Successfully selling organic produce online takes talent, technology

Retailers looking to improve online sales of organic produce should take advantage of technology and improve employees’ knowledge, panelists said at the Organic Produce Summit.

The session, State of E-Commerce Produce Sales, provided a point-in-time analysis of the rapidly evolving e-commerce space for fresh produce. Ryan Mulvany of Front Row Group moderated the discussion, which included a look at statistics from larger grocers and an examination of smaller retailers’ strategies.

Andrew McGregor, senior director of produce at Misfits Market, and Roger Brady, purchasing and category manager for produce and floral at Good Eggs were the panelists.

According to Mulvany, 72% of households ordered groceries online in 2023. Online grocery sales are predicted to reach 21% of total online sales next year.

Photo credit: Canva

Location-based storytelling through e-commerce

Being transparent with sourcing is an important factor in online produce sales. Consumers who order produce through online giant Amazon don’t know what brand they will receive, as the retailer’s technology makes that choice. “You order the product and the brand will fluctuate, which I haven’t seen on Amazon before,” Mulvany said.

On the other hand, retailer Good Eggs puts in a big effort to make sure the consumer exactly where their produce comes from.

“Almost everything in our marketplace is source-identified. You can click on that producer’s name and read their story,” Brady said. “E-commerce is such a good storytelling opportunity. That opportunity to double click provides a lot of real estate you wouldn’t have in a lot of brick-and-mortar retail.”

Good Eggs also calls out the varietals of each fruit, such as Suncrest peaches, to recreate the farmers market experience for its online shoppers. When Good Eggs was founded in 2011, customers ordered directly from farmers. “Scrolling through our site should be a joyful experience of discovery, an experience almost like walking the farmers market,” Brady said. “We still keep that at our core.”

Good Eggs organic juices

A knowledgeable team

A savvy staff goes a long way to making sure that consumers get the service they expect from their online shopping experience.

McGregor of Misfits Market emphasized the importance of training staff members. Misfits Market, which rescues produce and other foods that are edible but not pretty, uses sorting and packing teams to determine what will be offered to its online community. Educating these teams supports Misfits’ overall mission.

To reduce food waste, Misfits Market diverts less-than-perfect produce and unfamiliar cuts of meat to online consumers. Customers purchase a weekly membership and choose from a variety of organic and conventional products in its online grocery service. Misfits saves 500,000 pounds of food each week, McGregor said.

“Delivering groceries to someone’s home is hard,” McGregor said. “We need people who will care for products all the way to the end.”

Misfits Market

Easing labor challenges

The panelists also discussed how e-commerce can be a useful tool to help address some of the labor challenges that retailers have experienced in recent years.

At Misfits Market, growers transport their goods directly to fulfillment centers, where it is processed by packing and sorting teams before being shipped to consumers. This means the company uses no secondary warehouses or sales floors for its products, keeping efficiency high and labor costs down.

“There are layers of complexity and labor that are critical at every level to be able to execute your program for anyone who comes into a store,” McGregor said. “In our model, one of the things that is really beneficial is the efficiency in the supply chain we have created.”

In the past year, Misfits Market has deployed a hands-free “lightning pick” system to drive efficiencies and increase opportunities for quality control. This finger-mounted device scans each customer’s box and lights up when the staff member finds the correct product. Lightning pick shifts workers’ focus from finding the item to providing high quality products.

“Our last point of contact is the lightning pick team. Limited touchpoints must be fantastic because we don’t have a lot of opportunities to catch mistakes,” McGregor said. “Everything I spent most of my career working hard at in the merchandising and sales piece all has to happen online. You have to invest the resources and tech to make that as efficient as possible.”