Back to: Fulfilling Orders
After months of preparation, it’s finally time to actually sell your kelp. If you’ve been nurturing relationships, networking with like-minded business owners, building your online presence, and of course closing wholesale deals throughout the rest of the year, the actual delivery of the kelp should be relatively easy and fun — the culmination of all your hard work!
If you’re selling fresh kelp (at a farmers market, for instance), you’ll want to start with harvesting smaller quantities and ramp up as you get a sense of what the demand is. It will also be particularly important to make sure you have a way to keep the product both food-safe and aesthetically pleasing for the duration of the market or pop-up. Sampling is a great way to engage people who are hesitant to try kelp for the first time and give you an opportunity to practice telling your story.
If you’re creating a shelf-stable offering, you have a bit more flexibility in timing your harvest relative to sales. You can harvest in larger volumes to create batches of product, and gradually build up a surplus without concerns about it going bad or looking bad. That said, harvest season is still a great opportunity to generate “buzz” of the harvest season by issuing press releases, hosting events with local specialty retail businesses, partnering on educational dinners, or doing pop-ups at venues where your target audience is likely to be.