon > Amazon > + Best practices for temperature management, include: - use a frozen gel pack that meets the requirements of the product to hold temp for as long as possible. For more on this, please read >> - place your product in waxed, plastic and/or compostable bags whenever possible, to account for fluid leakage. - do not place raw or un-packaged product directly on gel packs. - print the customers full name, in permanent ink, on the outside of the packaging. Be sure the label with the customer's name is firmly affixed. + Best practices for shelf stable products, include; - if your product doesn’t require a second layer of packaging (e.g. to keep cold), consider alternatives to placing it in another bag. Customers have noted that the packaging has become onerous. For instance, instead of dropping your product off in another bag or box, instead label the jar or box with the customer's name. + Samples. We are able to insert food or promo (think coupons, flyers, business cards) into orders. If you are interested, please let me know. This is great to introduce new products! This is also ideal for other types of service businesses, such as dog walkers, house painters, real estate agents and more. Please refer us. + Lots of sellers are missing information on product listings. Please note, you may be losing sales and/or failing to meet legal/safety requirements because of this. - All product descriptions must include the following information: + Number of servings. + Size and weight of product and packaging. + List of ingredients. + List of any possible allergens. + Info on how to hold, prepare and/or cook the product. + Length of time until expiration. + For an example on how to do this well, see this Lund’s product listing. Take special note of the tabs for "ingredients", "instructions" and "nutrition information". F&E reserves the right to develop and/or decline listings that don’t meet these requirements. Thanks all, and as always if you have questions or concerns, reach out. Be well, Libby Wyrum F&E Markets
Updated: Apr 23, 2021
Hey, F&E-er!
We are off to the delivery races! To prepare for big promotions next week, we need sellers to read and follow the below directions. Thank you in advance!
APPLICATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS Just recently, we launched our 2021 application and memberships. These are streamlined to help businesses make the best use of online sales with options for directory, fulfillment and F&E directed delivery. Sellers are now required to complete an application, be re-approved and then select a membership.
NEW SITE & IMPROVED LISTINGS
It’s been a labor, sometimes of love. The goal being to professionalize the look and feel, add in more features and increase speed. Further, we aim to create functionality more specific to Instacart. Please review the below to update your listings to support this new site. Sellers are now required to complete the below, and should before Monday, March 22.
Variants are throwing off the new layout. With this, we ask that listings be stand alone in most cases. For instance, if you have a product that comes in two sizes, and you’ve listed both sizes in a single listing - we now ask you to create a separate listing for each. The same would be true for items that have more than one flavor. As we push promotions this next week you’ll want the below to be looking grand by end of weekend. If you need help, please let me know.
Tips for this. Please review all your listings on the market page to begin. When you see them on the page, do the buttons look like this? The buttons should read “QUICK SHOP” and “ADD TO CART.” The goal being for the customer with a single click be able to add that item to their cart. If your listing doesn’t look like this, keep reading.
You’ll first go to your product list and create new listing. Unfortunately, you are unable to duplicate a listing that includes variants to complete this task. Instead you’ll need to create a new listing, and copy over the images, inventory and description. You will create a separate listing for each product you sell.
We are looking for consistency in our listings. We suggest first listing the name of the product, then adding the weight and/or size of package. For example the above listing should instead read "Anjou Pear | Conventional | 1 ct (or 1 bunch, or 16 oz, or 10.5 oz bag)”.
As we are no longer offering pickup, please remove any references to this in your listings.
And as it is spring, it’s a great time to clean up your listings! Consider seasonal imagery (we like free images from Pexel.com) updating descriptions, and be sure to review your store profile here. Many are missing logos, banners and profile pictures.
We’ve learned from customer’s buying patterns that new and updated products (renewed titles, photos, etc) sell better. We’ve loads of early adopters who are always looking for the next best. Rest assured, by taking time now to update your listings, add in more or different products, you’ll see bigger sales later.
As part of our new functionality, we are asking sellers to include more information about their products, and to create more consistency across all listings. There are three new opportunities to do this and/or break out details from your descriptions in the product listing page. We really like how sites like Goldbelly do this. We’ve heard from customers how off-putting it can be to purchase from sellers who don’t include information about ingredients, allergens, packaging, size of product, serving sizes, storage, expiration dates, etc. So now each product listing includes a text box for these descriptors (more details, ingredients, instructions/storage). Please refer to the Goldbelly product listing for ideas on what to include.
DELIVERY PREP
The move to the new site puts the cherry on top of the delivery cake. Speaking of delivery. Now we require products to be packed to withstand the rigors of transport and delivery. Even more detail here >>
Please note, drop off is now from 10AM to 10:30AM every Sunday.
Should your product require cold to arrive safely (think holding at pack temp for up to 6 hours), you must include a gel pack. We suggest closing off the bag, and our preference is compostable plastic bags to withstand the moisture of the gel pack.
As items will now be jostled in a van and handled by multiple hands - please, please consider the item's fragility when packaging. Consider packing in cardboard, wrapping in paper then placing inside another bag. We advise noting on the packaging if the item is especially fragile, or if there is an proper way to situate the package in the grocery bag.
Please note, we cannot guarantee that items will arrive to the customer in the way you intend. But you’ll have a better chance by following the above best practices.
Finally, I appreciate everyone’s time. I know this is a lot, but we have big plans in the next week. I hope we have your support leading to great sales!
Thanks much, and be well,
LW
- - - Libby Wyrum | Director | Frank & Ernest Markets libby@frankandernie.com | 1-612-867-0854